The Cloudpillo is the new kid on the block in the world of pillows but this customisable, ergonomically-designed pillow filled with offcuts of shredded memory foam is already a best-seller in the Netherlands - which is home to the world's best sleepers. More than a million Cloudpillos have been sold since the company's launch in 2021.
If you’re searching for the best cooling pillows, it’s probably safe to assume that you, like me, are familiar with the torture of getting hot and bothered at night. I'll be 49 on my next birthday, so my sweaty state is officially due to perimenopause. But whether night sweats are caused by a health condition or just overheating easily makes little difference - the mere mention of a cooling pillow is like a soothing balm to us sleepless souls who just can't seem to keep our cool at night.
However, like many menopausal women, my first reaction to hearing of a product that could help with hot flushes is usually a raised eyebrow and a deep sense of scepticism. We're bombarded with everything from bras to sleepwear that promise to reduce body temperature and improve sleep, but there's little evidence to support such claims. What's more, products with cooling properties often come at a higher price point, and nobody wants to pay more for something that doesn't live up to expectations.
I've been a shopping editor for more than a decade so I'm not easily taken in by hype, and with a 5 am wakeful period that frequently requires a fresh set of pyjamas and a cold drink, I jumped (sleepily) at the chance to put the Cloudpillo to the test. Is this dual-sided cooling pillow yet another gimmick marketed at desperate, knackered women like me, or did it bring relief to my early morning meltdowns? The answer might surprise you...
Cloudpillo Original review
Specifications
RRP: £69.95
Size: 74 x 48 cm (fits a standard pillowcase)
Sleep position: Back, side or stomach (but I'm a front sleeper and loved it)
Filling: Memory foam
Firmness: Customisable
Trial: 100 nights
Guarantee: 2 years
First impressions
The Cloudpillo Memory Foam pillow is full of surprises, and the first is how it arrives. I was expecting a pillow-shaped package, but instead, I took delivery of a long, rectangular box. The pillow was inside, tightly rolled in a vacuum-sealed package. Once I’d prised it from its confines, it sprang into more of a pillow shape, but it was still a long way from soft or fluffy.
On closer inspection, I learned that I needed to unzip the inner case and remove handfuls of the shredded memory foam to create a pillow with my preferred level of plushness. However, this is not an exact science, and I found it hard to know how much filling to remove at first. (I've since discovered that the Cloudpillo adjustment guide, which is a handy way to determine how much filling to remove, based on whether you're a front, back or side sleeper and whether you prefer a soft or firm pillow.)
One drawback - you have to store the spare filling somewhere. Cloudpillo recommend keeping it in the box that the pillow was packaged in, but it's a fairly sizeable box, so it’s currently taking up precious space in my tiny wardrobe. I wish the Cloudpillo came with a fabric storage pouch or something more compact to pop the spare filling in.
My first attempt at removing the filling wasn’t a great success. I didn't take enough out, so the pillow felt overstuffed. I tried to coax family members into testing it for me, but we all found ourselves put off by the thought of sleeping on such a bulky, rigid pillow. I even took it to bed with the best intentions for two nights in a row but woke up to find I had thrown it to the floor by morning. Eventually, I realised I should try removing more filling to create a less dense pillow. At last, after a bit of trial and error, my Cloudpillo finally had the perfect level of plush. Then everyone wanted to borrow it.
Composition
The CloudPillo Original Pillow is composed of a blend of materials - memory foam, which moulds to the shape of your head and neck to provide support, and microfiber, which gives it both its firmness and its plushness.
The Cloudpillo comes with a washable secondary outer cover with cooling fabric (made from polyethylene and recycled polyester) on one side. But to get the full benefit of the cooling fabric, it's best to use the Cloudpillo without an additional pillow cover. This means leaving the rather utilitarian cover exposed rather than popping the pillow in a pillowcase of your own. This, I feel, is a price worth paying for the benefits of the pillow's cooling properties at 5am, but it will put some people off, especially those who have curated a beautiful bedroom aesthetic.
Like many memory foam pillows, there is a bit of a smell to the Cloudpillo that takes a little time to wear off. It didn't put me off using the pillow altogether, but there's an initial chemical whiff that isn't the most relaxing fragrance. However, if such things bother you, I recommend using a pillow spray - I love L'Occitane's Relaxing Pillow Mist (£22.50, L'Occitane), which contains a blend of essential oils of lavender, bergamot, mandarin, sweet orange and geranium.
Who would it suit?
Memory foam is a bit like the Marmite of the pillow world. Some people love that it offers a personalised level of support, thanks to the way it moulds to the shape of your head, neck and shoulders, plus it's a good choice if you're looking for a pillow to reduce pain since it helps distribute weight evenly, reducing pressure. Others think memory foam pillows resemble rigid bricks or unforgiving blocks.
Broadly speaking, memory foam pillows are better suited to side and back sleepers because of the neck support and spinal alignment they provide, but less suited to front sleepers because the bulkiness can position the neck at an awkward angle.
That said, I've spent most of my life sleeping on my front (except during three pregnancies, which forced me into very uncomfortable back and side sleeping), and I found the CloudPillo Original Pillow to be easily one of the most comfortable pillows I've ever slept on. Its biggest selling point, to my mind, is the fact that you can choose how much filling to remove, which means you get the perfect memory foam filling to suit all your preferences, from which type of sleeper you are to how firm or soft your pillow is.
However, if cooling properties are your biggest priority when choosing a pillow, then the Dreams TheraPur Memory Foam Ice Pillow is the best of the best, according to Homes Ecommerce Editor Laura Honey, who tested most of the cooling pillows in our guide and found it "the perfect balance of support, comfort and cooling technology" because it offers "all the sink-in softness and contouring of an orthopaedic pillow without the heat of foam".
What is it like to sleep on?
Much to my dismay, it's fairly common for me to wake a couple of times at night, thanks to perimenopause. But while I was testing the Cloudpillo, my over-riding thought at those moments wasn't how hot I was or even how knackered I felt, but how astonishingly comfy my pillow was - genuinely. A pillow that helps take my mind off the misery of being awake when I don't want to be is one I'm hanging onto.
The Ice Silk cover is a nice extra touch. I don’t think it’ll soothe hormonal night sweats but I did notice that the cooling side helped me to feel calm and relaxed at bedtime. Much better than other pillows I’ve used which have me overheating before I’ve even settled down for the night.
I’m a dedicated front sleeper, as I've mentioned, and this was almost impossible to achieve comfortably when I still had too much filling in the pillow. But once I had worked out just how much filling to remove to suit me, I found it offered the perfect balance between comfort and support, even as a front sleeper.
The absolute best bit about this pillow, however, is how comfy it is to prop behind your back as you sit up in bed - ideally with a hot cup of fresh coffee before it’s time to get up. As a remote worker, I am always in a hurry in the morning to get to my desk by 8 am. But once I’d realised how comfy this pillow is to lean against while lingering in bed, I found myself considering working from my 'boffice' (bedroom office) for the rest of the day. Seriously, the Cloudpillo has helped me finally master the art of starting my day more slowly with a leisurely mindfulness practice or a spot of journalling before rushing headlong into the day. And if I ever have a planned stay overnight in hospital, I’ll definitely try sneaking the Cloudpillo in with me for added comfort.
Is it cooling?
This is tricky to answer because it depends a lot on your expectations when it comes to cooling pillows. On a very hot summer holiday when I was a kid, my mum popped a towel in the freezer and laid it on my pillow to help bring relief during the sweltering night, and I half expected cooling pillows to be something like that. They’re not.
Yes, the Cloudpillo Memory Foam pillow definitely counts as a cooling pillow, thanks to its dual-sided extra cover - the blue side is made of Ice Silk fabric, which feels like a cool cotton sheet, compared to the white side, which is more like a fluffy, cosy blanket. The idea is that you choose which side to sleep on or reverse the pillow according to your needs.
That said, the Cloudpillo isn’t going to rid you of night sweats - no pillow can. But being able to flip it over to the cool side was a genuine comfort when I woke in the night due to a hot flush. One of the toughest things about night sweats, for me, is that my worst overthinking tends to happen when I can’t sleep at night. This means that waking in a hot sweat is often accompanied by a rising sense of panic, but there was something truly soothing about the act of flipping my pillow over to the cooling side in that moment instead of tossing and turning.
What are the eco-credentials?
This isn't the most eco-friendly pillow you could buy - those tend to be ones made with recycled materials such as plastic bottles - but neither is it meant to be - its main feature is the cooling dual-sided cover.
Like many women of my age, I try hard to choose products with eco-credentials wherever possible, and memory foam doesn’t fit that category because of how difficult it is to dispose of. But I was glad to learn that Cloudpillo source the shredded memory foam for their pillows from mattress offcuts, so I guess by choosing a Cloudpillo you'll at least be saving some waste from going to landfill.
How does it compare?
The Woolroom Deluxe Washable Wool Pillow is another pillow with a removable filling that you can add and remove until you find the perfect firmness. The cover is naturally cooling too.
Should you buy it?
Is this the perfect pillow for you? It’s a resounding yes from me if you’re a fan of memory foam pillows. I love being able to adjust the stuffing, and can’t see myself ever settling for any other pillow after the joy of adjusting this one to suit my perfect level of plushness.
That said, not everyone is a fan of memory foam. That's with good reason, because it responds to your body temperature, so it can get a little hot. Our Homes Ecommerce Editor, Laura Honey, is our resident pillow expert, and she generally doesn’t recommend memory foam pillows for hot sleepers, unless you're willing to pay the price for the benefits that memory foam can bring to aching joints.
How we test
At woman&home how we test pillows is a robust but creative process. For this review, I've slept on the Cloudpillo every night since I took delivery of it almost 12 weeks ago. (And there's no chance of anyone else in the family getting their hands on it now, no matter how much they beg...) I thoroughly tested the cooling side every time I woke up due to a hot flush in the night, and I experimented with removing different levels of filling until the pillow had a Goldilocks standard of 'just rightness' for me. I've spent hours reading in bed, propped up on this pillow, and I've laundered the removable cover and can report that it washes well and dries quickly. In other words, I've subjected it to every kind of hands-on real-life testing I could think of, and my old pillow has now been officially relegated to the spare bedroom.
