Today I'm going to talk about goose down pillows so if you're a vegan, or PETA nut you can just exit stage left--you probably don't want to hear about them anyways. For everyone else reading, I love buckwheat pillows and have used them for a long time but growing up, when I would visit either of my grandmothers, they would both use goose down pillows and I've always thought that they were a real treat compared to the polyester batting pillows that we had at home. Well it turns out down pillows can be quite expensive with four pillow sets running over $300.
And although, I really enjoyed sleeping on the pillows at both my grandmother's houses, I did notice that they often don't provide a lot of support for your head. In other words as you lay down, the down squishes to either side of your head and basically you end up sleeping on your arm (if you're a side sleeper). Modern down pillows are quite a bit of improvement over the ones I had used previously. For one thing, many of the better pillows are using a combination of goose down and goose feathers. You see, goose down has several amazing properties. It's high loft, which means it's really good a making very small spaces that trap air. This also means that when dry, goose down is capable of keeping you nice and warm. The second characteristic is that it is highly compressible. And while that's great for your sleeping bag, it's not such a great quality in a pillow, especially if it means that your head ends up on the mattress. Pillows that combine the goose down with goose feathers provide much better support and compress less.
Another thing I didn't like is the escaping down feathers. As you lay down, some of the down feathers begin poking their way out of the pillow. Perhaps I'm just sensitive but they felt scratchy to me. It turns out that a lot of luxury, MGM Grand Hotel, and nicer hotels, Marriott, are using down pillows and I'm sure they aren't poking there customers with itchy pillows. What's happened is the covers are specially made to not allow the feathers to escape. You'll probably see words like "down proof," or as having a "barrier" cover.
Some people may however be allergic to goose down which can happen for a number of reasons. Some people are just allergic to various animals while others may be allergic to the dust that can collect in a down pillow. For those people, Hungarian goose down pillows, due to its cleanliness, may be a hypoallergenic alternative. Subsequently, some Hungarian goose down products mix various plants or herbs in with the down to create an even more hypoallergenic product.
Despite the high cost associated with goose down pillows, I consider it to be worth the investment. If you think about it, a bad night's sleep can wreck your whole day--not just the sleepiness that you'll have to endure but the aches in your shoulders and the cricks in your neck. Then there's the fact that if you consider that your pillow, if well made, will last many many years of comfortable nights, then suddenly it doesn't factor out to be so expensive. So that $330 set of pillows I mention before comes out to roughly 18 cents a night over five years and that's for a set of four king-sized deluxe pillow. If you divide the pillow between you and your spouse or someone else in your family, that's 9 cents a night per person or even cheaper. For me at least, it's worth the cost for a good nights sleep. So all told, goose down pillows versus buckwheat hull pillows; it's a tie game. Here's to your health and a good night's rest!
