Sleep is so vital to our physical health and mental well-being, both short-term and long-term.
We know now that the sleep portion of the old saying that is attributed to Benjamin Franklin – “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” doesn’t mean much, especially since Franklin himself had problems with insomnia and didn’t take his own questionable advice.
The important thing according to an overwhelming mountain of research is to get regular, consistent and good quality sleep of eight hours at roughly the same time each night. For some people that is indeed getting to bed early, others not so much and you have to find what works best for you and sometimes ignore the advice of others, like ol’ Ben in this case.
I’ve really worked hard at improving my sleep. I grew up being a very, very bad sleeper due to many factors. But over time I have improved my sleep dramatically – by making sure that I am in a quiet noise-free environment, sleep on a high-quality mattress, get regularly scheduled sleep of eight hours, used an automatic blue light setting on any devices I use near sleep time, watch what I eat close to bedtime, and use a sleep machine (an excellent one that my wife got me that electronically simulates the white noise of a fan).
Normally I sleep with a conventional memory foam pillow, which works fine. But I have wanted to try something a little different for quite a while now so I was happy to give this pillow a try, in my continuing quest to tweak my sleep patterns and give myself the best sleep possible.
Hence this evaluation/review of the DOSII Ergonomic Orthopedic Memory Foam Pillow. It and others that are pretty similar or somewhat similar get some pretty good reviews.
Looking at it this pillow – it may look almost futuristic or like a novelty. But wow – one night of sleep with it and I was sold on it. Is it my imagination or not? I can’t say, I can only give you my opinion.
Firstly, someone really put some thought into designing the pillow, perhaps someone with some knowledge of sleep science, I think.
I can’t think of any better word than ‘optimal’ for good sleep when using it. Anyway, on to the review.
Unboxing it, the pillow is compressed somewhat tightly into a containing bag inside the box and once you take it out of the bag it begins to expand right away.
The first thing you notice is that it is soft yet firm. It really looks high quality, I really thought that for the price it looks even more expensive, with expert double stitching and such. The whole thing is just over three and a half pounds and feels pretty substantial.
The only negative was a slight odor, but the instructions mention it goes away after a bit and it wasn’t strong enough nor unpleasant enough to affect me. And I have a pretty good sense of smell.
I tried it first as a pillow for my head while propped against the top of the couch when watching tv. The depression in the middle nicely cradled my head and kind of stabilized it. The memory foam seems just the right firmness, not too much and not too little (like my more conventional memory foam pillow that seems too squashed when I put my head on it).
In short order, I think the DOSII Pillow had expanded to its full size, though previously it had seemed to have expanded fully within a few minutes of taking it out of the bag.
Moving the pillow to the bed I considered putting it into the regular pillow case but left it as-is, at least for the time being (later I did test it for fit in the conventional-sized pillow cover and it fit fine, with a bit of maneuvering).
I proceeded to lie down and put my head in it. It was, well, almost luxurious. Normally I’d think of using that word for a big overly fluffy pillow but this felt that way without the whole big and fluffy part.
Again, the depression in the middle nicely cradled my head – whether I was laying on my back or on my side.
The memory foam underneath was, as I had found earlier while using it on the couch; soft but firm and yielding, and also – as good memory foam does – conformed nicely to my head without letting me sink in too far. The memory foam in it seems to be of a high quality, without the feeling of it being cheap and ‘memory foam’ in name only.
I thought at first that the pillow was way too thin but after using it I realized that with other pillows I had been using I had perhaps been using too much padding or I had been using two pillows at once and added an angle to my neck that I shouldn’t have. Because this felt much more right.
Still, it was just a tad bit too thin and needed a thin pad underneath but so does my old memory foam pillow. So I used the same for that as my old one. I didn’t need an entire pillow, it would have been too much, just a folded-up lap blanket did well.
For those smaller than me it wouldn’t need anything, I don’t believe. For bigger people it might need more of a pad as it is not real thing by any stretch, but thin enough.
Now, sleep quality can sometimes be a matter of opinion. Sure, I can check my watch and such, but for just plain overall quality I think it’s a matter of personal opinion sometimes.
And while I didn’t have any tremendously super-duper life-changing change in my sleep – I could feel how much better it was for me to sleep. In fact, I thought at first after the first night with it that it was just a coincidence. But it wasn’t, I felt the same each night. Again, it wasn’t a life-changing super-pillow experience 😉 But it did feel more comfortable and just overall better.
So it just is so comfortable and it seems to be this pillow has improved my sleeping a bit, which to me means a lot.
I rarely sleep on my back and now I have started sleeping on my back a little more than I used to be, because of the increased comfort in doing so with this pillow.
The padded bumps on the sides hold my head in place well, keeping me from “sleep slouching” if that makes any sense. Yet they are very soft so if I really want to I can rest my head directly on them. These ‘bumps’ on either side of the top are a soft padding, not memory foam like the rest of the pillow so while they are softer you can put your head on them without any resistance if needed, but they act as a guide otherwise. In other words, the hollow in the middle isn’t so restrictive that you can’t use the entire width of the pillow to rest your head on.
I can’t comment on how well it works when sleeping on my belly as I don’t ever sleep that way.
As I said above there is a slight odor when first opening up the package, not off-putting really but there is a definite odor, at least with mine. It takes a while to get rid of, I think maybe washing the pillow covering would help or perhaps putting it in a pillowcase. I did neither and it took perhaps a week for this to fully go away, keeping in mind that I have a sensitive nose so while I smelled the faint odor; it wasn’t enough to bother me in any way.
I also thought at first that I would have a hard time slipping my hand underneath, which is a way I sleep often. But the memory foam conforms nicely to my hand when it is underneath the pillow too, absorbing my hand under it without creating a bump or anything discernable on the top where my head is, unlike other memory foam pillows.
There is also a ‘tab’ of sorts at the bottom middle, which creates a neck rest right below the level of the head or so. It is barely noticeable but soft, and perhaps it even helps to keep it all in place.
On the back is a nice quality zipper for taking the cover off to clean it. It’s pretty easy to get out and back in.
Also, my wife has matching pillow covers for the bed and this fits fine in the pillow cover as I mentioned above. Despite the bumps and shapes it’s still somewhat a standard size. I didn’t keep the pillow case on it while evaluating it.
The other thing that I want to note here is that it is very neutral when it comes to heat or cold. I’m not sure if that’s the right word really. Unlike other pillows – conventional as well as memory pillows – the DOSII Pillow does not get too hot while I am sleeping, nor too cold. Sometimes I might tend to sweat a bit if I have too many covers over me or whatever, but not always, and normally the pillow just makes this worse where my head is against it.
And weirdly, almost magically; it stays a neutral non-warm and non-cold temperature. But on cold nights it didn’t get cold either. I think this is what it means by the description ‘breathable’.
The info about the pillow also mentions things like it being made of silk fiber, microfiber, natural bamboo and such. And also that it is hypoallergenic, which I know is very important to many people. I don’t know about any of that but it is good to know and I have no reason to think otherwise.
The company does give a 30-day worry-free refund, which I think is important if you happen to get it and really don’t like it, and a year warranty. So if you try it out and it doesn’t work out there’s a nice no-questions-asked return policy, and here in the US it’s free returns within 30 days of purchase.
After a number of weeks of trying the pillow my opinion is just the same and has not changed in the least, as I said above I seem to have a slightly better night of sleep and it is so comfortable putting my head down on this pillow. The odor did take a bit to dissipate and is now gone.
Taking a chance on this pillow really worked out. I would have never thought that a pillow design would make much of a difference in my sleeping and really, this design seems to be well thought out and works really well. Definitely worth checking out if you need a new pillow and don’t mind what is perhaps a somewhat steep price, though any higher quality ergonomic pillow doesn’t seem to be cheap. In this case it seemed to be a matter of getting the high quality that I paid for.
If you’re in the market for a nicer pillow, something ergonomic and comfortable then maybe check out the DOSII Ergonomic Orthopedic Memory Foam Pillow, I hope you’ll like it as well as I do.
