Pillow Talk: We review five pillows on sale in Ireland
The Spinery Pillow, formerly The Dream Pillow, from €125 each, thespinery.com.
Punching, fluffing, hunting for a perch in the early hours, the wrong pillows can be a tortuous, deflating bedfellow. I’m extremely picky when it comes to resting my bony head and I take my pillow on weekend breaks.
I’ve taken these five varieties of pillows for a test ride. Not all of them suited my peculiarities, but as a back-sleeper hitched to a side/stomach-sleeper, they were all (bar the Spinery) ridden hard for at least two weeks. Were they good in bed?
Reactivity is a big thing in contemporary, top-class pillows, and for anyone who suffers from night sweats, a refreshing hybrid, gel-pillow can be nothing short of life-altering. The Cool Touch is a medium pillow for an average-sized sleeper.
It feels different according to the weight you’re placing on its cellulose-based Tencel and gel pad. I found it extremely supportive and pleasurable to use, as I have hip-length hair that strangles me like a cloying scarf.
It’s a classy-looking pillow too with its box-edging and mesh border which expels and “inhales” fresh air as it’s depressed and released. Hypoallergenic. If you want a cooler pillow with a firm feel without the gel pad, choose their Airmax model, also ideal for side sleepers, and my choice for a good all-rounder in a guest room.
SilentNight suggest these pillows are not used with absorbent cotton but their matching pillowcases. Bundle €52.50, oxendales.ie .
My memories of down pillows growing up are not good. Beaten clean rather than washed, as laundering balled up the feathers and fluffy down clusters, once vintage, these pillows delivered a few centimetres depth of lumpen concrete. The Bieto is divided into separate outer and inner chambers, so it holds the down and feather blend nicely in place.
It’s weighty at 850g and contains 50% white duck down/50% duck feathers in the outer chambers and 85% white duck feathers/15% duck down in the inner chamber with a relatively low fill power of 350/250. (Top quality goose-down pillows carry a fill-power of 650 or more and 60% down).
I must say, the Bieto was comfy on trial, soft and yielding with an excellent price point for an all-natural pillow with a 100% cotton outer casing. My front-sleeping husband found he had to fold it. My only caveat is you must wash this pillow in a 7kg + machine (by itself) at 60C, and tumble dry it very cool. Shake and air it regularly, and it should hold its shape, and you can reduce the need for washing by using a pillow protector.
High-class 80% goose down? Snuggledown Natural Retreat, €80, arnotts.ie. Don’t attempt real down or feather bedding if you suffer from respiratory problems or allergies. Choose synthetic down instead. Bieto, €28, jysk.ie.
Dunnes, like most high street suppliers, offers a range of quality and price points for bedding. We settled at the centre with the Velvet Touch double-pack with its diamond pattern microfiber cover with a “velvet soft peached finish”. Walled-edged for medium support and shape, they sat up nicely on the bed in Oxford pillowcases, but that is all I have to say.
You get what you pay for and sweaty, collapsing and uncomfortable for a side-sleeper in need of as much as 10cm to lift the neck and shoulders into spinal alignment, they were battered flat in short order. To see how firm a pillow is, press the palm of your hand on the pillow and notice the resistance. Behind plastic, they can look deceptively puffed up with nothing but fresh air.
In defence of the Velvet Touch, the polyester fibre filling is easily washed in the machine at 40C, ideal for youngsters who need their pillows washed regularly. For sanitary reasons, dump all and any pillow after two years of regular use. I sent these cheapos off to college for the lighter head of my fitter, younger daughter. Velvet Touch (pack of 2) €20, dunnesstores.com.
Cervical pillows match the alignment of your neck and are ideal for back and most side-sleepers. Some models can be shifted around to match a side position, but back sleeping is their focus. The top of the pillow where your head lies will offer a contour slightly lower than the front of the pillow.
I was gifted a €60 memory foam Derila pillow. It was the size of a cream cracker under my classic, enormous Irish head (look it up — we’re a scientific mystery). Flung violently to the wall after multiple slippages and face-plants, we were loaned a Spinery pillow by a visiting Jackeen.
Formerly known as the Dream Pillow, they are made in natural latex foam with a cooling Tencel cover, by a Dublin-based mattress company, and designed by an Irish PhD, Dr Sinead Moore, and chiropractor, Dr Lawrence Woods.
We had the large one (64cm x 43cm) with its two adjustable boosters. I found the Spinery supportive, luxuriant (without boiling up the head) and highly versatile. There was a bit of a scrum to bags it by the third night before it was retrieved by its owner.
Ergonomic and adaptive, it only lightly compresses through 10cm and cradles the head and neck for both back and side sleeping. I found it delicious with a long body pillow held between my knees. Pricey, I couldn’t otherwise fault this clever bedroom aristocrat. From €95 – €125, thespinery.com.
Emma has legions of fans for their affordable mattresses, so I was keen to see what their breathable pillows might offer. I started with an Emma pillow bundle on the “snore spare” — a bed we use when the old man’s expressive sleeping gets too much for his exhausted journalist wife.
The Premium Micro-fibre was a little more than I’m usually happy to spend, but with a piped, box-edge, and an intelligent layered designed, it drew me in. With this pillow, you can choose from more support or more “squish” with removable Aerosoft microfiber pillow panels (perfect if you have visitors with varying tastes).
Their Outlast technology manages heat and sweat by absorbing, storing, and releasing it. I loved these pillows, and after shoulder surgery was able to adjust the thickness of the pillow for a few days in bed. A winner with us both, the top, micro-elastic material is ultra cool even under a cotton cover.
A good alternative if you fancy the opulence of say down but cannot stand the tickle. €175 for two (reduced from €318). Visit their outlet pages for perfectly good Emma pillows past their “shelf date” for up to 40% savings, emma-sleep.ie.
Looking for a front-sleeper choice? Check out Foxford’s Front Sleeper twin-pack, in a micro-fibre Filling with a 100% cambric cotton piped cover. Made in Mayo, it’s a relaxing deal at €59, foxford.com.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
