Is a Shredded Memory Foam Pillow Better?

Traditional memory foam pillow filling is pretty neat! If you’ve ever felt it, you know what I mean. It has a magical sort of texture that uniquely conforms to pressure.

This magical memory foam characteristic is called visco-elasticity

Memory foam has the viscous properties of water, but the elastic feel of traditional poly foams. These unique characteristics are what makes memory foam pillows so popular. If you rest your head on one, the memory foam will compresses and conform perfectly to the shape of your body. When the pressure on the pillow is released, the memory foam slowly resets itself and changes back to its original rectangular shape.

This makes memory foam very good for:

• Providing even, comfortable support and
• Distributing your body’s weight, eliminating pressure points.

Traditional memory foam pillows are unfortunately NOT moldable

Most mass-produced memory foam pillows consist of a single piece of foam. This is considered a substantial disadvantage by many users, myself included. No matter how you fluff, smoosh, squash, scrunch or sculpt this solid piece of memory foam, it will always revert to its original rectangular shape. If it feels uncomfortable, you can’t alter its shape to better accommodate your sleeping style like you can with other pillow types.

Shredded memory foam pillows, however, ARE moldable

As its name implies, “shredded” memory foam filling is simply torn into tiny pieces. The individual pieces of foam move independently, allowing the pillow to be moldable. You can sculpt it much like a down pillow—it will shift and change into whatever shape you desire.

I ordered some shredded memory foam to try for myself

I already had a nice zippered pillow case, so I just ordered a bag of shredded memory foam to fill it. I’m not one to complain about a few extra dollars for something that you spend a third of your life on, but if you’re shopping for pillow filling strictly based upon price, you should know that you’ll pay a bit more more for shredded memory than poly fiberfill or other more cost-effective fillings.

*Note* Shredded memory foam pillows are often marketed as “bamboo pillows.” Why? Because bamboo sounds like an environmentally responsible, safe component to use in a pillow. Marketers love to use the word bamboo in their product descriptions; it appeals to eco-conscious consumers. So where’s the bamboo? The truth is in the fine print: apparently their rayon fabric case is derived from bamboo.