BedGear Pillow Review
BedGear Pillow Thunder 1.0 Review
Disclaimer: I received a BedGear Pillow to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!
For those who know me, I'm very vocal about how seriously I take my sleep. I've had a lot of issues with restlessness over the years and have focussed a lot on trying to improve my sleep to make sure I'm feeling energized every day. Especially during training season, this is a must. I was pumped when I heard I was getting the opportunity to test out a BedGear pillow because I'd never heard of "Performance Bedding" before. So what exactly is performance bedding?
From the Website
"Our story starts close to home, with a fed-up father. Our CEO’s son had developed allergies, which required him to sleep on special hypoallergenic bedding. But the materials were hot and stuffy, and his nights actually got worse, not better. Frustrated by the lack of options available, Eugene cut up breathable lacrosse shorts and sewed them back together as sheets for his son’s bed. Turns out he was onto something—and performance bedding was born."
The Pillows
BedGear offers a variety of pillows so they've created a "Pillow ID" survey to help you find the perfect match to fit your specific needs. You answer a few basic questions about your sleep preferences, and BedGear will recommend the best pillow option. For me, my biggest issue tends to be how hot I get at night so they recommended the Thunder 1.0 from their Storm Series, specifically designed to keep you cool through the night.
The storm series pillows come in four sizes to help match your frame as well as your sleep position. I cannot overstate how comfortable the pillow is. It's got a foam base which gives the pillow a more supportive feel without being quite as firm or rigid as other foam pillows I've used in the past.
My Experience
Where I've really fallen in love with the BedGear Thunder 1.0 has been with the cooling technology. The outside fabric is made with heat-resistant fibers, the foam core is breathable, and there are panels built into the pillow to help vent warm air away from the body. For someone who is used to waking up sweating in the middle of the night, this has been a massive improvement in my sleep quality.
My BedGear pillow also couldn't have arrived at a better time. September is my busiest month of the year and I got the delivery notification as I was finishing up my third consecutive 12+ hour shift at work. I got home around 1 am, ripped the pillow out of the box, and slept soundly and comfortably for a good ten hours. My exhaustion was definitely a contributing factor, but damn that was one of the best nights of sleep I've had in a while.
The other night that really sticks out was the night of my Rock 'n' Roll Philly Half Marathon. I typically spend the night before a race tossing and turning with pre-race jitters, but with Philly, I slept like a baby. I brought my BedGear pillow with me on the trip and within minutes of my head hitting the pillow that night, I was out cold and slept straight through the night.
Sleeping Soundly
As I mentioned, I tend to take my sleep pretty damn seriously. I've gotten much better at keeping a more standardized sleep schedule over the last year or so, but I've continued to struggle with being able to sleep through the night.
Since switching to the BedGear pillow, I still have the occasional restless night, but I'm having a lot more consistency with my sleep throughout each night. There's nothing more frustrating for me at night than falling asleep early only to wake up an hour or so later tossing and turning. Thanks to BedGear those nights are becoming less and less frequent, and I'm finding myself way more energized waking up each morning.