Apr 5, 2006

Hotel Pillows & Comfort

The comfort of a hotel pillow can be a major factor in the overall impression of a vacation for me, since it affects the quality of my sleep and my alertness the next day. But, of course, there are plenty of people who just lay down, turn off their bedside lamp, and bam! Sound asleep. Putting aside my deep, deep jealousy of these instant-sleepers, I have to wonder: Is it me? Am I some kind of princess-and-the-pea woman who needs the perfect bed, blanket and pillow arrangement before sleep finds me?

A quick search online seems to prove I am not alone. Well over ten million hits for "pillow" + "comfort" indicate that a good night's sleep for many people is impacted by the quality of their pillows. Further, what makes a pillow comfortable is a matter of opinion, right? Some people prefer very soft and squishy pillows, some relatively firm ones. And a pillow that seems great at one time may not quite cut it the next. I recently bought a "Nap" pillow at Brookstone, because it conformed so well to my head at the store that I was tempted to curl up right there on the massage chair and catch some Z's. Unfortunately, some kind of chemical alteration in its infrastructure must have occured (the only plausible inference!) because when I tried it out at home, the magic was gone. That poor pillow is now collecting dust in my linen closet, and my search continues.

For those of you who can sleep sitting up on a rock, well, that's very nice for you. It certainly would make my travel experiences better if I could learn to emulate your obvious talents, but it just isn't going to happen. Yet. In the meantime, I will still do my best to seek out hotels whose managers put obvious thought into the quality of the beds and pillows. When I'm well-rested, I'm a happier person, and therefore so is everyone else around me!