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Memory
Foam Pillow Review and Analysis
Pros
Contoured support, temperature sensitive, ease of care, won’t
clump or shift
Cons
Temperature sensitive, off gassing, poor air flow, questionable
durability
What Is a Memory Foam Pillow?
Memory foam (also known as visco elastic foam) is made up of
billions of spherical shaped, open cells that are temperature
and weight sensitive. It gets its name from that fact that if
you press anywhere on the foam and change its shape, it will
“remember” its original flat shape and eventually
return to it, usually within five seconds.
Most memory foam pillows are flat on the bottom (the side that
lies on the bed) with a cradled shape on the top. Memory foam
is soft, if not downright squishy, to the touch. It compresses
slowly and uniformly when pressure is applied to it. The warmer
it is, the less resistance it has. A memory foam pillow usually
comes covered in a soft, velour covering.
Below,
the pillow is evaluated for each characteristic on a scale
of one to ten. One means the pillow does not have the characteristic,
and 10 means it fully has the characteristic.
Firm
A memory foam pillow can generally be described as having
medium to high firmness. Whether it is of medium or high firmness
depends largely on the temperature of the foam since the foam
is temperature sensitive.
This means that a cold or even cool room temperature can cause
the foam to be highly firm. On the other hand, your body heat
or a warm room temperature will cause the foam to soften,
sometimes enough to cause a lack of adequate support.
Even when highly firm, however, the foam is usually not hard.
It maintains at least some softness or squishiness. I never
had a problem with my head or ear getting sore because of
lying on the pillow even when it was firm.
Score: 7 out of 10
Contoured Support
A memory foam pillow moulds itself automatically to your head
and neck, filling in all spaces. This evenly distributes the
weight of your head and neck, resulting in alleviation of
pressure points. And the cradle-like surface helps to keep
your head and neck in proper alignment.
Memory foam is temperature sensitive. This means it gets softer
in warmer areas (where your body is making the most contact
with the surface) and remains firmer in cooler areas (where
less body contact is being made). This can be a good thing
in that it allows for the foam to fully mold around your head
and neck. It can, however, also be a negative. For example,
I keep my bedroom rather cool at night (which allows for better
sleep), so when I place my head on the cold pillow, I have
to wait several seconds, if not minutes, for the pillow to
warm up and fully contour to my head and neck.
Further, if I move my head at night to a different part of
the pillow, I have to again wait for it to heat up and be
fully contouring. If you are someone who tosses and turns
a lot at night, especially in a cool room, you may not like
having to wait for the pillow to warm up and adjust.
Score: 7 out of 10
Adjustable Height and Firmness
The pillow is not directly adjustable for height and firmness.
However, the firmness level can be indirectly adjusted by
affecting the temperature of the foam.
Score: 3
out of 10
Good for Back Sleeping
Memory foam pillows can provide good support and comfort for
back sleepers.
Score: 8 out of 10
Good for Side Sleeping
It is good for side sleeping because of its high loft and
contouring properties. As a side sleeper much of the time,
I like the way the pillow does not cause my nose to sink into
it as is often the case with fibrous and down pillows. This
helps me to breath a little easier.
Score: 9 out of 10
Good for Stomach Sleeping
Stomach sleepers need a fairly low pillow. So for the memory
foam pillow, I flip it to have the lower end on the bottom,
closer to my body. And once my body heat warms the pillow,
the pillow’s height sinks a little which makes for a
fairly low surface.
Score: 4 out of 10
Air Flow
Memory foam is well-known for poor air flow and “sleeping
hot.” In other words, it often absorbs the body heat
of a sleeper and then does not efficiently release it.
This can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your
personal preferences. However, most people seem to indicate
that it is a negative because it leaves them uncomfortably
warm.
Not all memory foam products sleep hot. For example, with
my pillow, I personally do not notice any abnormal heat, but
then I keep my bedroom quite cool at night.
Score: 2 out of 10
Quiet
A memory foam pillow is totally silent under all conditions.
Score: 10 out of 10
Lightweight
Most memory foam pillows weigh between two and five lbs. This
is heavy enough to cause the pillow to stay put during the
night for the most part. It’s also heavy enough to possibly
be somewhat of a struggle for some people to pick up and move.
Score: 4 out of 10
No Smell
Odor from off-gassing is often an issue with memory foam pillows
and mattresses. Off-gassing occurs when the memory foam gives
off a formaldehyde, chemical-like smell due to the manufacturing
and / or packaging process. The odor usually stops after a
few days, but it can last much longer.
Based on my extensive memory
foam mattress research, whether or not a memory foam
product will smell is largely random. For example, exact same
products of the same brand can vary widely in how much they
off gasses or even if they off gas at all.
My memory foam pillow had a strong and persistent smell for
the first several weeks. In fact, it was so bad, I could not
use the pillow until recently. I could even swear that the
smell made me nauseous. Perhaps this was just my imagination.
If you have an immediate need for a pillow, you might want
to pass on memory foam because the off gassing may prevent
you from using it right away.
Score: 2 out of 10
Hypoallergenic
Memory foam pillows are hypoallergenic and anti-microbial.
However, they are still susceptible to dust mites. Dust mites,
in case you don't know, are microscopic bugs that mainly live
on dead skin cells that are shed from people. Your pillow
is a place that dust mites find attractive because it’s
where they can find all the shedded skin cells and scales
they can eat. The droppings of dust mites and their own shedded
skin are what cause many allergies in people, including asthma.
Memory foam pillows collect and absorb your shedded skin cells,
just as all types of pillows do. However, memory foam pillows
have an advantage over fibrous type pillows because dust mites
tend to not want to eat memory foam. This is why memory foam
is often considered dust mite resistant. It's not that dust
mites don't live in it, eating away at your dead skin cells
and possibly giving you allergies as a result. It's just that
dust mites don't eat the memory foam itself. To not have a
significant dust mite problem in a memory foam pillow, one
would need to use a dust mite-resistant pillow case because
the pillow probably won’t provide enough protection on
its own.
Finally, because of the off gassing of formaldehydes, people
have been known to be allergic to these chemical odors.
Score: 7 out of 10
Durability
Memory foam will at least partially sag, losing its “memory”
and supportiveness over time. This may happen sooner or later.
As with off-gassing, there is a fair amount of randomness
in regard to the durability and longevity of memory foam products.
However, it probably would be fine to expect at least a few
years of good performance.
Score: 6 out of 10
Easy to Care For
A memory foam pillow cover can be machined washed and put
in a dryer. However, the pillow itself cannot. If cleaning
of the pillow is needed, it should be spot cleaned and air
dried.
Score: 9 out of 10
Price
They are usually moderately to high priced.
Score: 4 out of 10
Value
Given the fairly high price, questionable life span and quirky
nature of the pillows, they may not be the best value.
Score: 5 out of 10
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