Sleep. Ah…one amazing gift for parents. I wrote about my water pillow in 2017 but here I am in 2020 updating this article because it’s still the best pillow for me and I recently switched to the Mediflow Memory Foam Water Pillow.
This article has been updated in October 2020. Originally published in December 2017.
During the early newborn stages we were waking up for the feeds and then it turned into them sleeping through the night and us worrying about everything that could go wrong during their sleep. At the end of the day, sleep is something that can be easily affected by many things and when it comes to parents and sleep, there’s a whole lot more that prevents us from getting a good night’s sleep. Chris and I love to sleep. I mean like REALLY love it. I was known to have slept for 36 hours straight, not because I was sick, but simply because I wanted to. I miss those days!
Over the last 6 years since becoming a parent my sleep patterns have shifted drastically. I truly sleep like a baby!
Are you laughing at that phrase? Because I sure am!
Each baby sleeps differently and there’s no way to know what exactly one means when they use that phrase. One thing is for sure, sleeping like a baby means there’s no guarantee on how well you will sleep and you’re probably waking up a couple times for no rhyme or reason. Sometimes it’s triggered by the kids but most times, it’s not. At least not for me.
Disclosure : This post is in partnership with Mediflow but, as always, opinions are TOTALLY ours!
With my kids now being 4 and 6 years old, they have a regular sleep cycle (update : they’re now 7 and 9 and rarely bug us). On occasion they wake up in the middle of night and crawl into our beds but for the most part, they sleep from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. and on weekends we let them hangout a bit later in the hopes of them sleeping in. We’ve trained our kids to wake up on the weekends and hangout with their iPads so that Chris and I can snooze in until 10 a.m. (some days it’s until noon!).
I hear most moms blaming their lack of sleep on their kids. I don’t really have that excuse. Mine have slept well for the most part (of course we had numerous disturbances and I even wrote this about how our then 3 year old still woke up!). During our 148 day adventure we slept in the homes of strangers and I got to try various pillows and mattresses. Many weren’t that comfortable but we definitely enjoyed some amazing ones as well. Chris bought himself a pillow from Bed Bath & Beyond about 2 years ago and he really wanted to travel with it. He credited his healthy sleep cycle on that pillow and was disappointed when we couldn’t fit it into the 2 suitcases we traveled with for 5 months. Don’t worry, he survived the trip but was very glad to be back home and resting his head on his own pillow.
I on the other hand have still been erratic when it came to my sleep cycle (no I don’t own a fit bit to monitor my sleep patterns) but I was waking up in sweats or just tossing around at night. I had been tested for sleep apnea as well and my snoring was credited to a mild situation. The mask was not for me and so I gave up on that machine rather quickly. I then decided to experiment with pillows because surely the pillow plays a big part in this whole sleep business right? I did try Chris’s Comfort Revolution memory pillow which has a cooling gel but is was a bit too firm for my liking.
I experimented with a couple and ended up liking the MediFlow one the best. This is an interesting pillow because it actually has water IN it. Remember those waterbeds that were a fad when we were young? It’s similar to that. I was worried about leaks and spills but we’ve not even had a drop leake out in the last 2 months. The water level has also stayed consistent which is why their website recommends only changing the water once a year. Every Mediflow pillow has 2 layers – on the bottom our proprietary adjustable waterbase that provides responsive support for the neck – on top a soft, plump layer of our exclusive CombedLoft cloud-like polyester providing exceptional comfort for the head. You can even customize the waterbase when you add water to achieve as much support as you desire! I like that I was able to customize it and prefer the medium setting. Apparently Johns Hopkins University has done a study and also endorses the MediFlow pillow. You can also rest easy knowing that the Floating Comfort pillow comes with a 5 year quality warranty and a 60 day satisfaction guarantee.
I’ve been using the Floating Mediflow Waterbase pillow for about 2 months and it has solved four issues for me. No more night sweats (I was waking up with a soaked head – I was wondering if it was the onset of CRAZY early menopause) and no more neck aches. As someone who suffers from backaches, having neck issues was not something I enjoyed adding on. This pillow definitely has taken away the neck pain I had for the previous 5 months. I toss and turn a fair bit in my slumber but the pillow automatically adjusts and so there’s no neck pain when I wake up. In addition, I snore only on occasion now and I don’t wake up as many times during the middle of night as I don’t need to adjust my pillow or dab the sweat off my neck.
The original pillow I received in 2017 has been in use for the past three years but I recently switched to the newer Mediflow Memory Foam pillow which provides the comfort of the original water pillow with the addition of a memory foam top. What I like about this vs. Chris’ pillow is that the Mediflow one isn’t as tough, it’s better on my neck and helps immensely with my shoulder pain.
I do have a couple issues with the pillow of course! My main struggle is with the weight of the pillow. This isn’t one you can lug around easily as the water does make it heavy. The pillow comes with a small cone shaped device that allows you to pour your water in and I had Chris handle that part for me. It’s not the easiest thing to do as you need to ensure that there’s no air in there or else you’ll hear major swishing every time you toss around. We’ve managed to fill it properly (we believe) but can still hear some swishing at the medium height stage. I don’t mind the swishing as much though because it reminds me of sleeping by the ocean! In addition the spout you fill the water into does bulge out a bit and so if you’re someone like me who like to toss her arm under the pillow when she sleeps, you’ll occasionally bump into that piece.
Now, I’m not saying you’re guaranteed to have the best sleep ever by switching to this pillow, because let’s face it, everyone is different. The fact that you can customize this pillow to your liking via water levels and that it contours to your body with every single middle of the night shift, means that it might work better than others you’ve tried. It did for me.
