I Tried That TikTok-Viral Human Dog Bed, and I Like It More Than My Actual Bed (and It’s on Sale!)

Like so many other college students, I became what one may consider a professional napper during my undergrad years. I learned how to get a quick nap in, regardless of the situation, location, and the noise level. My dorm suitemates yelling continuously from the next room over? Falling asleep hunched over a desk in the library? You name it, and I could do it. Nothing could’ve stopped me from sleeping like a baby when I got a spare 30 minutes in between classes or assignments.

But now that I’ve gotten used to working a 9-to-5, my extensive napping habit has weaned. I know it’s way healthier now that I’m not running on fumes and briefly dozing in between essays, but when I wasn’t wildly stressed out, my daily naps brought me some much-needed joy. I missed them. Luckily, though, I’ve been inspired to take more semi-regular snoozes thanks to one particular product: I’m talking about the Plufl Human Dog Bed.

The Human Dog Bed is exactly what it sounds like. Touted as the “ultimate napping product,” Plufl began after its founders, Noah Silverman and Yuki Kinoshita, realized there weren’t any comfortable places to sleep on their college campus. After seeing a Great Dane sleeping deeply in a giant dog bed at their local coffee shop, inspiration struck. Starting as a project in their dorm room, the two started developing a human-sized dog bed that was designed to alleviate stress and anxiety — and provide its user with the ultimate nap.

Plufl gained some major traction on social media last year — and the brand still goes viral, from what I can tell from how many times it’s crossed my TikTok feed — which led the pair to take their product to Shark Tank, where Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner invested a whopping $200,000 into it.

So yeah, there’s definitely a lot of hype surrounding the Plufl, and on paper, it really does sound amazing. It’s 68 inches long and 32 inches wide (so it should fit people close to 6 feet tall), and has a fluffy vegan fur cover that’s machine washable, a built-in pillow bolster that surrounds it for head support, a memory foam base, two handles on either side for transport, and a pocket on the side for your phone or remote.

Like everyone else, I was already intrigued by all the TikTok videos, but after reading more about it, I was more than excited to give the Human Dog Bed a go myself (you know, as a professional napper and all). Still, I had a few lingering doubts: Was it really worth shelling out a few hundred dollars? How comfy could something with “dog bed” in its name really be?

Now, I don’t have a dog (unfortunately for me), but you don’t need one to enjoy the Plufl, though I’m sure snuggling in it with your pet would make it even better. In a nutshell, the Human Dog Bed is legitimately as comfortable, if not more comfortable, than my bed. But before we get into how soft and cushiony it is, let’s start with the assembly, because, unlike normal dog beds, it requires putting some things together.

After hauling the enormous box up two flights of stairs, I followed the instructions and let the memory foam pad and pillows deflate for a day. Well, mostly — it was taunting me from where it was sitting in my room, and I caved about 12 hours in and started to build it. Who can blame me? I’ll admit, if I hadn’t had the help of my roommate, I’m sure it would have been a lot harder to put it all together. It didn’t take that long, but man, it was tough shoving the hefty pillows into the fur cover. At first, it seemed like the foam pad wasn’t going to fit, but after some wrangling, we managed to zip it up.

But sweat-inducing assembly aside, it was love at first lounge. My 5’10” roommate and my 5’2” self took turns curling up on the dog bed and marveled at how comfortable it was. The bolster pillows provided a shocking amount of head support, and we tried out multiple positions to see if it could accommodate back, side, and stomach sleepers. As someone who rotates between all three, I didn’t feel the need to keep shifting to get comfy like I usually do on my bed. I will say, though, that it’s especially good for curling up on your side. The bolsters allow you to tuck your hands and feet underneath them, which creates a sort of cocooning feeling that totally puts it above the knockoffs on the market. 

In the month and a half since the Plufl has come into my life, I can solidly say that it really could replace a bed if you wanted it to. Even on the hardwood floor it sits on, I can’t feel the ground underneath — the gel-infused memory foam, though firm, is more than supportive enough for lounging for long periods of time. (For reference, my roommate laid on it while we binged nearly half a season of Suits at a time, and she had zero complaints.)

Instead of getting out the air mattress, we now pull out the Plufl when we have guests stay over, and I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be needing our air mattresses ever again. (Plus, the two handles on either side make it fairly easy to move between rooms, despite its 25-pound weight. Storing it is a bit tricky because it’s so large, but we use it so frequently that the Plufl sits in our extra room all of the time.) 

The Human Dog Bed is essential for anyone who tends to binge TV shows or simply loves getting a solid nap in every day. With all of this in mind, I’ve gotten so much use out of it that the $499 price tag doesn’t seem too bad — it’s essentially a lounge chair and a guest bed, but better. Right now, though, you can get the Human Dog Bed on sale for $349. Now, all that’s left is for me to get a pet to share the Plufl with. A girl can dream, right?

Buy: The Plufl Human Dog Bed, $349 (normally $499)