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This is Stuff We Swear By, a series in which our editors expound on an item they use (and love) on a daily (or near-daily) basis.
Item: Pillow Cube Pro
Description: Developed by a gent named Jay Davis, whose self-described “big square head” and propensity for side-sleep necessitated an upgrade to the traditional pillow experience, the Pillow Cube Pro is a memory foam rectangular pillow designed to provide optimal support for side sleep and keep your spine aligned.
How I use it: Pillow Cube goes on bed. Head goes on Pillow Cube. Dreaming ensues.
Why I swear by it:
Like (according to Pillow Cube, at least) 70% of my fellow Americans, I am a side sleeper. I am equally happy playing both big and little spoon, but my side is where I naturally want to be while I snooze. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve increasingly noticed how a normal pillow (even a very expensive normal pillow) just doesn’t provide the right kind of support I’m looking for — on its own it’s too short, doubled up it’s too tall, and the general curvature doesn’t really fit into the natural right angle created by my neck/shoulders. My traditional solution has always been some sort of bunched-up, jerry-rigged nightmare that has not been doing my body any favors — anyone who deals with consistent neck/back pain will tell you that they way you sleep is almost always connected to it in one way or another.
Upon first seeing Pillow Cube online, I will admit that it looked … weird. After a lifetime of pillows looking pretty much one way, seeing one that looks so geometric is slightly disconcerting. But upon watching their cheeky video (see below), the science behind the design seemed super reasonable — the aforementioned right angle between neck and shoulders that naturally results from side sleep (what Pillow Cube refers to as the “pillow gap”) should ostensibly be serviced best by a pillow engineered to fit it, right? I never really thought of it this way, but I had been basically spending 6-7 straight hours every single day (night) with my head cocked slightly to one side. No bueno.
I have now been sleeping on the Pillow Cube for a solid month straight and I can say without hesitation that I am sleeping better (less tossing/turning, random waking up) and feeling better in the morning (less general stiffness/soreness, etc). The Cube’s (it’s actually more of a rectangular cuboid, more on that in a sec) surface has just the right amount of squish and stays remarkably cool throughout the night, and while our editorial budget did not permit an X-Ray analysis of my sleeping position, I’m gonna go ahead and say that the aforementioned positive developments in my morning condition would seem to indicate that it’s doing its job from a support perspective with aplomb.
Now, Pillow Cube’s original “Classic” design is pretty much an actual cube (extra points for naming accuracy), and I do occasionally roll over in the night — thus I opted for the “Pro” version that is a little bit wider to accommodate my nocturnal rotations. Super glad I did, and honestly would probably recommend this version even for those who stick to one side, as it’s nice to have the option and also it just looks a little more natural on the bed when you’re not, you know, in it.
Which leads me to my only real suggestion to the Pillow Cube team: pillowcases. Not that the provided case isn’t super comfy, but it does only come in two colors (white and grey) and the one fabrication. Needless to say that a normal pillowcase wrapped around a Pillow Cube is not an optimal solution, and for both overall bed aesthetics and pillowcase fabric preference’s sake I’d love to see some more options (which, it does appear, are forthcoming).
And now, if you don’t mind, I think there’s a nap calling my name from the bedroom.
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