I Slept On A High-Tech Pillow For A Month And This Is What Happened
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Too many people don’t prioritize sleep enough in their lives, and even when they do, a fair number of them still struggle to achieve the quality rest their bodies need. Days, weeks and sometimes months go by with us moping through the world like zombies because we can’t seem to get this whole healthy sleep thing figured out. And so I do my best to help equip people with the solutions they desperately need.
I recently had the opportunity to test out a new, innovative sleep product on the market and experience just how much it could improve the quality of my sleep. It’s a high-tech pillow called the Dreampad, and it was originally introduced to the world on ABC’s television show “Shark Tank.” For around $150, this miracle pillow uses high-quality, plush materials and patent-pending speakers within the pillow that can only be heard (and subtly felt) when your ear is pressed against the fabric to lull you to sleep and keep you resting longer.
Now, before I dish on whether I think it’s worth the hefty price tag, I have a disclaimer to make. I’m one of the rare people who doesn’t struggle to fall asleep, stay asleep and feel rested when I wake up in the morning 95 percent of the time. As a writer (and a health enthusiast), I’ve spent a lot of time learning about proper sleep hygiene and making it a clear part of my life. I don’t ever sleep with my phone, I like to read by dimmer, yellow light for 30 minutes before bed, and some days I don’t even turn on the television when I get home from work. With that said, I still gained a lot from my month-long experiment with the Dreampad pillow, and I think it’s worth sharing.
Unsplash/Charles Deluvio
The moment I took the medium-support pillow out of its box, I knew it was by far the coziest, fluffiest, hypoallergic pillow I’ve ever touched in my life. Dropping my head onto it felt like collapsing into a cloud, which was automatically more relaxing than forcing my beat-to-hell, $30 old pillow into the shape I desired. For the first three nights, I completely ignored the speaker capability and soundscape music component of the Dreampad experience and just focused on how amazing the physical pillow felt beneath my head and neck.
Then came the time to really use the technology that sets the Dreampad apart from its competitors. Because I didn’t purchase the add-on Bluetooth device, I broke my cardinal “no phone in bed” rule, downloaded the free Dreampad app and plugged the pillow’s hidden auxiliary jack into my phone.
While this device connectivity immediately turned me off, I powered through. I browsed the pre-recorded soundscapes in the Dreampad app, all of which were the epitome of relaxing, and settled on “Moonrise.” I then shifted to the convenient timer function and set the music to play for 30 minutes. There’s no way I was awake for more than three of them. And each time I used the audio component of the pillow, I awoke naturally in the morning feeling incredibly at peace and well-rested. I hadn’t realized that I drifted off to sleep when I did, but I certainly stayed there long enough after the fact.
My only struggle with the Dreampad pillow occurred in the middle of the night. I’m a side sleeper and like to switch sides occasionally, placing my bottom hand underneath my pillow for comfort. But when I followed my little routine with this pillow, my hand met a foreign, plastic cord and the cold metal of my phone, which felt immediately unsettling. I tried tucking both the phone and cord into the pillowcase in various ways, but I never seemed to find an orientation in which I felt like my phone wasn’t resting just beneath my head (or literally in my hand).
Over the course of my month with the Dreampad pillow, I’d say I used the music functionality a third of the time. I always used it during the nights I knew I wasn’t quite tired enough to drift off to sleep quickly, and it worked every time. Otherwise, I simply enjoyed melting into the supportive softness of the pillow, feeling immediately comforted by the luxury of my bed and thrilled that I wouldn’t have to leave it for a solid eight hours.
At the end of the day, high-tech pillows definitely aren’t for everyone, but I can safely say that everyone deserves a high-quality pillow that will improve their sleep rather than hinder it. So don’t hesitate to invest to the level you need in order to get the rest your body craves. You owe it to yourself.
Oh, and if you end up giving the Dreampad a try, definitely go ahead an splurge on the optional Bluetooth receiver ($19) so you can keep all the damn phones and cords far away from your sleep space.
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