Customer Reviews

Organic Buckwheat Pillow - Twin/ Standard Size (20" x 26")

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I first started using a buckwheat pillow about 10 years ago when I saw an "infomercial" about them on TV and then picked one up from the "As Seen On TV" section of my local Walgreens. The pillow I bought then was of poor quality but, even so, it made a world of difference in how well I slept. Some folks will try a buckwheat pillow and put their head on it and say "It's too hard" and then go back to their regular pillow. That's a mistake. Sure, a buckwheat pillow isn't soft (and a good sized one is pretty darned heavy), but that's what makes them work. A soft regular pillow can't provide the support that one of these does! What I usually do is make a dent in the pillow for my head and then wiggle my head around a bit to get it settled in. The buckwheat hulls move around and support my neck and head wonderfully. Now you may think that a firm regular pillow--or one of those "memory foam" pillows--would do the same and you're kind of right. The difference with those pillows is that, while they provide more support, they do not provide the air circulation that a buckwheat pillow does and, as a result, your head gets hot and uncomfortable. I don't quite understand how a buckwheat pillow promotes air circulation, but it does. The only warning about a buckwheat pillow is that once you get used to them, it's difficult to get a really good night's sleep on anything else. That's why I bought a smaller-sized one (the "Japanese size") for travel. Unfortunately, my 8 year old son has now decided it's going to be his, so I'll have to buy another one. The buckwheat pillows made by Beans72 are absolutely first-rate in every respect and the quick shipping means a better night's sleep is even more quickly at hand.

I have 4 bulging discs in my neck and 4 bulging discs in my lower back, and until now I have never truly experienced a great night's sleep. And there are few things better in life than a good night's sleep, so it's important to find just the right pillow that will support and pamper your head and neck in just the right ways. Well, after a lifetime of looking I finally found the perfect pillow with all the right therapeutic properties! THANK YOU BEANS72!

As most of you already know, most pillows are filled with feathers, fiberfill, or poly-foam; instead this hand crafted pillow is filled with hypoallergenic buckwheat hulls. During sleep the small buckwheat hulls shift inside the case to match the exact contour of your neck and head. The even support means no more cramps or muscle tension, both of which are known to contribute to more headaches and more stress.

Thank you once more for making my life bearable again!

PS: *PLEASE READ* - I learned my lesson the hard way BEFORE I purchased my first QUALITY pillow from BEANS72.

I was really desperate from my back pain and wanted relief, I had heard about buckwheat pillows on TV and without doing any research I purchased a very cheap "As seen on TV" type pillow.

All I can tell you is that I have never been more disappointed in my entire life! The pillow had been shipped to the USA from over seas, the fabric was of poor quality, the zipper was of poor quality, the buckwheat hulls were of poor quality - they were dirty and there were many small broken pieces, and then to make things even worse, the entire pillow had been FUMIGATED! Shame on me, I learned my lesson, I knew then and I know now that "You get what you pay for". When you buy cheap you get cheap...only worse when I think about it, can you imagine laying your face on a dirty, FUMIGATED pillow and breathing whatever it was fumigated with for 8 hours per night?


Thank you for this FORUM Amazon.

Jack Perry
Real Name without the badge.

THE BACKSTORY AND WHY I OPTED TO USE THIS PILLOW:
Eons ago, the pillow I slept with didn't matter.
However with a minor neck issue that reoccurs, some problems with my jaw and reoccurring migraines, my neck has become a hot spot of issues.
I have gone through the orthopedic pillows at $35-$50 a pop as well as inexpensive foam and feather pillows. Finally I had the opportunity to use a buckwheat pillow at a hotel in Japan. At the time, I thought it was the strangest thing. Felt like a pillow filled with little beads. The one I had was quite full as well and that makes it very hard.
My first purchased Buckwheat pillow was a cheap one advertised on TV and was quite empty, but it gave me a flavor of what one would be like. I decided since the experience was in the direction of goodness to bite the bullet and get this one.

So far, I like it.

This pillow is quite full. Not as full as the Japanese one, which is a good thing, because the fuller a pillow is, the harder it is. So if you don't like the hardness you can remove some of the buckwheat hulls and put them aside in a ziplock bag. I understand after you use the pillow a bit, the buckwheat wears down and you might want to return some.

Some points to ponder though:

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE:
Imagine you are sleeping on sand and under your pillow case is something you can shape. This is really the magic of a buckwheat pillow. It does not flex easy. You can shape a mound to support your neck, or a dishing out so you can sleep with your hands tucked up by your face.

NOISE:
When you move the pillow around with your ear on it, you can hear the grinding of the hulls on one another. It has never disturbed anyone sleeping with me, but I can hear it quite well.

TEMPERATURE:
If your head overheats, this pillow is cooler than a traditional foam or feather pillow and makes it nice to sleep with.

ODOR:
As I have allergies and often no sense of smell, I can't speak to any odor it might have. I thought one day I detected a slight odor, kind of a woody grass type of smell, but I'm not sure. I'm stating this as one reviewer complained about a strong odor. I don't feel it has a strong odor, but it might have a slight one.

SIZE:
For me the standard size worked best as I have a mix of Standard and Queen pillow cases. Each person might be unique here. If you use this for traveling, you might opt for a smaller size.

This pillow took a night or two to get used to. It does mold to your head and neck whether you sleep on your side or back. The pillow feels hard but with the molding to your body it is comfortable. My arms don't fall asleep or tingle like they do without it. I do like this pillow.

I suffered neck pain for the last 6 months. I have been seeing a chiropractor during that time and he recomended a buckwheat pillow. I now can sleep through the night without waking to an aching neck. It takes some getting used to at first but stick with it and you'll be happy you did. The company shipped it quickly with no problems.

This is my first review, and can't wait to tell you how impressed I am at how MY SLEEP LIFE HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED BY THIS PILLOW!! I purchased mine from the Beans72 Website. First of all - I was very excited to see such quality fabric and stitching, as well as how full the pillow was when it arrived! I decided to protect the pillow by placing a few zippered cotton pillowcases over it, which helped to soften the surface a bit too. At first, I thought it felt wonderfully supportive, and began sleeping on it immediately. Since the hulls in these pillows are all FLATTENED (most other brands are not - I checked around), the sound they made was actually quite soft and soothing when I moved. It did not bother me or my husband at all. Neither of us noticed any scent that would be offensive.

For the first week or so, I left the original amount of hulls in the pillow. Upon waking on my back each morning with the new pillow, I would notice that my neck would be sore. And when waking up on my side, my ears would often hurt. I also never really tried to adjust the pillow with my arms throughout the night, but formed my head into it when I first went to bed. I was beginning to get a bit frustrated with this pillow, and would go back to my original feather pillow periodically. I really WANTED this pillow to work!!! So, after the first week, I started experimenting each night with various amounts of hulls (measuring how much I was taking out with a measuring cup and ziplock bags and taking notes so I could remember what I did). I know this sounds like a lot of work, but IT WAS WORTH IT!! It took approximately one month of nightly trials and some tedious measuring/counting until I realized that the pillow needed to be quite flat for my neck/ears not to hurt (58 cups, exactly).

WHAT I LEARNED (and your experience my be different, of course): I found out that, because the pillow has such GOOD support, if the pillow is TOO HIGH, you WILL likely get sore ears while lying on your side, and a sore neck when lying on your back from the weight of your body pulling your head against the pillow (not right away, but while you're sleeping). If the pillow is TOO LOW, you will most likely be struggling for support and comfort throughout the night. (For those of you who love buckwheat hull pillows, you probably already know how important it is to adjust the amount of hulls to customize your pillow to fit your size and method of sleeping, but for those of you that have never slept on one before - like me - this is something I had to learn from experience. And I'm SO GLAD I did!) I found that the pillow needs to start out flat and at an appropriate height for sleeping on your back (with some of the pillow sitting up to or just under the top of your shoulders to create a wedge that will conform to your neck). Then when you turn to the side, you can grab the pillow and squish it so it becomes higher for sleeping on your side, just as one does with a normal soft pillow. (The difference is that your head STAYS PUT on a buckwheat hull pillow, whereas your head SINKS into a regular polyester or feather pillow). When the buckwheat pillow was too full, I could not adjust it with my arms, as it was too heavy for me, besides being too high all around. I did try to prove this to myself by pouring back some of the hulls into the pillow, and as soon as it got to the point where it was too high, my neck and ears would start hurting again. And when I took the hulls back out . . . VOILA - PERFECT SLEEPING COMFORT!!!! IT'S BEEN OVER A YEAR NOW, AND I STILL LOVE THIS PILLOW! At first, I found myself missing the fluffiness of my feather pillows, but after a few months of receiving the benefits of this pillow, going back to my old pillows felt weird, unsupportive, and inefficient for sleeping! I'll NEVER GO BACK!!

HERE ARE SOME EXTRA BENEFITS OF OWNING A BEANS72 BUCKWHEAT HULL STANDARD-SIZED PILLOW:
1) I found that once I get into position to sleep on this pillow, I only move a few times, if any, during the night, OFTEN, waking up in the same position I went to sleep in!! It's that good!!
2) After removing the right amount of the hulls, the pillow was lighter and easier to adjust/squish/cuddle with during the night!!
3) After removing the hulls, I was able to make a smaller travel pillow, with hulls to spare.
4) Even though I was able to make a travel pillow, I still take my standard-sized pillow along on trips in a tote. I usually set it on my lap, and use it as an arm rest/lap desk/calming weight while in the car. It actually helps me to sit up straighter and more comfortably!! It makes reading magazines and books much easier!! I use the travel pillow behind my head.
5) As soon as I adjusted the pillow to the correct height for me, my neck (which suffered whiplash years ago and was in pain often) literally became a non-issue for me!! No more pain!! Same with my back!
6) As others have mentioned, the pillow can be folded for sitting up to read or watch TV. In addition, I find that I can prop myself up in the side sleeping position and read just fine, as the pillow holds your head in place!
7) Also, as mentioned before, the pillow can be used as a weapon, if needed : ).
8) I found that if there is any part of the pillow pushing on my face that I don't like, I just take my fingers and indent that area, and, TA-DA, it disappears! No more morning wrinkles from fluffy pillows smushing your face!!
9) Since the hulls are FLATTENED, they do not settle very much or break apart - when I remeasured after a year of daily use, I only had to add one cup, and there was VERY LITTLE BREAKAGE, just a bit more dust inside the pillow, which can be shaken out when cleaning.
10) Lastly (and this is the BEST PART - for me, that is) - after almost a year, my husband decided to try the pillow, and BAM - unexpectedly - besides him liking it - there was LITTLE to NO SNORING!!! LITTLE to NO MOVEMENT!! He sleeps so sound and quietly now, I'm in heaven! No more waking up and jabbing him to stop snoring! He's got a pillow of his own now (58 cups of hulls works for him too)!!

Things to note:
1) I would not advise sleeping on your stomach with this pillow, as, with most pillows, it causes your lower back to sway and, eventually, hurt (unless you push most of the hulls to the side, so your head is not lifted too high). Ideally, you should push the pillow aside or in front of your head and set your face directly on the bed to sleep on your stomach, so that you're flat. Of course, it's best not to sleep on your tummy at all, if you can help it.
2) Although, there is no smell or allergens from the hulls when the pillow is covered/zipped, once you start removing/adding/measuring the hulls, there will be some dust, which, in my case, caused me to sneeze and get watery eyes. BUT, as soon as the pillow is zipped up and covered again, it all goes away.
3) If you go to sleep with your hair wet, as I do periodically, I would recommend putting a breathable waterproof cover over the pillow to protect the hulls from getting damp/wet. The only one I could find that was "breathable" AND "waterproof" was about $20.00 at Slumberland. It should last a long time, though, and keep me and my pillow happy : ). If you do not get a breathable one, I would suspect that your head would sweat, and that it wouldn't be good for the hulls to not have circulation.
4) For some people, I'm sure little or no adjustments will need to be made to their pillow, as their shoulders may be wider or their bed softer, and a higher/more full pillow will suit them fine. Maybe you will need to add even more hulls, as some of you have mentioned. I just wanted to let everyone know that adjusting - and, sometimes, REALLY adjusting - the amount of hulls in the pillow will help you to get the benefits out of this pillow if you haven't already. Especially, if your neck/ears are hurting. It is SOOOOOOO worth it! : )
5) I had tried the Tempurpedic Symphony pillow before this, but found it to be too high, and NOT adjustable. My neck hurt using this pillow, and my head would sweat. And since I sleep on my sides and back, I would have to wake up and flip the pillow to the appropriate side during the night to use it appropriately (one side is for side sleeping and the other side is for back sleeping) and it was too heavy to do that, which hurt my neck even more!! It also could not be manipulated/squished/cuddled really. Before that pillow, I had a feather pillow. And before that I had a polyester-fill pillow.
6) I also wanted to mention that of the two sizes of buckwheat hull pillows (Japanese or standard), I like the standard size, as I feel it is more adjustable to my needs while I'm sleeping/reading/watching TV, as there is more their for you to grab and to work/snuggle with, and it can be folded : ). But the smaller one works great too - more air space around your head, and VERY PORTABLE.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

I have been having neck pain and morning headaches for many years due to poor neck support while I sleep. I wanted to buy one of these pillows for years, but never wanted to "risk" that much on a pillow that I wasn't sure would even help me. I finally had enough and ordered this buckwheat pillow, which I have been enjoying for the past 5 months. Not a single time have I woken up with neck pain or a headache since I got this pillow. My neck feels loose and I feel more refreshed in the mornings. On top of that, it stays cool and sweating has not been a problem. I only wish I had purchased this years ago. I want to address some of the points made by other reviewers.

1. The pillow is fairly heavy and might be difficult to move around for a person of small stature.
2. I did notice a slight scent for the first week, though it was not very strong.
3. The pillow is pretty loud at first, but you get used to it after a week or so.
4. The pillow is very firm, but it's not uncomfortable. As one reviewer stated, it feels like when you're laying on the beach and you mold some sand under your towel to support your head. I must admit that I was a bit surprised by the firmness at first as well, but now I don't know that could ever enjoy anything else.

Pros:

- Very supportive, molds to your head and neck.
- Stays cool...I have only had to flip it a few times in 5 months.
- Helps me sleep through the night.
- High quality materials...this pillow is built to last.
- You can push the husks around and mold them to meet your specific needs.
- Fits standard pillow cases...I use two(in opposite directions) for added firmness.
- The price...I would pay this price a thousand more times before going back to a regular soft pillow.

Cons:

- The pillow is heavy and may be difficult for some people to move around while using it.
- The noise was distracting to the point where I thought I would wake my wife, though she stated that she didn't hear a thing. I quickly became tollerant of the noise and was not bothered by it after a week or two.


Bottom line, I love this pillow and highly recommend this to anyone who needs a pillow that provides head/neck support. As stated above, this pillow takes some time to get used to, but just stick with it and your head/neck/body will thank you.

UPDATE 4/16/2011

Ok, so i've been using this pillow for over a year now and still love it, but I wanted to make a few points based on my experiences since my last review.

My pillow is still in near perfect condition after daily use for over a year. I'm a pretty heavy night sweater and this pillow stays much cooler than most others, but I do have to flip the pillow from time to time. Also, the cover has become discolored as a result of the sweating, but that is common with every pillow I have ever used. If you're planning on washing the cover, do yourself a favor and use a big bucket to hold the husks...I made the mistake of using a pillow case and made a big mess. I have also noticed that the pillow seems to be a little less firm than when I first got it, but I don't know if that's because the husks have lost their fullness or if maybe it just seems less firm because i'm acclimated to it now. I guess it could also have something to do with the mess described above...LOL. At any rate, the pillow is still pretty awesome.

Now, I must admit that I had to abandon this pillow on a few occasions over the past year. A few times I came home from work with a stiff neck and pounding headache and all I wanted to do was lay my head on something soft. The other time was about a week stretch where I was sick with the flu and again just wanted something soft and fluffy. So, I guess what i'm trying to say is that this pillow rocks, but not for headaches and illness. I keep a couple soft pillows around for those bad days.

This is my first buckwheat pillow. I purchased it because for several months (and after purchasing a new mattress) I still woke up with neck and shoulder pain, so I thought I'd give this pillow a try. I was concerned about the review here that states that "buckwheat hulls have quite a strong smell to them." I'm pretty sensitive to smells but I can't detect an odor at all (now we live in a dry climate; maybe it's different in a humid climate). After using the pillow for about a week, my neck and shoulder pains were gone. I still can't quite believe it. This pillow is amazing. I had also purchased the travel-size pillow, on which I let my 2 1/2-year-old sleep. He likes it so much he's sleeping on it every night now.

not only does this pillow offer superior support, environmental friendliness, and a weapon right under your head as you sleep (it's heavier than a bag of phone books), you can mold it so it acts like two pillows or one pillow, i.e. you can sleep on the thinnest of thinness or raise yourself up to a reading position, all without folding or unfolding the pillow. gotta love them hulls! it really is like a swiss army pillow, one that bars needing any others at all, ever. really.

EDIT: When I first received this pillow, I was very pleased with it and wrote a glowing review just like some of the others on here. After owning this product for a number of months now, I'm not as happy with it and have moved on. I changed the setup of my mattress (to be softer) and I couldn't get the pillow to work for me as well. There are two fundamental flaws in the design of the buckwheat pillow (and not specific to this brand, which are very well made BTW). The first is that the thickness and the firmness are linked - therefore, increase one and you increase the other. This was frustrating when I realized I wanted it firmer but not thicker. The other flaw is that it settles over the course of the night, allowing your head to sink further into it. This means that A). you start the night comfortable, with your head at the right height, but then wake up in the morning with a cricked neck, or B). you start the night with the pillow feeling too full and firm, but wake up at the right height in the morning. Now A is not even an option, so I went for B, but I had trouble falling asleep with the pillow feeling too stuffed, even if it meant that I woke in the morning feeling good. So, in short, this is a well-made product, but I couldn't get it to work for me. I would've given it two stars, but considering the quality, it gets 3. Oh, and get the smaller Japanese size - it's plenty big enough, and you'll save money on the buckwheat.

At the moment, I'm using a Select Comfort pillow (the guys who do the Sleep Number beds) that I'm very happy with. It's modular with a number of different options - recommended!