With so much attention being given to mattress quality in our industry when it comes to sleep quality, I think there is a lack of emphasis on another closely related category.  You can spend all the money in the world on different high dollar mattresses, truck specific or not, but still not be getting the best possible rest for your dollar!  If the pillow you are sleeping on is not the right choice for your sleep position and firmness level, then it makes no difference whether you are sleeping on a cloud or a rock!
 
Through my own experience, and money down the drain, I have learned this lesson first-hand.  I was never the type to spend a lot of money on things like mattresses or pillows and would have considered their relation to my sleep quality irrelevant, would it not have been for a comfort analysis done by my local bedding store.  When my wife was pregnant with our first daughter we wanted to look into a new bed that would have several features such as adjustable base, firmness control, and possibly massaging.  When our local bed store announced that they had a revolutionary new system that allowed sensors to analyze your comfort level and custom select a mattress/pillow combination tailored to your specific needs, we jumped at the opportunity to go in and try it out.  After all was said and done, we settled on the leading brand memory foam adjustable bed in a split Cal-king size with massage feature.  I decided to go against the test results however when it came to pillow choice, as I was stubborn and did not want to spend $100 on the pillow it was recommending.
 
Upon trying out the new bed in our home, I felt as though the flat pillow I was using was not doing me justice in getting the most out of the new bed and went back in to get the matching memory foam pillow.  Being that it was contoured for a back-sleeper and I was always a back sleeper, I though the match was perfect.  Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t meant to be, as the new contour shape was turning me into a major snorer!  This was not going to fly with my pregnant wife by any means!  Since pillows are not a returnable item once used, it was into the store again to solve the problem.  It turned out that the store had another style of pillow from the same brand I could try, but it would mean switching my sleeping habits to become a side sleeper, as this pillow was designed for that specifically.
 
A couple years went by in using this pillow and my sleep had never been better!  I even used this pillow in the truck with me when I had to go away on overnight trips.  The only thing that bothered me about it was the stiff density it had, which would sometimes leave my ear slightly sore after a night on it.  Recently we decided it was time to get our 17-month old daughter her “big-girl” bed and returned to that same store to get her a memory foam mattress of her own.  I was doomed from the minute I laid down, as a joke, on one of the demo beds!  It was then I found the latest and greatest in pillow technology that solved the problem of the stiff density memory foam by engineering the pillow with pressure relief columns distributed throughout the memory foam when it is made.  It was similar to what I would imagine laying my head on a cloud would be like!  I decided to give in this time and not worry about the price, since it was twice as much as the previous pillows I had tried.  In doing so, my sleep quality has drastically improved, the soreness in my ears in the morning has gone away, and I am more refreshed upon waking.  Although expensive, but still less than the sum of all previously tried pillow costs, it was important to make sure the pillow that I was laying on was not taking away from either the effectiveness of the mattress or the quality of my overall sleep.  I have since showed this pillow off to a few of my friends and now have them wanting one as well!  This just goes to show that your pillow choice can have a lot to do with the quality of your overall sleep!

Comments (7)

Jimmy Nevarez

Jimmy Nevarez is the Owner/President of Angus Transportation, Inc., based in Chino, California.  Jimmy pulls a 53' dry van hauling general dry freight for his own small fleet, operating on its own authority throughout all of Southern California and Southern Nevada.

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Sorry, forgot to attach the link for my pillow. Here it is:

http://www.sitnsleep.com/aireloom-aspire-pillow

April 29, 2014 10:31:11 AM

The exact pillow I use now is the Aireloom Tencil Pillow. I have included a link to the store's ad that I bought it from, where it can be ordered direct. It comes comes in one firmness level, which I self-describe as "heaven"! Tyrone also make a good point in the reason I will spend good money on sleep, in that we spend most of our lives in this horizontal state of rest. If 1/3 of our life is spend this way, we might as well spend the money to make sure we are getting the best rest possible!

April 29, 2014 10:30:35 AM

Experts suggest replacing pillows every 1-3 years. For people who buy cheap ones like me even more often... Then again I have pillows on my truck that are years old. I have a nest of pillows that i use for both sleeping and for when i want to sit up and read work on computer etc. I have a hard time paying even 15 dollars for a pillow. It makes my inner skin flint cringe in horror....

April 28, 2014 15:57:04 PM

AFTER ALL SLEEP IS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE KNOW WE ARE GOING TO DO.SO WHY NOT INVEST IN THE BEST SLEEP POSSIBLE. JUST SAYING...GOODNIGHT....

April 28, 2014 8:04:59 AM

I am way too slow to replace my truck pillow.

April 28, 2014 6:38:18 AM

Please share the name of your pillow!
I have been experiencing for years the exact same problem that you described in regards to my pillows - right down to the sore ear in the mornings!

I have tried so many pillows - sounds like your pillow might be the right one for me.
Thanks so much for writing about this!

April 28, 2014 6:23:20 AM

Interesting Jimmy... I know as a team driver that the mattress in the truck can make all of the difference in the world. Bouncing up and down the road while a good saying does not work for sleep. Have not thought much about the pillow as I have two totally different pillows, one for the truck and one that stays at home.

April 28, 2014 5:08:48 AM