Nectar Pillow Review

Nectar Pillow Review UK (2024)

Last updated: 24.01.2024 Reading time: 9 Min.

UNFORTUNATELY, THE NECTAR WHOLE NIGHT'S SLEEP PILLOW IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR ALTERNATIVES.

Finding the perfect pillow can be quite a nightmare. 🧟‍♂️

Too high. Too low. Too soft. Too firm.

Sometimes, all you want is a pillow that you can adjust to suit your needs - and that's precisely what the Nectar Whole Night's Sleep pillow promised to be.

Unfortunately, this pillow is no longer available in the UK - but did it live up to its promise?

And what are the best currently available alternatives?

We find out in this Nectar pillow review. 👇

Nectar adjustable pillow

Best Nectar pillow alternatives

Since the Nectar Whole Night's Sleep pillow is no longer available, let's take a quick look at some of the best alternatives.

The recommendations below are all customisable memory foam pillows, though the Brighrt Eclipse and Emma Premium pillows would be most similar to the Nectar in terms of composition and feel.

What is the Nectar Premium pillow?

There used to be two Nectar pillows.

While the Whole Night's Sleep pillow, which this article is about, has been discontinued, the Nectar Premium pillow is still available.

Like the Whole Night's Sleep, the Nectar Premium is a memory foam pillow with a quilted cover.

But unlike the Whole Night's Sleep pillow, which was fully height-adjustable, the Nectar Premium pillow is only available in one standard height and size.

Nectar premium pillow
The Nectar Premium pillow is not customisable.

Here is a quick look at a few of the other differences:

Nectar Whole Night's Sleep Pillow Nectar Premium Pillow
Composition: Gel-infused memory foam Memory foam
Cover:

Quilted cooling cover (55% Tencel + 45% cotton)

Quilted polyester cover with mesh border
Size: 60 x 40 x 14 cm (23.6 x 15.7 x 5.5 inches) 60 x 40 x 12 cm (23.6 x 15.7 x 4.7 inches)
Availability: Discontinued Still available

The Nectar Premium pillow is also a better value-for-money purchase as you get two pillows in a set - and, of course, it's currently the only Nectar pillow still available.

Nectar Whole Night's Sleep pillow composition

The Nectar Whole Night's Sleep pillow comprised three layers of gel-infused memory foam, with a thick and luxurious Tencel cover as its outer shell. 🐚

The thinner middle memory foam layer was a flat piece of foam, sandwiched by two thicker curved memory foam layers.

These may look slightly different, but the composition of each layer was the same, with each offering the typical contouring effect of memory foam with good responsiveness. 🤗

Nectar adjustable pillow memory foam layer cover

Each memory foam layer was also wrapped in a thin, breathable fabric for extra protection.

The three layers slotted into the quilted pillow cover.

Conveniently, you could adjust the pillow to suit your liking by removing one or two of the memory foam layers.

This used to be quite a unique feature, but luckily, multiple adjustable memory foam pillows similar to the Nectar Pillow are currently on the market, like the Emma Premium Pillow and the Brightr Sleep Eclipse Pillow.

Nectar pillow cover

The Nectar pillow cover (55% Tencel and 45% cotton) was dense, thick, very soft, and felt luxurious and cool to the touch. ❄️

Nectar pillow cover stitching
The stitching on the Nectar pillow was very elegant.

Tencel is a cooling fabric that allows for steady airflow, wicking away heat and moisture and keeping you cool and comfortable all night long.

This is especially beneficial for memory foam pillows, as memory foam is known to retain more heat than other types of foam. 🥵

Of course, the memory foam used in the Nectar pillow was also gel-infused, allowing it to stay much cooler than standard memory foam.

We certainly never felt hot or clammy while sleeping on the Nectar pillow.

Nectar pillow cover with quilted design
The Nectar pillow cover was padded and quilted.

Interestingly, the Nectar had a quilted pillow design with a Technofibre (100% polyester) fill.

This gave the pillow a slightly softer and airier feel than you'd get if it had a thinner cover, and the quilted pockets kept the filling evenly spread to avoid lumps.

What did sleeping on the Nectar pillow feel like?

Even though individual experiences of the Nectar pillow depended on how many layers of foam were kept, we can guide you on the general feel of the pillow.

Firm and supportive

Similarly to the Nectar Premium pillow (the standard pillow without adjustability), the Whole Night's Sleep pillow was firm and supportive. 🧱

The individual layers also demonstrated the memory effect quite well:

Nectar adjustable pillow memory foam

Nectar adjustable pillow memory imprint

But, our test sleepers didn't have much of that "sinking into the foams" feeling you would expect. 🤔

Instead, they remained well-supported on a stable surface all night long.

This support is great if you’re struggling with any tension or neck pains and are looking for something to hold your head while sleeping.

But if you're after a soft, squishy pillow, a firmer memory foam option will not be the right choice - the next section will give you more guidance here.

Nectar adjustable pillow firmness
The Nectar pillow was very firm and supportive.

Memory foam versus traditional pillows

Memory foam pillows generally feel a little different to "traditional" pillows.

As a standard, they’re firmer and flatter, giving you a sturdier surface to sleep on.

If you're looking to fluff up your pillow and squish it into different shapes and sizes, then it's best to stick to more traditional pillows - but it's also great not having to fluff your pillow all the time!

You can take a look at our best pillows guide for some advice.

If you are keen on memory foam, you could also look at the Panda pillow, which is a much softer and more approachable version of memory foam pillows, even though this pillow is not customisable. 🐼

Ultimately, that was the biggest selling point of the Nectar pillow - it was perfectly designed to suit your exact sleeping style.

Nectar adjustable pillow layers
Adjustability was the Nectar pillow's unique selling point.

How did you customise the Nectar pillow to suit your sleeping style?

The Nectar Whole Night's Sleep Pillow looked rather bulky when you first unpacked it - but this was also the pillow's maximum height.

You could take out one or two memory foam layers to customise the pillow to suit your sleeping style.

So, how did you know how many layers to keep?

Let's look at the most common sleeping positions more closely. 👇

Side sleepers

Side sleepers will generally do well on higher loft pillows, and would have kept all three foam layers in the Nectar pillow.

This sufficiently filled the space between neck and mattress, ensuring adequate support.

Nectar adjustable pillow with three layers
High-loft pillows are best for side sleepers.

Of course, your overall body size and the distance from your neck to your shoulders played a significant role here.

If you’re quite petite, for instance, keeping all three layers may have felt a tad uncomfortable. 😩

Consider, for example, the situation of two of our test sleepers.

Both are side sleepers with similar body weights, but one is taller with a broader build and the other shorter with a more petite build.

  • The taller sleeper with the wider build slept perfectly well on the high loft pillow.
  • The shorter sleeper with the smaller build woke up with neck pain and tension.

The more petite tester slept much better in the side position with just two memory foam layers.

Nectar adjustable pillow with three layers
The Nectar pillow was quite bulky with three layers.

Back sleepers

Sleeping on your back is the healthiest position of all.

To best sleep on your back, you'd need a medium-loft pillow that allows your upper spine to remain in a neutral position. 🦴

If your pillow is too high or too low, your neck will bend up or down, causing unnecessary tension.

For back sleepers, sleeping with two of the three Nectar memory foam layers would have been ideal.

Nectar adjustable pillow with two layers
Keeping two layers was ideal for back sleepers.

We recommended keeping the middle layer and pairing it with one of the curved layers, but, for a slightly thicker feel, you could have also removed the middle layer and kept the two curved layers.

Stomach sleepers

Sleeping on your stomach isn't great for your neck since, no matter how comfortable your pillow or mattress is, you will always have to be turned to one side to breathe.

This builds up tension and will undoubtedly result in stiffness and neck and upper back pain. 😫

But you can still maximise comfort by choosing the best pillow set-up.

The best pillow for stomach sleepers is flat and firm.

For stomach sleepers, we recommended keeping just one layer of the Nectar pillow.

Nectar adjustable pillow with one layer firmness
Look how flat the pillow became with just one layer.

While you could keep the middle, straight layer, choosing one of the curved layers would probably be more comfortable.

That was the beauty of the Nectar pillow - you could simply combine the layers as you wished to find out what worked best for you.

Do you need more adjustability?

Height-adjustable pillows with memory foam layers, like the Nectar pillow, are great for a fuss-free approach to sleeping.

But you can also find loose shredded memory foam pillows, like the Simba Hybrid Pillow or the Aeyla FOAMO pillow, which allow for more tailored customisations as you can take out handfuls of foam instead of a whole layer. 📏

If you’re struggling to find the perfect pillow, looking at shredded foam could be the solution.

But note that not all shredded foam pillows are adjustable.

MyPillow UK, for example, also features shredded memory foam, but you can't adjust the fill yourself, and the Brightr Luna has its shredded memory foam in fabric pockets that can only be adjusted as full layers.

Adjustable shredded memory foam pillows:

Could you wash the Nectar pillow?

Memory foam should never be washed, and, unfortunately, the Nectar pillow cover was also not machine-washable.

This is a pity, as washable covers are convenient. 🧼

Nectar pillow cover washing label
Neither the Nectar pillow nor the pillow cover were machine-washable.

But, you could remove the Nectar pillow cover quite easily, spot-clean it with mild soap, and leave it air-dry.

Some customisable pillows, like the Kally adjustable pillow, are fully washable!

Even if a pillow has a luxurious feel, though, you should never sleep on a naked pillow.

To best protect your pillow, we'd always recommend using a good pillowcase and, if possible, a pillow protector.

Nectar stills sells a luxurious 300-thread-count cotton sateen bedding set with a fitted sheet, duvet cover, and pillowcases, but we've also recommended a few of our other favourite pillowcases below.

Good bedding and pillowcase options:

What was the size of the Nectar pillow?

The Nectar Whole Night’s Sleep pillow measured 60 x 40 cm (23.6 inches x 15.7 inches), which is pretty on par with other standard UK pillows. 🇬🇧

Nectar pillow thickness
The Nectar adjustable pillow was very thick with all three layers inserted.

The pillow had a maximum height of 14 cm (5.5 inches), but, of course, the exact loft depended on how many layers of memory foam you kept in the pillow.

What are the Nectar Sleep delivery conditions?

The Nectar pillow was delivered in a sturdy cardboard box and wrapped in a plastic cover for protection. 📦

Conveniently, Nectar Sleep offers free delivery within the UK, no matter what you order.

Nectar Whole Night’s Sleep pillow box

Nectar Whole Night’s Sleep pillow half out of box

For the Nectar adjustable pillow, there was also no fancy unpacking method needed - the pillow wasn't compressed, so you could simply pull it out of the box and unwrap it.

Was the Nectar pillow a good purchase?

The Nectar adjustable pillow was an excellent choice, and we recommended it to:

  • Side, back, and stomach sleepers.
  • People who enjoy firm and supportive pillows.
  • Sleepers looking for a pillow with excellent breathability.
  • People looking for a high-quality pillow made of good materials.

Unfortunately, the pillow is no longer available, so you'll have to try some of our most loved alternatives instead.

Our favourite UK customisable memory foam pillows:

Contact Nectar Sleep UK

Customer service: To contact Nectar Sleep UK directly for complaints, support, or queries, please e-mail them at hello@nectarsleep.co.uk, call them on 0808 501 5373, or visit their live online chat. Nectar Support is available seven days a week from 9 am - 5:30 pm.

Registered office: Nectar Sleep, 100 Avebury Boulevard, Milton Keynes MK9 1F

Frequently asked questions

  • Did the Nectar pillow carry any certifications?


    Materials in the Nectar pillow carried the OEKO-Tex Standard-100 certification.

    This guaranteed that materials were free from harmful chemicals and toxic substances.

  • Did the Nectar pillow come with a trial period?


    Unfortunately, the Nectar pillow did not come with a trial period - this was a pity as the pillow was quite expensive.

  • Did the Nectar pillow come with a guarantee?


    The Nectar pillow came with a 2-year guarantee, protecting customers from manufacturing defects.

    If you bought a Nectar pillow before it was discontinued and are still within your warranty period, please contact Nectar Sleep directly for any warranty concerns.

  • What is the #IAMWHOLE project?


    #IAMWHOLE is an anti-stigma mental health campaign developed in partnership with the NHS and YMCA.

    It aims to encourage young people to speak out about mental health.

    #IAMWHOLE received a donation for every Nectar Whole Night’s Sleep pillow sold.

  • Can I buy the Nectar pillow on Amazon or at other retailers?


    No. Unfortunately, the Nectar adjustable pillow is no longer available. 

    But you can still buy the Nectar Premium Pillow via the Nectar Sleep UK website.

  • Can you tell me more about Nectar Sleep?


    Nectar Sleep is a popular US mattress company, similar to Casper, that now also operates in the UK.

    Best known for its Nectar mattresses, including the best-selling Nectar Memory Foam mattress and Nectar Hybrid mattress, the company focuses on creating high-quality products and offering exceptional service.

    You can read some of our other Nectar reviews: 

    While well-priced, Nectar offers frequent sales and promotions, including exclusive coupon codes and select deals providing free products, like free pillows or bedding sets.

  • References

Nicky

Nicky Peters

Editor & Certified Sleep Therapist

Nicky is an experienced writer and editor with BA, BA(Hons), and MA qualifications. As a certified sleep coach, her interests lie in understanding how sleep problems arise from hormonal and environmental issues, particularly as part of stress and anxiety management.

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