I Finally Switched to a Side Sleeper Pillow and Didn’t Realize It Was the Secret to Better Sleep (and No More Neck Pain!)

A couple of months back my pillow started to do something… weird. Each morning, I kept noticing that overnight the fill had severely shifted, leaving an oddly-shaped, crumpled up pillow (and some serious neck pain) in its wake. While a quick fluff of my pillow immediately brought it back to life, I couldn’t help but wonder why I kept waking up to a deformed pillow — but I did have an idea. As a side sleeper, I’ve naturally researched dedicated side sleeper pillows before, and one thing I had come to notice was that many of these pillows feature a curved shape. That’s when it clicked: I had been creating a makeshift side sleeper pillow in my sleep. Ay yai yai. With this realization, I knew what I had to do. Now, in the past, I had steered away from these specially-shaped pillows, mainly because I was worried the shape would be too unusual to comfortably sleep with. But after a couple of months with the Honeydew Scrumptious Side Pillow, I got to see firsthand how mistaken I was.

With so many similar pillows out there, what makes the Honeydew Scrumptious Side Pillow stand out among the rest? Well, first things first, there’s the fill. This pillow uses an exclusive blend of materials made from a combination of two different CertiPUR-US certified cooling copper-infused, gel-based memory foams alongside a special proprietary fiber that keeps the pillow soft, cool, and supportive. Next is the design. Curved to expertly support your neck and shoulders, its built to maintain its structure throughout the night, leading to less tossing and turning, while also being completely customizable thanks to its adjustable fill. But perhaps my favorite tidbit about this pillow? They’re handmade in California by a small family-run business dedicated to helping people get the best sleep. What’s not to love?

Now for the fun part: the test. When you first get this pillow, like any memory-foam option, you have to let it “open-up” so it can come to its full-size. While you can just unpackaged it and leave it alone for a bit, I’m impatient, so I took the brand’s shortcut tip of throwing it in the dryer on low for about an hour and it was ready to go. The second I laid my head down, I instantly thought to myself, “Oh, is this what support feels like?” From my neck to my shoulders and even my back, I could instantly feel my body being aligned; Needless to say I was excited to get to bed. That night I got what I can only describe as the best sleep of my life. The next morning, I woke up with no pain whatsoever, and more than four months later, I’m still sleeping the same. If I had to sum up my thoughts on this pillow in two words, it would be this: miracle worker.

Want to put one to the test for yourself? The Honeydew Scrumptious Side Pillow comes in at $129.99 for a queen-size and $149.99 for a king. For a little more, you can also pick up a gift pack that comes with a matching, silky bamboo pillowcase designed to fit its unique shape (don’t worry, you can also buy this at a later time.) And listen, I get it, this pillow is a bit of an investment, but if you’re a side sleeper tired of waking up with aches and pain, I’m confident that after a couple of months with this bad boy you’ll find that it more than lives up to its “scrumptious” name, too.

Buy: Honeydew Scrumptious Side Pillow, $129.99