This Down-Alternative Bed Pillow Mimics Down So Well I Had to Double Check the Tag

Luxury bedding always comes down to down. Feather pillows have a fluff factor — a crinkly cloud you sink into — that synthetic stuffing just can’t replicate. However, as luxurious as they are, feather-down pillows come with a couple of red flags for sleepers. Goosedown is synonymous with heat insulation, making feather pillows far from the best cooling pillows for sleepers who run hot at night. Some people are irritated or allergic to feather-down bedding. (My wife is extremely sensitive to feather pillows and will wake up with her eyes swollen shut.) Other shoppers, vegan or not, want to decrease the number of animal products in their homes. No matter how hard manufacturers try to fake feathers with cotton batting, other natural fills or synthetic stuffing, down-alternative pillows usually fall flat or get annoyingly lumpy — until now. I’ve found the best down-alternative pillow, and it’s so good I thought I bought the real thing. Keep reading for why I’m obsessed with this down dupe and how this pillow perfectly mimics feather down.

Helix's Down-Alternative Dream Pillow

I recently went on a mattress quest and tried (and returned) several that didn't work for me. One of the mattresses I returned was the Helix Midnight, a mattress praised for its support for side sleepers, but one I found lacking. However, Helix often runs a promotion with its mattresses where you can get two free Dream Pillows with your purchase, and these pillows are the silver lining to the frustrating return process. I can’t swear off the brand because they make one of the best pillows on the internet: a down-alternative pillow that actually, near-perfectly mimics the texture, fluff and crinkle of a luxury feather pillow.

What Is the Helix Down-Alternative Dream Pillow Made Of?

The Dream Pillow is entirely vegan. The outer shell is made from cool, lightweight and 100-percent cotton at a 400 thread count, and the filling is made from a half-and-half blend of microfiber and polyester. There’s also about 2.6 pounds of this stuff stuffed in each pillow, making it incredibly dense and deliciously crinkly. You know the crinkle. There’s just something about how a feather-down pillow squishes, and this down-alternative material filling squishes and crinkles just like any feather pillow I’ve felt in a fancy hotel.

But the best part — and maybe another reason why you should switch to an alternative to down feathers — is that these pillows are machine washable. Remember my wife from earlier, the one with swollen eyelids? Yeah, feathers are just the beginning of her allergies so we try to keep the air quality and dust at bay in our home. Being able to wash pillows on a regular basis really helps us keep our bedding fresh and with fewer allergens on our faces at night. You can even put these babies in the dryer. Just wash on cold and tumble dry on low.

The Helix Dream Pillow's Quality + Care

The Dream Pillow is sold as a two-pack in both standard and king size. You can get a set for free if you order a Helix mattress, though I can’t say great things about the Midnight or the GlacioTex Cooling Cover. However, I will forever sing praises for the Dream Pillow even though the cost is fairly high compared to other synthetic pillows. A standard set is $150 which is $75 per pillow, and a king set is $155. It’s worth every penny for that faux feather crinkle.