My search for a fabulous pillow to rest my weary head upon continues. I don’t remember having ‘pillow troubles’ as I call them when I was younger. I prefer to think that pillows aren’t as fabulous as they were back in the day, as opposed to thinking it might be something about me and/or my age, my weight, my bones, etc.
Growing up at home I slept on an old feather pillow. I don’t even want to think how many people used it before me and how many dust mites must have been living their best life inside of it. It had definitely lost some of its original fluff (it could be folded in half and half again) and sharp feather stems poked through the pillow fabric and my pillowcase on a regular basis scratching my cheek. I would shake it, fluff it, try to plump it into a ball (hang on dust mites), and put my head on it falling into a deep sleep that was uninterrupted until my dad would wake me up for school.
Today’s pillows are all about hypo allergenic foam, contouring, cooling gel, and market themselves to the side sleeper, back sleeper, or stomach sleeper. My google search on ‘pillows’ this morning produced “About 1,380,000,000 results”. I just don’t think it should be that complicated. Currently I’m in the dilemma of buying $10 pillow every six months or so that flattens out and eventually puts a crick in my neck indicating its time to search again or investing in a $100 pillow that promises me a luxurious sleep among the moon and stars.
My first designer pillow was a Caspar. I saw it at Target, back in the days when we actually went shopping in stores, and I bought it on a whim. At $85 it seemed like a big splurge for a pillow, but it had a 90-day return policy, so I decided to give it a go. It was firm yet fluffy. It seemed appropriately cloud-like, and I was pretty geeked about it. However, shortly after I drifted into sleep my head would slowly but surely sink deep into the pillow. The cloud of fluffiness would give way, cuddling and encapsulating my head which may work well for a back sleeper, but as a side sleeper it was a bit suffocating. When you start dreaming about your pillow snuffing you out in your sleep, it’s time to try something else. This pillow was handed over to MOH (my other half).
I went back to cheap Poly-fil pillows for a while although I continued to be intrigued by commercials like My Pillow and Pillow Cube and the solutions they promised.
My next purchase was the Purple Harmony Pillow. MOH thinks we need a new mattress and so I figured what better way to vet their product than to start with their pillows. Although I was drawn in by Purple’s impressive technology (it features a layer of honeycomb-patterned Purple Grid Hex surrounding a supportive inner core of hypoallergenic ventilated latex) it was actually just another uncomfortable pillow – too flat – and I returned it within the 120-day trial period and got my money back.
Next up – DreamCloud Pillows. Our friends bought a DreamCloud mattress and pillows and seem really happy with them, so what the heck. I found that the website offered both a Best Rest Memory Foam Pillow and a Contour memory Foam Pillow. What the heck? Although I usually loathe returning items, I’d had a good experience so far, and so I ordered one of each.
I tried the contour pillow first. I tried the larger contour one night and the smaller contour another night. No go. I passed this one on to my son to try. He’s been sleeping on the same contour pillow for over ten years so I knew he liked the shape and could stand to retire the pillow he was currently using. He happily accepted it, slept on it one night and announced I wasn’t getting it back. At least somebody is getting a good night’s sleep.
Both MOH and I tried the best rest memory foam. Nope. Not happening for either of us. So I felt pretty accomplished when I was able to roll it back up into its original compact state and squeeze it into its shipping box. Unfortunately, I left it to ride around in the back of my car for longer than the 50-day trial period. Fifty days?! What the heck is up with that? I need less than 7 days to determine if a pillow is right for me, but I need at least 60 days to remember to take the return box to the UPS drop off. Ugh!
Well, no worries. Next up is nuzzle. It’s a NASA inspired pillow and provides zero gravity support guaranteed to hold its shape. It’s made from the same phase change fabric NASA uses in real space suites to regulate an astronaut’s temperature. When I get hot, nuzzle will automatically respond by cooling itself off so I’m always at the optimal temperature! And it has thousands of nano-coil fibers to support my neck and cradle my head for a feeling of plush weightlessness. I’m sure it will be the solution to all my sleep problems. And if not, it has a 1,001 nights and days guarantee. Thank goodness!
Once Upon a Willow 
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