Are niche pillows and cases worth it?

I switched to buckwheat pillows a few years ago and I've been a fan. It's a really interesting texture that you can move and shape really easily, but then when you apply pressure to it, it firms up and holds its shape. So, you get a really supportive pillow that's molded to your head and neck (For reference, I'm a side sleeper). The only downside I've noticed is the filling degrades relatively quickly, and after about a year it loses a lot of its volume and doesn't hold its shape as well, so you'll need to replace it. The bright side is that it's fairly cheap, and entirely biodegradable.

Eh, I've tried all of them at least once.

For my money, shredded memory foam is the best. It isn't perfect, but I've had the best balance between comfort, durability, ease of cleaning, and cost.

Buckwheat was good at support, and stayed fairly cool, but the breakdown and difficulty of cleaning made it a problem. It just doesn't last as well. Only thing that was worse in that regard was feathers. Feathers get ruined faster than anything else I tried.

Pillow cases, I'm a cotton fan. High thread count cotton has the right balance of softness vs smoothness. Too soft, and you end up with bunching and wrinkles as you move. Too smooth, and you end up with your head moving too easy but your hair not moving well.

Polyfill sucks for everything except ease of cleaning.

Cotton batting is about the same as polyfill, but not as easy to clean.

Solid foam is just begging to sweat heavy, and damn near impossible to clean well. Plus the durability is iffy.

Pillow cases, actual linen isn't bad, but tends not to be as comfy as cotton. Silk is way too smooth. Satin is just uncomfortable. Synthetics tend to run hot, even though they feel nice. Knit cotton feels the best, but damn does it fall into poor condition fast.

I sleep on a buckwheat pillow. It's pretty decent, and as a bonus it guarantees victory and the extermination of your enemies in every pillow fight!

That looks more like dirt than buckwheat.

Silk pillow cases are awesome! I've upgraded my linens in the last couple of years and silk pillowcase are probably my favorite splurge. I have two and i try to steal my husband's so i can have one on the bed and one on deck for change day.

Everyone in my family, from my elderly parents to my kid have switched to buckwheat over the past decade or so. Every single one of them loves it. That's just anecdotal, but for me it was completely worth it.

I use down feather pillows, they are easily customizable but they can go "flat" and hard in the middle of the night. Putting your head down on a freshly fluffed one is utterly sublime, though.

I have fallen in love with bamboo rayon pillowcases, (aka modal, aka tencel, aka lyocell). They can be extremely soft and smooth like silk but are much hardier, so you can wash them like normal laundry.

I have the Purple Harmony pillow. It took some getting used to, but yes, it's worth it. I use a silk pillow case because of my hair: 4C hair is dried out by cotton and people recommend not sleeping on it as a result. My hair has never been longer though, so I think that's true too.

Buckwheat pillow with a thick flannel cover. Belly sleeper and my pillow travels everywhere I do.

Buckwheat, in my opinion, takes a good 6 months for it to be properly broken in, but once it is I have a good couple of years of amazing sleep.

Buckwheat is da bomb!!! We have 4 in the bed and they are amazing.

Silk pillow cases are really useful to people with curly and coilled hair! Cotton pillow cases makes that kind of hair super frizzy, but a silk case can be softer on the hair meaning your curls are still intact in the morning :) Often people will use a silk wrap or hear wear instead of a silk pillow as they can ve cheaper and keep your hair more secure. It's personal preference but can really help reduce frizz! Hope that helps

Edit: bloody spelling

I love my husks in a sack. I also use a foam pillow here and there, tried a hyped up shredded foam pillow but hated it, solid foam is the way for foam imo. Never tried silk pillow cases but I do enjoy cotton.

Yes. I can't talk about buckwheat in particular but, considering your face goes on it, I consider a good pillow case more important than a good set of sheets.

I'm enjoying a kapok as well as a down pillow. Only natural for me, nobody off-gasses on my face.

real silk pillowcases are just too slippery for me (and you have to wash em in a bag) so I stick with cotton.

I really like my water pillow.

Down feather pillows are $$$ but great if you like them soft and fluffy. Get support by fluffing and kneading.

In modern times it's important to keep in mind that the stiffness can be different independent of the type of filling.

That is, I'd pick filling primarily by allergies, and then by personal preference. They all feel marginally~moderately different, and some you'll just associate with "nicer". For me personally that's memory foam, for example.

Then independent of that, pick a stiffnes and, importantly, a shape that works for you. I sleep worlds better on a very stuff shaped pillow that perfectly matches my neck size and length.

I use a buckwheat pillow with a mulberry silk pillow case. I live in Miami and I like a cold pillow, and that's the coldest combination I could come up with. they also have those blue gel cooling pillows, they're pretty uncomfortable, but I keep one under my buckwheat pillow, also in a silk pillowcase, so that I can flip my buckwheat pillow and the cool gel can draw the heat off so the other side is always cool for me. and silk pillowcases work a lot better than satin

I had a buckwheat pillow once and it was kind of crap. Honestly it doesn't really matter what you get if they're comfortable. You just got to replace them regularly. Like once a year. Washing them can help with allergy issues, but that foam is never going to return to its original state no matter how well you wash and dry it. You could always try getting something more organic so that you don't end up filling a landfill with foam all the time, but I mean we're already scrotum deep in microplastics (look it up) so I don't know if it matters at this point.

I've tried feather down pillows and 🤧

I have a buckwheat pillow. I find it extremely comfortable, it reduced my neck pain. It is hard, but molds to the shape of your neck in a very comfortable way. It doesnt get lumoy in the same way a traditional pillow does.I have replaced it once now, first set lasted about 2 years. I personally greatly value that it is renewable material. The up front is kinda high, but the cost to replace the stuffing is low. I think it'll be comparable to a cheap regular pillow after one more replacement, which I think it's definitely durable enough to get to I also bet im paying a but more for hulls than i needed if i was willing to shop around. It's also cool cause you can clean the pillow itself quite easily by just emptying the hulls out. It stays cooler than a standard pillow.

For downsides, it is like sleeping on a beanbag. I've heard some say it's "loud" in that your ear is pressed right up against it and you can hear the hulls(?) Move around if you move, nit a problem for me, but people with sensory issues beware. I found that the grain made a texture that overtime annoyed my cheek, but a second pillow case was enough to fix that problem for me. It's quite heavy, I like this because it neans it moves less, but my wife finds it annoying.

I got one, had my wife get one after trying mine and I'm thinking of a gettibg a 3rd at some point. I got mine from comfy comfy and I would recommend their contour version as it seems to keep the hulls distributed more evenly than the standard.