A little nighttime reading
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND COMFORTABLE, HIGH-QUALITY PILLOWS?
Wondering where to buy good pillows? While 91% of Americans say a comfortable pillow is important for a good night's sleep, nearly 70% say it’s difficult to find a comfortable pillow. How can that be when plenty of stores sell pillows?
Chances are, you’ve bought pillows before from a large department store, or maybe a club or home store. Most of these places sell everything under the sun -- food, furniture, toys, makeup, clothing, you name it. Even “As seen on TV” items.
Think about the experience buying pillows. When you enter the pillow section, you’re bombarded by options that all look like giant white blobs. The signs, packaging, even the store employees, are rarely helpful in distinguishing what to buy.
You may find yourself squishing pillows through plastic. Or “resting” your head against a pillow while standing in the aisle. The whole buying experience leaves much to be desired.
Hint: you're not going to find the best selection in typical retail stores.
Retail stores do not invest in helping shoppers understand how to buy a pillow - what to look for, how to find the best personal fit. They’re too busy selling all this other stuff to be the experts in pillows, or to curate the best quality selection -- the kind of selection that takes an investment of time and energy to educate customers about.
Cheap pillow types filled with polyester, mass-produced overseas, line the shelves. The “better” options are often stuffed with inferior down that flattens at first sleep or are marked up 4-5x their cost.
If you've ever compared the pillows you'll find in a typical mass department store to the pillows found in a reputable speciality pillow retailer, it's no contest. Your specialty retailer offers higher-quality options at better prices.
For example, there is a big difference in the quality of down that you will find in a pillow found at your local Target vs. in a specialty pillow store. We've written about the differences in down quality here. These differences affect the way a pillow feels and how long it lasts.
Customers have been conditioned to buy sub-par pillows, usually on sale, and replace them often when they get flat or lumpy. Many of us can't fathom why we would ever spend more than $20-$30 on a pillow. And that’s understandable. Stores have done a terrible job helping us understand why we'd ever want to spend more, nor offered products that would get us to do so.
Yet, buying a high-quality pillow can prove to be more economical and comfortable in the long run. If you're interested in the reasons why it makes sense to invest in a higher-quality pillow, read here.
What about mattress stores?
There are those who may have turned to the “sleep experts” -- the mattress stores -- for more direction and likely got talked into buying a pricy memory foam pillow. Now for some, these pillows work well, but for so many others, this type of pillow is not the answer.
If you're not into soft down pillows and prefer a firmer pillow, you may have been often lured by the promises of memory foam. Mattress stores like to sell them because they command higher margins. They're also easy to sell because they are often marketed as having innovative “technology.”
A particular brand of memory foam pillows puts a ton of marketing dollars behind convincing the world they have a superior product. But the reality is that some of these pillows can put unnecessary pressure on your body, have toxic off-gassing and excessive heat problems. We believe there are better options out there.
Slumbr wants to help you find the comfiest pillow for you.
At Slumbr, we’ve curated a selection of high-quality, healthy and comfortable pillows. We evaluated over 250 pillow options and tested the best with real sleepers in their homes. We asked sleepers of a wide variety of body types and sleep styles to sleep with our pillow picks. We used insights from this testing to develop our Pillow Menu.
We also created this website to provide honest, clear and relevant information about these pillows to more easily find the right fit for you. You can refer to our Pillow Guide to understand the key factors to look for that make the best pillows for sleeping.
It’s easier than ever to find a comfy pillow -- at Slumbr. Why not take our Pillow Quiz today to find your fit?
