Cat’s here now.
I just sleep with one pillow, on my left side usually. I have two on the bed for symmetry. The ones I have now are weird but they work, with a rectangle of memory foam in the middle and kind of thin pillows wrapping around it and a case to hold it all together. To wash them, I can take the cover off, take the foam out and stick it all in the washer without the foam. The padded parts can be mooshed around so I can support my side-sleeping neck, but thin enough that my head is straight. If I don’t sleep right, I’m prone to torticollis.
What’s on my bed?
At least one cat.
I want a pillow that’s nice and thick, but relatively soft, so that my head can squish into it to the level that feels most natural. Frequently, I’ll get just the right shape by tucking a corner of the pillow under itself to get a little extra firmness where I want it. These are available pretty cheap just about everywhere; I just have to feel around until I get the ones I want.
I have never been able to tolerate any kind of firm, molded or foam pillow. I think it’s partly because I sleep on my stomach and generally use the edge of the pillow so that my head can be supported, but still facing down. On the other hand, I find those pillows miserable even if I’m sleeping on my side, so that can’t be the whole explanation.
Oh, and I’m in the one-person-one-pillow camp. I can’t for the life of me figure out why you want a second pillow unless maybe they’re both defective. I couldn’t handle a body pillow or something like that. I move around too much while I sleep.
I was waiting for someone to respond with the SDMB standard “Hookers and blow”, but I guess this will have to do…
Serious question for hull/organic filled pillow users - what prevents a bug invasion? Do you have to use a special pillow cover? In days of yore when pillows and mattresses were straw based, bugs were a big problem.
I have a Tempur-pedic pillow. You will pry that out of my cold, dead hands. I was never into decorative pillows, but this fall I painted my bedroom, got a new comforter and matching shams. So I bought 2 cheap pillows and crammed them into the shams and it looks so purty. I also have a pillow with a grey horse head and a Union Jack pillow. There are also about 15 stuffed animals on my bed, along with a bedrest pillow for reading. Oh, and a body pillow cuz I’m a side sleeper and need the support under my hips. It is quite the cozy set up! (Note the absence of a spouse/SO/cat/dog).
I used to need a couple of pillows because ours are so flat. A few months back my wife bought herself one of those memory foam pillows (Iso-Cool?) because she gets hot at night and thought it would help keep her cool. She decided she didn’t like it and gave it to me. I love it! Nice and thick, keeps my head supported. Now I only need the one pillow (except when I’m sitting up in bed reading or whatever, when I still like to have a pile of three pillows behind me). The only bad thing about it is the pillow weighs about ten pounds. That is one heavy chunk of foam!
Three pillows (though I can make do with two). Doesn’t matter what they’re made of.
Same. She rolls & curls her paws when I scratch behind her ears… and she gets mad if I take her “warm spot”.
She’ll give me a look that says, “Just you wait. One of these nights, you’re going to get up to go Pee and THEN we’ll see how YOU like it!”
Shoeless, I recommend that your wife try a Chillow Pillow. It’s a rectangular shaped, water filled insert to your pillow that is a god-send for those of us who are hot at night. You can get it on Amazon, or from the website directly. I LOVE mine.
Best thing about sleeping alone? All four pillows are MINE!
I like a lot of pillows - two under my head, one in back of me and one to hug. They are all four down-around-feather from Pacific Down. And they are great for me.
I have 1,000-thread count sheets I spent a bundle for many years ago. Now they are incredibly soft, like a 2nd skin, and have lost none of their integrity after years of washing. If measured in dollars per hour of usage, those sheets were an incredible value. You would have to take them away from me over my cold, dead body.
I also like a comforter, big and fluffy, so I buy a new one each year. Once they flatten out a bit, they are relegated to the guest room.
My dogs cycle themselves throughout the night on my bed. I always have one up with me, while the other two sleep on the floor or the dog beds. They don’t share the bed well, so when one gets off, another jumps on, and they seem fine with the arrangement.
Between wife & I we’ve owned 4 of them over about 20 years. We’ve never noticed any issue w bugs, rot, or other organic-type problems.
The stock cover is a heavier muslin/canvas than a typical pillow. But it’s closed with an ordinary zipper and not waterproof in any way. We just use an ordinary pillowcase over that.
After a few years the outside of the cover gets kinda grotty with sweat & such, but no differently than any other pillow I’ve ever owned or seen. About the time the cover is getting ugly the filling is also getting broken up; more like sand and less like small pellets. Which interferes with it holding its shape. That’s my cue to replace it.
So my anecdotal evidence is that your concerns are simply not a problem.
Every few years I buy 2 solid foam rubber pillows at a place that makes custom furniture. They make the pillows aout of the smaller left overs from big projects.
I usually buy king size, if they have them. They are about a foot thick. They don’t support wild life (dust mites and other tiny critters) they hold their shape, and are firm, bit not hard.
I buy new ones when they start to fall apart. That’s usually about 5 years. I’m ready now, but I’m a little afraid to go see if they are still in business. I’ve been buying pillows there for 40 years. I hope I can buy them there for another 40.
Last time they cost just under $100 each. I’m hoping not to have to mortgage my house to get new ones!
I have had to give up my down pillow when its cost exceeded my budget. I now have a memory foam contour pillow. I needed to cut about half the foam off the flat side to make the pillow low enough to be comfortable. There is also a dog, a dog bed, and a tiny stuffed toy my previous dog slept with, that I tuck under my chin.
Queen size bed, 4 pillows, 2 on each side, cheap crap from kmart, and a boomerang shaped pillow in the middle. .
Apart from that, there’s a doona. No top sheet, nothing else. In winter there’s also a blanket. (The bedroom window is open pretty much year round).
no critters in the house except the goldfish and the budgie and they have their own places to sleep. The dog has multiple options in the yard.
Funny this post should show up right now… I just re-arranged my bed!
Now I have two pillows (one on each side): A Tempurpedic pillow for me, and a cheaper memory foam plus microbead pillow for my cat Vincent.
Being a cat, he wants to sleep on whichever pillow I’m sleeping on. At least with the Tempurpedic I have enough room for both him and my head!
I had to move my favorite stuffed animals to the side to accomplish this new set-up. I cuddle a large stuffed Appa (from Avatar: The Last Airbender) and partially use it to keep my CPAP hose from getting hooked up under the side table.
The online Nickelodeon store used to carry a stuffed Appa, but no more. I think you can get them from Amazon. If you want one, that is. Or you want one for your kid. It’s not like you’d be over-40 and still sleep with a stuffed animal… :o
100% cotton pillowcases all the time, absolutely.
The cat sharing my pillow is optional, and indeed, at times, preferably omitted.
My pillow is the one and probably only thing on my bed that I’m picky about. I just have a cheap spring mattress a decade old and yet it doen’t bother me but a good pillow is a must and I replace them often once they no longer feel just right.
I also have this thing where I can’t stand anyone else, especially an animal laying or touching my pillow. It must be pristine and untouched by anything but me…no clue why.
I have one giant blue pillow that I’ve had for years and years. You know, now that I think of it, I must have had it for 15 years at least. Since high school. And it’s ruined me for other pillows. I just can’t sleep on a normal pillow, even a couple of really firm one doubled up.
I’m fussy about my bed. I even have ‘summer linens’ and ‘winter linens’.
Single best decision I’ve ever made was to ditch the top sheet and just sleep under the duvet. It really saves tangling and the duvet is only marginally more annoying to wash than the top sheet.
Wool blanket on top the duvet for winter, knitted cotton blanket in summer. A winter duvet and a summer duvet.
All stuffing must be down or feathers. Sleeping under something stuffed with man made fibers is like sleeping in a plastic bag. I’d like to sleep under a duvet stuffed with silk, but I’m afraid I’d be disappointed.
4 feather pillows. OMG has the price gone up over the last two years.