I had the best sleep of my life on this pillow - you won't believe what it was filled with

Putnams Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow: £49.99 at Putnams

You can buy the pillow directly from Putnams and they'll promise free delivery as well as a 14 day returns period.

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If you've ever come across buckwheat, it will have been in a healthy salad or an expensive bread. I'd bet my expensive buckwheat breakfast cereal that you'd scoff at the idea of stuffing that buckwheat scattered in your bowl into your pillow. t I'm here to tell you that you should reconsider.

When I first stumbled across buckwheat pillows, I was sceptical. However, after nearly a month on the Putnams Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow, I'm convinced that this isn't a trend. This is genuinely one of the best cooling pillows you'll ever sleep on, if you can withstand the firmness.

You don't just have to take my word for it. Buddhist monks have been using them since the 15th century in Japan. Those are some pretty zen, well-rested people and I think we've just cracked into their eco-friendly secret. It's quirky, but an absolute game-changer.

First impressions

Putnams sends their Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow in a storage case. This is really handy for a number of reasons: you can put your old pillow in it, you can use it to store linen, or you can keep all your extra buckwheat hulls in it too. It's a good bag to keep to hand.

What'll strike you first and foremost is the weight of this pillow. It is, essentially, a sack of grains, so it feels like carrying a huge bag of flour around. I quickly normalised this, but when I pulled out the next pillow that I was testing (which was a memory foam pillow, so it sits at the opposite end of the spectrum), I was struck by the contrast. The Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow feels dense and solid, whereas the memory foam pillow felt like a bag of air.

Composition

I can't resist getting into the composition of this one, because it's just so unique. The buckwheat hulls are encased in two covers, an internal and an external one. Both of these are crafted from undyed, unbleached cotton, so they're gentle on the planet and gentle on your skin. Cotton is the perfect material for wicking moisture and heat away from your face, whilst also offering a soft and comfortable surface to sleep on.

As you might have guessed, the Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow is filled with - drumroll please - organic buckwheat hulls. These are gluten-free, vegan-friendly, and  grown and harvested without any chemicals. Putnams says "we use these materials to keep our Japanese-style buckwheat pillows as natural as possible. They're both renewable and biodegradable at end of life as well as being hypoallergenic and ust-mite resistant." They tick a lot of boxes.

I couldn't resist unzipping the pillow to see what the hulls looked like. I have a very sensitive sense of smell, so I could instantly pick up a light woodiness coming from the pillow. This disappears once the over is on and none of the other six people who I asked to smell the pillow could pick up on the scent. Putnams says its natural and will fade quicky - it faded so quickly that I didn't even notice it that night.

The buckwheat look mesmerising. It's almost like looking into a bag of coffee beans except that these are tiny. You can take out and remove as many of these as you like, but that's information for another section and we'll come to that after I talk about who this pillow would suit.

Who would it suit?

One of the main features of the Putnams Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow is its firmness. These little triangular hulls lock themselves into solid structures. When you move, these will rustle around and adjust to your head, but there's no escaping that this is a firm pillow. 

If you have neck, back, or cervical pain, this can be a brilliant feature. The pyramids can move around to shape themselves exactly as you want them, but they'll also naturally give a little when you toss and turn. As a result, you get the movement and responsiveness of memory foam, but from an all-natural source. There's more too. 

Given that the pillow is essentially filled with husks, you can scoop out or add in as much as you want. This means that side, back, and front sleepers can all customise the loft of their pillow to get the perfect amount of support. I'm a notoriously fussy front sleeper and even I managed to get this into the perfect pillow shape for me. 

I could go on and on. The natural husks make the pillow hypoallergenic and dust-mite resistant and they're also much cooler than foam, polyester, and lots of other fillings that you might opt for. I'll go deeper into the details, but this certainly ticks the boxes for being one of the best cooling pillows on the market.

Finally, it goes without saying that this is the perfect pillow for eco-conscious sleepers. Buckwheat us a renewable, biodegradable resource, so you can sleep a lot easier knowing that your pillow has steered clear of chemicals and factories and stayed much closer to fields and local sources. Even the pillow itself is handmade in Devon.

What is it like to sleep on?

I couldn't resist unzipping both covers of the pillow to take a peep inside at the hulls. They looked beautiful and as they rustled around over each other, they sounded a little like ocean waves. It sounds like I was going delirious, but I can tell you, even after a month's good sleep on this pillow, I still thought the buckwheat hulls had something distinctly coastal about their sound.

As a front sleeper, I needed to remove about two thirds of the buckwheat hulls to get the right position for my shoulders and back. I kept all of these close by, because I knew I'd need them for future use and I also carved out a little dip in the middle of the pillow for my head. This was set to be one of the most easily customisable pillows that I've ever tested. 

The first night that I slept on the Putnams Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow, I had to adjust to the beanbag rustle of the hulls. I now love them, but it's worth pointing out. As someone who likes a firm surface for sleep, I relished in the solid buckwheat pillow and the pressure relief that it offered my neck, head, and shoulders. Night after night, I climbed into bed and my head hit the pillow with a satisfying 'ahh'. I gradually carved out the perfect shape for my head to nestle into and, unlike memory foam, it didn't disappear when I lifted my head up. It might not look like the adverts where the person's head looks like it sinks into the pillow for eternity, but this felt supportive to me. I always woke up with fresh, open shoulders, rather than my aches and pains.

The Putnams Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow was also surprisingly cool to sleep on. I'll give you a full breakdown of those details in the section below, because buckwheat is actually really cooling.

Is it cooling?

Buckwheat hulls are a natural choice for hot sleepers, especially women who are struggling with night sweats and hot flushes. These hulls, whilst solid, are naturally very breathable and they're impressive dissipaters of heat. I'm a naturally hot sleeper, but in the full month that I slept on the buckwheat pillow, my sleep was deep and undisturbed. I did still wake up hot on occasions, but the frequency with which that happened was at least a third of what it is on a normal pillow.

I passed this onto my mum who suffers from hormonal night sweats (she thanks the menopause for that one) and she said "it's amazing. I wouldn't really go for a pillow this firm, but the way that it helped my skin's surface feel fresh and relatively cool was amazing. I've also found that I can be quite sensitive to pillows. I put that down to menopause and this natural one is great. I haven't had any flare-ups at all. I've been telling all the girls at ladies' night that buckwheat is the solution to our night sweats, but I think they're all thinking that I'm going crazy." She isn't, by the way. 

We've passed on the buckwheat baton to other hot sleepers and we've got a unanimous thumbs up for the temperature regulation. It's brilliant.

What are the eco-credentials?

Organic buckwheat hulls have some seriously impressive eco-credentials. Buckwheat, first and foremost, is a renewable resource. They're the byproduct of food production, so using them in pillows is actually making use of waste. 

They're also simultaneously durable and biodegradable. Yours will last you for a long time, as long as you look after it properly, and then once you're finished up, the buckwheat and the casing will biodegrade and naturally decompose. It's a real feel-good cycle.

There are also some extra special touches added by Putnams. The cotton and buckwheat are both organic, so they're completely chemical-free, which is great for the soil health and ecosystems from which they're harvested as well as for your skin. 

Putnams also handmakes all of the pillows in Devon, so when it comes to the final stage of transport, everything is kept local. It's a great way to lessen the airmiles of your pillow.

How does it compare?

I have no hesitation in saying that this is the firmest pillow that I've slept on. You won't do better save for buying a block of wood or a bag of flour and dumping it onto your bed. If you like the idea of that firm, pressure relief, you'll also be looking at memory foam pillows. 

Lots of reviews for the Putnams Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow include references to memory foam alternatives. Putnams is better than all the memory foam pillows that I have tested from a cooling and from a sustainability perspective. However, if you want the pressure relief with a little more give, it's worth looking into Woolroom's Natural Latex Pillow. This has great eco-credentials (it's made from sap) and yet it feels almost identical to memory foam. It's more cooling than memory foam and has more spring than buckwheat. It's the perfect middle ground, except for the fact that it isn't heigh-adjustable. 

If a cooling height-adjustable pillow is what you're after, I've got some options for you there too. Putnams actually makes a wool height-adjustable pillow, but so does Woolroom too. Both of these are brilliant at naturally helping you to stay cooler as you sleep, but they're a lot softer. You don't get the same pressure relief, but you do get some sink-in softness that buckwheat pillows don't quite deliver. There are plenty of options out there: the choice is yours.

Should you buy it?

If you want a firm, cooling, adjustable option, you can't beat Putnams Organic Buckwheat Hull pillow. There's something very boast-worthy about sleeping on a pillow like this: it feels like a back-to-your-roots humbling experience that Putnams has somehow managed to make simultaneously luxurious. I'm sold on the trend, so if you see me pinching buckwheat pieces out of a salad next lunchtime , don't question it.

How we test

At woman&home, we have a rigorous process for how we test pillows. Physiotherapists say that it takes two weeks to notice a change in your sleep setup, so before I even start to think about a review, I sleep on a pillow for a month. I track my sleep, monitor changes in by body and mood and make notes on specific pain points and issues of the pillow, so that you know what it's like to sleep on at all stages of the month.

If a pillow claims to have special properties, such as cooling capabilities of pressure relief, I make sure to hone in on this. I'll find special testers who can verify whether this really can solve an issue or whether it's going to be a frustrating waste of money.

I like to also cover the composition, packaging, and any extra features that might be relevant to you and your sleep experience so that you know exactly what you're getting in for when you pick up this pillow. If you still have questions, please send me an email. I'm always happy to geek out on all things sleep.

Putnams Organic Buckwheat Hull Pillow: £49.99 at Putnams

You can buy the pillow directly from Putnams and they'll promise free delivery as well as a 14 day returns period.

View Deal