Emma Adapt Cooling Pillow Review
A foam pillow with a cooling treatment, and pillows are the one place where surface cooling genuinely does more than it does on a mattress.
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Verdict
A foam pillow with a cooling treatment, and pillows are the one place where surface cooling genuinely does more than it does on a mattress. The reason is that your face is against it, and you turn the pillow over, which resets the effect in a way you cannot do with a mattress.
Buy it if
You sleep hot at the head and neck specifically, and you want an adjustable foam pillow that stays cooler than plain foam.
Avoid it if
You want the coolest pillow available. A natural fibre pillow with an open fill will beat foam with a treatment.
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| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Foam pillow with a cooling surface treatment |
| Why pillows differ from mattresses | You can turn a pillow over, which resets the cool surface |
| Limitation | Foam retains heat. The treatment addresses the surface, not the fill. |
| Best paired with | A breathable pillowcase. A cheap polyester case undoes the treatment. |
The scores
A genuine improvement on plain foam, and not the coolest option available.
Foam plus a treatment costs more than a naturally cooler fill.
Holds height reasonably. Expect some settling across the night.
Foam holds height consistently, which is the argument for it.
Real, and it is where a pillow treatment works better than on a mattress.
Some scope to change the height, but not freely.
Foam is not washable. The cover usually is. Check before ordering.
Foam still retains heat. Turning it over is doing half the work.
Why cooling works better on a pillow than a mattress
I have been consistently sceptical about cooling covers on mattresses, so it is worth explaining why a pillow is a different case.
On a mattress, a cooling treatment conducts heat away from your skin at the point of contact. The heat then needs somewhere to go, and in foam there is nowhere: it moves a few centimetres and stops. So the surface is cool when you lie down and warm by the middle of the night, and you cannot do anything about it.
On a pillow, you can. You turn it over. That puts the unheated side against your face and the effect starts again. Most people do this instinctively several times a night without thinking about why.
So a cooling treatment on a pillow is genuinely useful, because the reset is built into how the product is used. It is one of the few places in bedding where a surface treatment earns its price.
Your pillowcase can undo the whole thing
The layer nobody accounts for
Whatever cooling treatment a pillow has, you are not sleeping on it. You are sleeping on a pillowcase.
A cheap polyester case is an insulating layer between your face and the cooling surface you paid for. It also holds moisture against the skin rather than moving it, which is the thing people actually notice as feeling hot.
Use cotton percale, or a lyocell or bamboo case. The case costs a fraction of the pillow and has more effect on how the pillow feels than the treatment does.
What is actually cooler than treated foam
If temperature at the head is your main problem, the fill matters more than the treatment.
Down and feather breathe considerably better than foam, because the fill is loose and air moves through it. They also flatten and need plumping, which is the trade.
Micro-spring hybrid pillows such as Simba's put open structure inside the pillow rather than a treatment on the outside, which is the same argument I make for mattresses.
Lyocell or wool covers manage moisture, and clamminess is usually what people mean when they say a pillow sleeps hot.
Treated foam sits above plain foam and below all three of those. It is a reasonable improvement rather than a solution.
A correction worth making
Commonly repeated, and wrong
Cooling treatments are dismissed as marketing on mattresses and the same dismissal is applied to pillows, where the case is genuinely different. On a mattress the heat conducted away from the skin has nowhere to go and the effect fades within the hour. On a pillow the sleeper turns it over, which puts an unheated surface against the face and restarts the effect several times a night. The reset is built into how the product is used, which is why a surface treatment earns its place on a pillow and rarely does on a mattress.
Should you buy it?
Yes as an improvement on a plain foam pillow, particularly if you already want foam for the consistent height.
Change the pillowcase at the same time. Cotton percale or lyocell will do more for how cool the pillow feels than the treatment does, and it costs a fraction of the price.
Questions people ask
Do cooling pillows work?
Better than cooling mattresses, for a specific reason. On a mattress the heat conducted away from your skin has nowhere to go and the effect fades. On a pillow you turn it over, which puts an unheated surface against your face and restarts the effect several times a night.
Does my pillowcase affect how cool a pillow feels?
A great deal. You are not sleeping on the pillow, you are sleeping on the case. A cheap polyester case insulates you from the cooling surface and holds moisture against the skin. Cotton percale, lyocell or bamboo costs a fraction of the pillow and does more.
What is the coolest type of pillow?
Loose fills such as down and feather breathe better than foam because air moves through them. Micro-spring hybrid pillows put open structure inside rather than a treatment outside. Treated foam sits above plain foam and below both.