Bedgear Night Ice Pillow Review: A Pillow Dedicated To Hot Sleepers

If you’ve ever woken up during the night and flipped your pillow to the “cold” side, you know that a cool pillow can send you back to dreamland—fast. But what if your sleep didn’t have to be interrupted for you to get that relieving feel? Turns out, there are effective cooling pillows out there that stay cool all night. If you’re prone to sweaty sleep, a cooling pillow can help keep your temp down and promote comfier rest. I had the chance to test the Bedgear Night Ice Performance Pillow every night for a month and a half. Bedgear put in some serious work to give this pillow cooling superpowers. It’s optimized for airflow, packed with cooling gel and layered with cooling technology. Check out my full Bedgear Night Ice Performance Pillow review to understand how it’s made, how it works and whether it’s worth trying.

Our Bedgear Night Ice Pillow review details our experience with the pillow after more than a month and a half sleeping with it.

ILLUSTRATION: FORBES / PHOTO: RETAILER

I welcomed the cooling pillow experiment, even though I’ve been disappointed with this type of pillow in the past. I wanted to see if it would keep me from waking up too hot, especially when I turned off the air conditioner and fan. While I’m not sure it was the right firmness level for me, this pillow did have a few highlights.

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Bedgear Night Ice Performance Pillow Features

Cooling Pillow Technology

Cooling technology might sound fancy, but what does “cooling tech” actually mean? I found an entire page dedicated to the tech on the brand’s website, and according to brand, this pillow has several layers of cooling technology that helps draw heat away and deliver instant coolness.

• Ver-Tex instant-cooling removable cover: Ver-Tex is a silk-like fabric that’s knitted with metallic fibers to deflect heat. Like silk, this fabric wicks away moisture from the body, helps regulate body temperature and provides air circulation.
• React crown: Inside is a breathable memory foam material that’s infused with cooling gel to regulate temperature.
• Air-X mesh and vents: Air-X mesh is a fabric made with spring-like yarn so that there’s plenty of room for airflow and ventilation between the fibers.
• React blend fill with ICE active core: A breathable, memory foam fill that is mixed with silk-like fibers.

The most noticeable of the tech is the instant-cooling cover. It’s noticeably cool to the touch. Have you ever left a pillow in your car overnight during the winter? This pillow kind of feels like that, but all of the time. As a combination sleeper, I toss and turn throughout the night, and when I’m up, I always search for the coldest point of the pillow to help me fall back asleep. I didn’t have to do much searching with this pillow.

Breathability

Bedgear advertises that one of this pillow’s main features is its breathability. As I’ve learned from testing many pillows and mattresses, breathability often equals cooling. This is why traditional memory foam mattresses have a reputation for being too hot for some people—they’re dense and don’t breathe well.

Digging into the tech, this pillow is made from a proprietary memory foam that has silk-like fibers for better breathability. It’s also made with yarn that’s modeled after a spring (like a coil) so there is no room for airflow. No matter what type of pillowcase I put on the pillow it always felt cool, so I’d have to agree that it seemed to have great breathability.

Conforming Support

Support is key in promoting a neutral spinal alignment while you sleep, but this pillow may have provided a little too much support for my own habits. I tried the medium-height model, which was great for propping my head up to read a book in bed. However, I found it way too firm for me as a combination sleeper. A back or side sleeper, on the other hand, might find the medium-height option more comfortable. Luckily, the pillow is sold in three different heights, so you have options. The memory foam material itself, though, is ultra comfortable because it’s cooling and works to contour around the curves your head and neck.

Washable Cover

A washable cover is a definite bonus. I’m notorious for taking my bed pillow on camping trips and other outdoor adventures, so I appreciate a cover that I can easily keep clean. Although, I thought the pillow cover was super scratchy. I initially used a pillow case that was slightly too small, so the edge of the pillow popped out the side. Whenever my face touched the pillow cover by accident, it wasn’t very comfortable. However, if I used a pillow case that was the right size, this wouldn’t have been an issue.

My Expertise

I’m a Forbes Vetted contributor with years of research and writing experience. My recent work includes a roundup of the best mattresses for college students, the best loft beds and a guide to choosing a mattress based on sleep style and budget. I specialize in testing sleep products, and have spent many hours trying out different pillow styles, mattresses, cooling bedding technology, and sleep meditation devices. My sleep-focused writing can also be found on sites like Shape, GQ, SELF and Business Insider.

Final Thoughts

I tested this pillow every night for one and a half months. I used it to prop up my head while reading in bed, and I used it for sleeping. With the pillow I tried a silk pillowcase, a linen pillowcase and a cotton pillowcase. I didn’t feel much of a difference between the utility, except that it was slightly colder with the silk pillowcase.

I took a look at Bedgear’s Night Ice Performance Pillow reviews on their website, and honestly, they were pretty bad. After testing it out for myself, I really disagreed with most of them. I thought the pillow was cooling to the touch and throughout the night. While I did find it a bit bulky, and it’s quite expensive, I think it’s worth a shot if you’re a hot sleeper who’s looking for solutions.