I have my thermostat set to go down to 68 degrees at night because I sleep better when it’s cool. When I was asked if I would be interested in reviewing the PolarPillow, I was intrigued by their claims that it would keep my head cool for hours without the need for refrigeration, batteries or water. They sent me one, I’ve tried it for a few nights and here are my thoughts…
Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.
First of all, you might be asking, What are the benefits of cool sleep?
Cooling the brain helps you fall asleep! Your circadian clock keeps your body at its warmest during the day for high-level functioning and its coolest during the night for dozing off. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine reported that a primary cause of insomnia is hyperactivity in the brain’s frontal lobes at night. This activity increases the brain’s temperature making it difficult to fall asleep. Cooling your head at night can help slow down this activity and allow your brain to rest. Falling asleep may simply be a matter of cooling off.
The first words out of my mouth when I tried to lift the box off my deck after the UPS man dropped it off was “What the heck!” The weight of the box was totally unexpected. When you think about pillows, you usually think of something light and fluffy. But the box with the PolarPillow was heavy. So heavy that I thought there had to be some mistake with what was actually packaged inside the box. When I opened it though, all that was there was the PolarPillow in a protective plastic bag.
The PolarPillow is approximately 21″L x 16″W x 3″H and weighs an incredible 15 lbs! No, I’m not kidding. Inside the pillow is 200 ounces of a special gel that is cooled by the ambient room temperature.
As you can see it’s significantly smaller than a standard sized pillow, which means that it will look a bit odd on your bed and pillow cases will not fit well.
The Polar Pillow is also pretty flat compared to the foam pillow that I normally use.
When it is exposed to normal room temps for at least 30 minutes, the pillow will stay cool for 2hrs. The thought is that 2hrs is plenty of time to fall asleep.
The gel in the pillow does not slosh around, so it won’t bother you with weird sounds when you’re laying on it or moving your head. Squeezing the pillow, the gel reminds me of the feel of those blue icy packs that you can use to sooth sore muscles or keep your lunchbox cold. It has that same basic consistency.
I’m not going to beat around the bush; sleeping with a 15 pound pillow was not a good experience for me. I think this pillow is better suited for people that sleep on their back instead of their side. Laying on my back, the pillow worked fine. It was comfortable and did keep the back of my head cooler than normal. I do wish the pillow was fluffier or thicker, because I’m used to that with my foam pillow. That said, I could probably get used to the PolarPillow if I only slept on my back. But I don’t. I turn on my side and like to put my bottom arm under the pillow and top arm over the pillow kind of like I’m hugging it. You really can’t do this (comfortably) with the PolarPillow due to its small size and weight.
The price and fact that it’s flatter, heavier and smaller than a normal pillow really turned me off. But if you sleep on your back, have a problem with headaches or night sweats, I can see the advantages of using the PolarPillow. It’s just not for me.
Product Information
| Price: | $99.00 |
| Manufacturer: | PolarPillow |
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| Cons: |
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Julie – Thanks for reviewing this! My wife and I were just talking about these the other day. Since it’s smaller and so thin, could it fit on top of your regular pillow inside the pillow case? Or does it only work when it’s by itself?
@Ricky Hmmmm, that’s an interesting idea. I think the 15 pound (that’s fifteen pounds, not one point five pounds) weight of the PolarPillow will just cause your regular pillow to compress though.
Julie – I was thinking that even if it compressed it by 70%, it would still be a much thicker than the PolarPillow by itself. Maybe it could also be paired with an extra firm pillow that wouldn’t compress as much.
While it sounds like a wonderful innovative idea, it does seem to be impractical.
It would sure be effective in a pillow fight though… just sayin…
@Bob – ouch…
I tried this last night, 2 hours is not long enough. Yes I fell asleep, but man, I woke up and the pillow had my entire head sweating. It is very, very hot once the gel is no longer cool. The pillow is constructed so that it does not breath so a side or tummy sleeper just sweats to death. NOT FOR ME. But thanks for your review you confirmed what I thought as to length of time it stayed cool. My husband thought for sure this was the answer for me, unfortunately it is not.
I cover my PolarPillow with a cotton pillowcase & then cover that with a satin polyester [feels cool] pillowcase & finally slip a refrigerated ForeverCool Gelmat between the satin polyester pillowcase & the cotton pillowcase for instant coolness [the Polar Pillow is not cool enough by itself]. The pillow sits on a refrigerated Chilipad mattress pad that remains cool all night. If the pillow warms up too much, I just flip the pillow, which will be cool on the underside from the Chilipad. I sleep on my back mostly, & live in the hot south.
So glad I read all of the info re: the Polar Tropic Pillow I saw the commercial about. I’ve tried several gel, water, feather, and who knows what else pillows and nothing seems to keep you cool…I keep a fan on myself besides the ceiling fan that is also going when I’m in bed………My hubby likes to be warm…….”YUK”
It’s horrible not to get a good nights sleep…I’ve had times where I’ve slept in my Rocker in living room for 3 or 4 nights at a time and also gone 2 or 3 days with little or no sleep. You would honestly think it is impossible, but this has been going on for a few years now. Melatonin doesn’t help neither….I’d really love to be able to find a pillow somewhere that works like they advertise. We even bought the mattress pad made with the gel and even my husband complained that it actually made him too HOT….and trust me he likes to be warm….so that didn’t stay on the bed long….it can get rather expensive buying all of these so called “great sleeping pillows” to keep you cool….maybe I should get an bag of some type that doesn’t leak and put ice cubes in it, have it surrounding the head obviously ….you couldn’t sleep on the cubes…..The other is buy 1 get one free at about $180.00 WOW
I bought one yesterday normally I like a softer pillow but I slept great. It kept my head cool and will see how it goes tonight. So far I like it.
Just bought one…king size…Polar Tropic. This must be different than the one tested…it’s heavy….but a far cry from 15lbs….and this is the huge sized one. I’d say maaaaybe 5lbs. Gunna give it a try tonight….I’m a brutal head sweater unfortunately…so normal pillows get saturated and destroyed within a month….I shave my head daily – done on purpose originally to stay cool….then the wife now won’t let me grow it back. I will reply after a few nights of trial… cheers
Giving this pillow a couple,weeks of trial….does not live up to their hype. Especially for the price. It doesn’t stay cool…it still is heavy and cumbersome…and feels very hard after head weight compresses it. Yet another pillow for the closet…their return policy is non existent ….