I adore sleeping and I honestly consider napping to be one of life’s purest joys, but when it comes to catching some z’s at a reasonable time…let’s just say that Mr. Sandman hasn’t been returning my calls since puberty. I predictably wake up every three to four hours every night for seemingly no reason and since I choose to forgo medicinal aid, I turn to any non-invasive solution I can find—including trying a plethora of new pillows. The last one I tried out was the Rain 3.0 Performance Pillow from Bedgear and though I can’t say it cured all my sleeping issues (because nothing short of horse tranquilizers seem to do it), I actually found that I did sleep for longer with less waking in between.
The company approaches bedding in much the same way that Nike approaches shoes, promising to deliver a customized product. In the case of Bedgear, customers are sent a questionnaire asking for things likes their height, dress/jacket size, body type, sleep position, whether they sleep with their arm under the pillow, what type and size mattress they have, and whether they have any allergies. As a side sleeper with a queen memory foam mattress, I was sent the Rain 3.0 Performance Pillow, which retails for $179.
According to Bedgear, the standard-size pillow’s “REACT™ foam crown contours to your body and provides the perfect profile for optimum alignment of your head, neck and shoulders.” What it doesn’t tell you is that Rain 3.0 is super heavy, to the point where it would be considered dodgy to enter into a pillow fight with it. The heft isn’t a bad thing, it was just a little surprising. What did take getting used to was its new car smell (which finally dissipated after two weeks) and how thick it is. Though I generally sleep on my side most nights, I do flip onto my stomach on occasion, which you can’t do with this pillow without getting a neck ache. But it is meant for side sleepers, after all.
After keeping track of how many times I woke up pre-Bedgear, I actually did see an improvement once I switched. Whereas previously I woke up on average three times a night, it was dropped down to an average of two nightly wake-ups with Rain 3.0, which is a pretty big deal for me. The company promises that their 6.0 Ver-Tex Climate Control Fabric and Air-X Ventilated Panels will deflect heat and allow for airflow to keep you cool throughout the night, and they’re actually right. San Diego has been seeing some pretty high temperatures lately and I chose to keep using the Rain 3.0 through it all, because it actually did keep my neck and shoulders cooler than my standard pillow.
Though it didn’t solve all of my problems, I’m still using Bedgear’s pillow as my nightly favorite, which definitely says something. I only wish they made them in a larger size so when my cats decided to join me, there would actually be enough room for my head too.
