After spending five to six days a week hustling and bustling, you deserve all the break you need. During your day off, you can use that time to pamper yourself, get a massage, attend yoga classes, go on a nature hike, or better yet, have a staycation.
What’s A Sustainable Staycation?
From the name itself, a staycation is coined from the words ‘stay’ and ‘vacation,’ which means taking a vacation in your own home or somewhere within your local address. While a staycation is usually an option for people who can’t afford a luxurious vacation somewhere far or exotic, this has also been considered the most sustainable means of tourism.
Since you’re not traveling anywhere on a train, bus, or plane ride, you’re saving money and preserving the environment from the noise and air pollution brought by transportation. Furthermore, you’re also saving the tourist destinations from overwhelming carbon footprints brought by too many tourists visiting all at once. Overall, a staycation is considered a sustainable solution in reducing the environmental impacts of tourism.
How to Have a Sustainable Staycation Experience?
Now that you know the essence of staycation, you’re probably thinking of taking one for yourself for the weekend. So, how to have a sustainable staycation experience? There are numerous ways you can pull it off successfully, such as:
- Going camping in your backyard or other nearby natural spots
- Doing a low-impact hobby at home (e.g., gardening, reading, playing an instrument, writing)
- Ordering take-out from a sustainable local restaurant
- Booking local accommodation
One of the prevalent ways people spend their staycation is booking local accommodation. It’s true, especially for people who’ve spent most of their weekdays on sleepless nights and stressful days at work. Staying at a local hotel is the perfect way to relax, recharge your whole body, and make up for the lost sleep.
Meanwhile, if you don’t want to go through the hassle of booking a room, you can also do your staycation at home and get as much sleep as you can. Meanwhile, for staycationers having trouble sleeping comfortably at home (or even at a local hotel), you can enhance your sustainable staycation experience by investing in a cooling pillow.
How A Cooling Pillow Enhances Your Staycation?
Trying to sleep while you’re feeling hot and sweaty can ruin your planned restful sleep for your staycation. Night sweats can happen, especially when the night is hot and the room temperature is higher. As a result, you tend to sweat profusely, causing you to flip your pillow several times to find a position to rest your head comfortably.
One way to relieve yourself from sweat and enjoy a more peaceful sleep during your staycation is by using a cooling pillow. While you can always turn on your air coolers, fans, or pump up your AC, using a cooling pillow is an affordable and sustainable way of keeping yourself cool and enjoying a better night’s sleep.
What Are The Benefits Of Cooling Pillows?
If you don’t have a cooling pillow yet, knowing its benefits may help you realize how one is a must-have for every staycation. Here are the benefits you can enjoy from using a cooling pillow:
1. Fall Asleep Faster
Undoubtedly, sweating heavily at night can affect your sleep quality. Due to the hot temperature, you might find yourself tossing and turning while trying to find a spot to rest your head and body. While cranking up your room’s air conditioning is an option, using your AC can be harmful to the environment, defeating your goal of achieving a sustainable staycation experience.
Air conditioners will require tons of energy to function and release cooler air, eventually polluting the environment. Moreover, it also emits harmful gases into the atmosphere, worsening the effects of global warming. Using a cooling pillow will help you fall asleep faster as it helps cool your head and neck. It also alleviates back and neck pains, allowing you to sleep better during your staycation.
There are different types of cooling pillows which will be discussed below. One of these is the buckwheat cooling pillow. Unlike other pillows, this pillow is eco-friendly as it uses an organic material (buckwheat hulls) to fill it and help alleviate the heat. Overall, the buckwheat pillow and other types of cooling pillows will lull your body to doze off quickly to a night of restful and better sleep.
2. Regulates Body And Head Temperature
Besides putting you to sleep quicker, a cooling pillow can also help you sleep coolly. Because of its cooling properties, it can effectively regulate your head and body’s temperature, especially if you’re staycationing in a hot or tropical area. Thus, you no longer have to worry about feeling irritable and restless during your staycation. If you’re at home, you can save energy bills and preserve the environment by not using the fan or AC to regulate the room temperature.
3. Helps Relieve Insomnia
People who have insomnia may find it challenging to achieve a good quality sleep during their staycation. Even if you’re sleeping at a relaxing local hotel or in your comfy bed, insomnia can torture your sleep quality every night. Some factors that cause insomnia may include excessive sweating, hormonal imbalances, and anxiety. An effective way to relieve this sleep problem is using a cooling pillow. Sleepers with insomnia can benefit from the cooling effects of this pillow as it helps calm down your body and alleviate anxiety. It also helps reduce sweating which could trigger insomnia.
4. Boosts Mental Health
One of the reasons people take a staycation is to relax, relieve themselves from stress, and take care of their mental health. A cooling pillow can make your sleep or naps feel relaxing and comforting. The cooling properties of this product will give you a calm and cooling feeling, and overall, help improve your sleeping environment. Regardless of whether you’re having a staycation in your bedroom, in a hotel room, or a camping tent, having cooling pillows with you will ensure your mind and body are well-rested and get the best sleep possible.
5. Gives You A Younger-Looking Skin
Many people spend money on beauty products to keep their skin looking youthful. Unfortunately, the packaging of these products can take hundreds or even thousands of years before they break down into the soil. Furthermore, those leftover chemicals inside the bottles could leak into the waterways and soil, eventually spreading dangerous toxins that could be deadly to wildlife and marine life.
With a cooling pillow, you can achieve younger-looking skin by regularly using it in your sleep every night. You no longer have to rely heavily on your beauty products and instead focus on getting your beauty sleep with the cooling pillow. Its cooling effects will help your head and face relax and cool down, especially side sleepers.
Furthermore, since a cooling pillow promotes better sleep and hormonal balance, you’ll wake up feeling fresher and more rejuvenated, with fewer chances of having breakouts, blemishes, and wrinkles. Ultimately, using a cooling pillow during your staycation is almost the same as getting a relaxing facial treatment in an eco-friendly way.
6. Better Moods
A poor night’s sleep can seriously impact your mood the following day. The last thing you want in your staycation is to wake up feeling grumpy and short-tempered just because of poor sleep. So, enhance your staycation experience by investing in a cooling pillow that will guarantee you wake up in better moods. You don’t need to deal with sweaty and restless nights, and instead, focus on recharging your body for the next day’s staycation plans.
What Are The Types of Cooling Pillows?
A cooling pillow uses different filling materials and covers to prevent heat retention and regulate temperature. Thus, there are multiple types of cooling pillows available, and some of these options may suit better for some than others. To achieve a sustainable staycation experience, the list may focus more on cooling pillows that use sustainable materials.
· Buckwheat Cooling Pillow
As mentioned earlier, a buckwheat cooling pillow is one of the most sustainable options for a cooling pillow. Buckwheat hulls are used for the pillow’s filling. The hulls are open-shaped shells that often work as air pockets and help prevent heat retention. This type of pillow is also supportive and flexible as it can conform to your neck and head position, providing the best pillow support for any sleeper. However, buckwheat cooling pillows may take some familiarization due to their natural odor and rustling sound when moved.
· Gel Memory Foam Cooling Pillow
Memory foam pillows are well-known for their ability to easily contour with your head or neck’s position to provide support and promote a comfy sleep. But since memory foam alone can sometimes be hot for your head, pillow manufacturers have added a layer of gel into it to help absorb heat and prevent the pillow from getting hot. In addition to this, a gel memory foam cooling pillow is more durable and can maintain comfort levels longer compared to other pillows. Thus, it can be a sustainable pillow option as you no longer have to change yours more frequently.
· Wool Cooling Pillow
Another eco-friendly type of cooling pillow is the wool pillow. Naturally, wool is harvested from sheep and lambs. Due to its crimped shape, it can work as natural insulation by regulating any temperature. If you’re living in cold areas, the wool can retain heat, while in tropical regions, it can pull the heat and moisture away from your head and neck to keep you cool in your sleep. This pillow is also resistant to mildew and mites. Lastly, when you need a new wool cooling pillow, you can safely compost the old wool without harming the environment.
· Down Alternative Cooling Pillow
The organic down pillow is often taken from natural feathers harvested from birds. However, since this type of pillow indirectly promotes animal cruelty due to its nature of harvesting feathers from birds, pillow manufacturers have created a more sustainable and anti-animal-cruelty alternative. Thus, this down alternative cooling pillow is made from polyester fibers that replicate the feel of down. But like the organic down, it prevents heat retention and keeps sleepers feeling comfier and cooler in their sleep.
· Natural Rubber Or Latex Cooling Pillow
Latex is naturally made from rubber tree sap through the Talalay method. This eco-friendly cooling pillow is more breathable and porous than synthetic foam. It promotes airflow during your sleep and relieves pressure, especially for sleepers constantly suffering from neck or shoulder pains. The latex pillow is also recommended for people with allergies as it’s hypoallergenic and doesn’t contain any carcinogens.
Overall, an eco-friendly cooling pillow will not only enhance your sleep during your staycation, but it’ll also ensure you’re reducing your carbon footprint and attain a sustainable staycation experience.
How To Choose Your Cooling Pillow?
Ultimately, you can only achieve a relaxing staycation and comfortable sleep when you’re using the right cooling pillow. With multiple options available, you may be confused about which type can meet your needs. Thus, keep the following pointers in mind when shopping for your cooling pillow:
· Sleeping Position
Your sleeping position plays a crucial factor when choosing a cooling pillow. It is because not all types fit all kinds of sleepers. Regardless of your sleeping position, your cooling pillow must promote proper spine alignment and keep you cool and comfy during your sleep. For example, side sleepers prefer buckwheat or latex cooling pillows with a high loft to provide enough neck and head support. Meanwhile, back sleepers may sleep better with memory foam or down alternative cooling pillows.
· Cooling Properties
The essence of a cooling pillow is to keep you cool during your staycation, so make sure you pick one that suits your needs. Keep in mind that some sleepers may sweat harder and more frequently than others, requiring more potent cooling properties. With this in mind, for people who sweat heavily at night, opt for a pillow that prevents heat retention and promotes airflow, such as the buckwheat and gel-memory foam pillow. Meanwhile, if you’re not a heavy sweater but would still love to use a cooling pillow, you may go for a wool or latex pillow.
· Filling Or Materials
Some filling or materials may produce an odor that could trigger sleepers with allergies. Thus, make sure to know the materials and filling used with the cooling pillow before sealing your purchase. For an odor-free pillow, you may go for latex cooling pillows.
Key Takeaway
A cooling pillow is a must-have sleeping accessory for sleepers who sweat or experience overheating during their sleep. Plus, sustainable options are also available to reduce your carbon footprint. Investing in a cooling pillow will surely keep night sweats at bay and enhance your eco-friendly staycation experience, whether you’re in a hotel room, camping outdoors, or in your bedroom. Just ensure you get the best one to experience the benefits of the cooling pillow.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
