Technogel Sleeping Anatomic Pillow review

The average person gets 8hrs of sleep per day, that means most of us end up spending a 1/3rd of our lives in bed. If you spend that much time doing any activity, you should be as comfortable as possible right? Technogel Sleeping products have been designed with the mission of “making your world more comfortable”. I was recently asked to try their Technogel Anatomic Pillow and have been putting it to the test for the past week. I warned them that I’m very picky when it comes to pillows, so let’s see if it will end up in the closet collecting dust or on the bed under my head.

Note: Images can be clicked to view a larger size.

Background on me and my sleeping habits

Like I mentioned above, I’m picky when it comes to pillows. I’ve been using the same medium firm foam pillow for over 10 years because I’ve yet to find one that I like better. Jeanne will buy me a new pillow every now and then, which I’ll try it for about 10 minutes, and then switch back to my old one. She keeps threatening to throw it out because it’s so old, but she’s yet to carry out those plans. I know the whole dust mite thing makes keeping a pillow for years kinda gross, but the thoughts of dust mites don’t bother me as much as not getting a good night’s sleep.

Now for the TMI part… 2yrs ago when I was going through chemo for breast cancer, the very first treatment throw me into instant menopause. I actually consider that a bonus side effect, but it does cause me to have mild hot flashes, which mainly happen at night. Almost every night I’ll wake up with my head and neck feeling hot and kinda of sweaty. It usually only lasts for a few seconds and then I fall back to sleep. I am also noticing that I wake up with a stiff neck most of the time and wonder if it could be the pillow (don’t tell Jeanne!).

I went into this review hoping the Technogel pillow would kill two birds with one stone – heat and neck pain.

Technogel Sleeping offers 6 different Technogel pillows. Four regular pillows and 2 that are designed for travel. I typically sleep on my side, so I chose the Anatomic Pillow instead of the others, which are designed for people who mainly sleep on their backs and suffer from neck, back or shoulder pain. This pillow is available in standard and king sizes. I was sent the standard size which is 26×16.5×4.5 inches and weights about 5 pounds. The weight is due to the materials used to make the pillow.

The pillow is made of viscoelastic polyurethane foam with a gel pad and a 100% cotton cover. The foam is better known as memory foam and combined with the gel pad, it offers what they call 3D deformation:

Technogel® deforms 3-dimensionally and reacts to forces differently than the foam, deforming in all the three directions. Technogel moulds itself to each individual user’s physical structure. Pressure is evenly distributed over the entire contact surface, and this generates a substantial reduction in pressure peaks leading to an improvement in blood circulation.

The pillow has 2 covers. There is thicker outer cover which can be unzipped and removed for washing.

The inner cover is not removable and unlike the images shown on the Technogel website and even on the box that the pillow shipped in, you can’t see the blue gel layer. Well, you can sorta see it… barely through the cover. I didn’t want to cut the cover to show the gel, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s there.

Sometimes new pillows smell weird, but the Technogel has no odor at all and according to the box, the pillow is hypo-allergenic.

It is recommended that you use a pillow case with this pillow. Standard sized pillow cases fit fine.

The first night I tried the pillow, I immediately noticed the cooling effect that the gel layer provides.

Technogel® is characterized by an high thermal conductivity (with a λ of 0.19 W/m*k°), compared with other good isolator materials, like foam or memory foam. Technogel® is lowering the contact surface’s temperature (up to 3.5° F), as the heat generated by the human body is transported through its mass and partially dispersed.

It’s known in scientific literature, that a decrease in skin temperature reduces the metabolism activity and, therefore, the demand of oxygen from tissues, generating perceivable benefits exactly in the areas already suffering for poor circulation due to pressure.

The back of my head and neck felt pleasantly cool, but the pillow itself was firmer than I liked, so I switched back to my old pillow within 20-30 minutes. The next night I gave it another try and this time I fell asleep on my back, which is unusual, and woke up a couple hours later. Surprisingly, I wasn’t hot like I usually am when I wake up. I’m not sure why, but I ended up swapping back to my old pillow again that night.

The 3rd night I didn’t use it Technogel pillow at all and woke up the next morning with a stiff neck.

The 4th night I slept the entire night on the Technogel pillow and didn’t wake up hot during the night and didn’t wake up in the morning with a stiff neck.

The 5th night was a repeat of the 4th night. I think my old pillow may be ready for the dumpster after all…

I noticed that this pillow never felt flat or lumpy. The memory foam would instantly regain its original shape when I moved my head or turned over on my side.

Although I’ve only slept a couple nights with this pillow, I feel safe in saying that I will be retiring my old pillow in favor of this one. The gel helps keep me cooler during the night, which means I sleep better. The memory foam seems to have cured or at least helped with my stiff neck problem, which means I wake up feeling refreshed instead of in pain.

Comfort does come at a high premium though. At $169.99, these pillows are obviously not going to be an impulse buy. And if you do want to buy one, they aren’t exactly easy to find online. Technogel doesn’t sell them through their own website, but a quick google for “technogel pillows” found at least 2 online retailers where you can order them online. You can also find a list of dealers on the Technogel site that are listed by your city and state.

All this talk about sleeping is making me drowsy. I’m going to go take a nap…