After swapping my old pillows for the £60 Simba AeroDown Pillow, I’ve experienced uninterrupted sleep and even my Oura Ring tracked the dramatic difference
If there’s one bedroom upgrade that can genuinely transform your sleep overnight, it’s your pillow. This month, in a desperate bid to improve the number of hours of shut eye I get each night, I swapped my flat, floppy and embarrassingly old pillows for a Simba AeroDown Pillow and I didn’t expect the results to be quite so dramatic.
Priced at £60, this isn’t the cheapest option out there by any means. But after several nights of testing, I’ve quickly determined that it’s worth every penny – so much so I’m contemplating getting my partner one as a housewarming gift when we move in together next month.
Straight out of the reusable storage bag, the AeroDown Pillow is visibly fuller than your average pillow, coming in at more than twice the height. In fact, it’s so generously filled that I immediately realised I wouldn’t need my usual stack of two or three pillows, one was more than enough.
There are three parts to the Simba AeroDown Pillow. A cotton base, Simba Renew clusters and a cotton cover with Stratos tech. The former later offers a soft breathable foundation that helps maintain comfort and freshness throughout the night.
The reverse side of the pillow features the ‘cool-touch’ Stratos tech, which delivers instant and all-night cooling, meaning no more having to flip over to the cool side of the pillow. I do think that overheating is one factor causing my disrupted sleep, and since making the switch, my slumbers have been entirely uninterrupted, which is unheard of for me.
AeroDown Pillow
The Simba AeroDown Pillow is a medium-soft pillow designed for cooling, plush, down-like comfort. It features breathable cotton with Stratos cool-touch tech for temperature regulation and is filled with hypoallergenic clusters made from recycled plastic bottles.
According to Simba, the tech keeps the pillow up to 3°C cooler than non-treated fabric. It also carries the GenM Menopause Friendly symbol, meaning it can ease, relieve or support one or more of the 48 signs of menopause – if I’d known this before Mother’s Day, it would have been among the shortlisted gifting options.
And finally, there’s the filling which is made up of Simba Renew clusters, which gives the pillow its plump, springy feel. It’s made from recycled plastic bottle fibres crafted into airy layers for optimum airflow through the pillow.
Now, the pillow is tall – perhaps too tall for some. But Simba has designed it in such a way that you can unzip the pillow and remove some of the stuffing to suit your preferred height. It comes with a drawstring bag to store the excess stuffing in, too, in case you ever wanted to add it back in. That said, I did find the zip a little fiddly when closing it again, as the fabric frequently catches in it.
When it came to sleeping on the pillow, I ditched all of my other pillows and cushions for the Simba. Getting into bed, it felt like a premium hotel bed, and it may sound cliche, but I really was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Come morning, my Oura Ring 4 had recorded a sleep latency of just five minutes, which is the fastest I’ve fallen asleep in the entire month I’ve been tracking my data. For reference, my latency averages between 30 and 50 minutes, usually.
Since then, I’ve had multiple nights of uninterrupted sleep, waking up without the usual neck ache that often comes from poor support or over-stacking pillows. Other benefits worth noting are that it’s machine washable and 40°C and can go in the tumble drier on a low heat.
While on the costlier end of pillow pricing, it’s by no means the most expensive, either. Emma’s Comfort Cooling Pillow comes in at £80 and features a Aerosoft microfiber filling that feels like down.
Though for those looking for a more budget-friendly upgrade, Dunelm has these Fogarty Pack of 2 Temperature Balance Side Sleeper Pillows for £22, or £11 per pillow. However, many will agree that you ‘get what you pay for’ with these things, and may find that they don’t last as long as a more premium option.
When it comes to the Simba pillow, though, I’m far from the only fan. It’s racked up an impressive rating of 4.4 stars based on more than 1,600 reviews.
One said: “Having taken the plunge to go for a Simba I thought I should try it all and I wasn’t disappointed. One pillow is perfect. My head sinks into the softness but it cushions so I feel I’m moving less.”
Another user raved: “Before the AeroDown Pillow, I was just a mere mortal, tossing and turning through the night, desperately searching for the cold side of the pillow. Now? I am a slumber deity.
“This pillow isn’t just a place to rest your head; it is a first-class, VIP lounge for your brain. It perfectly perfectly walks the tightrope between cloud-like, marshmallowy softness and actual, genuine neck support. I don’t know what kind of sleep sorcery the team at Simba used to create this, but it breathes incredibly well, never goes flat, and makes getting out of bed in the morning my only daily struggle.
“If you are on the fence about buying this, do your future self a favor and get it. My only regret is that I didn’t find it sooner. 10/10, a masterpiece of sleep engineering.”
It hasn’t been suitable for everyone, though, was one hoped it would be even thicker, writing: “This is a nice pillow but I’m not sure that it’s particularly good value for money. I’m a side sleeper so I would like it to be a little thicker. It might have been better to have bought the hybrid pillow.”
On that note, I do think it would be good to be able to purchase a bag of additional stuffing. It would be ideal for those who want extra padding, or would like to re-plump their pillow years down the line instead of buying a whole new one.
Another customer praised: “After years and a lot of money on pillows from the first night the aerodown pillow suited me and my partner. It’s comfy and supportive. Firm enough and also soft enough! Also doesn’t make you get a hot head all bonuses. Best pillow I have had for a very long time.”
If you’re someone who struggles to find the right pillow height or constantly flips to the cool side in the night, the Simba AeroDown is a smart, well-designed option that feels far more premium than its price tag suggests.
