GOTS Certified Organic, New Zealand grown
It takes moisture off your skin before you feel damp, gives off a little heat when the room cools, and draws heat back when you warm. You wake up dry, which is most of what people mean by a good night.
Wool is what to reach for if you wake up warm, damp, or both. It holds up to 30 percent of its own weight in moisture before the surface feels wet, so the air right at your face stays dry through a night that would leave a foam pillow clammy. The wool never touches you. It sits inside a sateen-weave organic cotton cover, so what rests against your cheek is cotton. It is GOTS Certified Organic as a finished product, the wool inside as well as the cover, under license GOTS-10229.
The pillow, the hybrid that puts wool on one side and buckwheat on the other, the duvet that does the same job over the whole bed, and a bag of wool for topping up.
Organic wool in an organic cotton cover, GOTS Certified Organic as a finished product. Soft, quiet, and dry all night.
Best for warm sleepers, night sweats, and anyone whose pillow feels damp by morning
Organic wool on one side and pre-polished buckwheat hulls on the other, split by an internal cotton divider. Flip it when your neck wants holding.
Best for wool comfort with a firm option on the reverse
Hand-tufted organic wool doing the same moisture work across the whole bed instead of just under your head. Corner-loop tufts, no shifting.
Best for couples who run at different temperatures
Organic wool in sheets. Peel a whole sheet off the outside of what is in there, or add one, and the height comes back.
Best for a wool pillow that has settled lower than you set it
Why you wake up damp
Skin gives off moisture all night whether you notice it or not. A foam or synthetic pillow has nowhere to put that moisture, so it sits in the air against your face, and damp air at body temperature is what your brain reads as too hot.
1
It happens every night, in every room, and it happens most where your face meets the pillow.
2
A solid block has nowhere for the moisture to travel, so it stays in the layer of air closest to your skin.
3
You kick off the covers and surface out of deep sleep without ever fully waking.
4
The other side is cool for about ten minutes, then it does the same thing.
Wool takes the moisture into the fiber itself, away from your skin, and only lets it go into the room. The surface at your face stays dry, so you never get the signal that tells you to throw the covers off.
You stay cool because you stay dry
Wool holds up to 30 percent of its own weight in moisture before the surface ever feels damp. A cooling gel soaks up your heat for about twenty minutes, matches your body temperature, and then gives up. Wool has no twenty-minute limit, because it is moving moisture rather than storing cold.
It also gives off a little heat as it absorbs moisture and takes heat back as it releases it, so it flattens the swings in the room instead of following them. That is why the same pillow suits a cold January and a humid August.
The reason your nose is worst in bed
Dust mites cannot drink. They take water straight out of the air around them, and they need humidity above roughly 50 percent to hold their water balance. Wool moves the moisture your skin gives off up into the fiber, so the air at your face stays drier than that all night.
Lanolin, the natural fatty coating on the fiber, keeps dust mites out, and the fiber carries microscopic keratin scales rather than a smooth surface. None of it is a treatment that washes out, because all of it is the material itself.
What your cheek actually rests on
People who have had a scratchy wool blanket expect a wool pillow to prickle. Ours cannot, because the wool sits inside a sateen-weave organic cotton cover and never reaches your skin. What your cheek rests on is cotton, all night, every night.
That cover is also the part you wash. Machine wash it cool, hang it to dry, and leave the wool alone, which keeps the surface smooth for years while the fiber inside does the moisture work.
The cleanest air in your home
Most brands certify the outer fabric and call the whole pillow organic. Ours is GOTS Certified Organic as a finished product, the wool inside as well as the cover, under license GOTS-10229 issued by Oregon Tilth. Ask us for the certificate and we will send it.
The standard bans chlorine bleaching outright and permits only oxygen-based methods, and it requires wastewater treatment at every wet-processing facility the material passes through. What that adds up to for you is simple: the air closest to your face for eight hours a night is just fiber.
Softness is the easy comparison and the least useful one. What separates these pillows is where the moisture your skin gives off all night ends up.
| What matters | Circadian Organic Wool | Memory foam or polyester |
|---|---|---|
| Moisture | Takes up to 30% of its weight into the fiber | Holds it in the air against your face |
| Temperature | Gives off heat as it absorbs, takes heat as it releases | Warms under your head and stays warm |
| Dust mites | Lanolin keeps them out, and the air stays too dry for them | Usually a treated cover, which washes out over time |
| Surface after two years | The cotton cover is the contact surface, so it stays smooth | Flattens, and synthetic fiber pills |
| Setting the height | Side zipper, peel a whole sheet off the outside | Sewn shut at one fixed height |
| Certification | GOTS Certified Organic as a finished product, GOTS-10229 | Often a certified outer fabric only |
| Off-gassing | Nothing to off-gas, it is wool and cotton | A chemical smell for the first weeks is normal |
| Trial | 60 nights | Frequently 30 days |
The wool pillow. It moves the moisture into the fiber instead of leaving it in the air at your face, which is the actual reason people feel too hot in bed.
Organic Wool Pillow ›Start with the pillow, then consider the wool duvet. The pillow handles the air at your face, the duvet does the same job over the whole bed.
Organic Wool Duvet ›Dust mites need humidity above about half to survive, and wool never lets the air around your head get there. None of that is a treatment that washes out. The Organic Cotton pillow is the other one worth a look.
Organic Wool Pillow ›The Buckwool Hybrid puts organic wool on one side and pre-polished buckwheat hulls on the other. Flip it when your neck wants holding.
Buckwool Hybrid Pillow ›They are the best thing we make for it, along with buckwheat. Wool holds up to 30 percent of its own weight in moisture before the surface feels damp, and damp air at your face is what your brain reads as too hot. Take the moisture away and the heat stops registering.
Yes. Dust mites cannot drink, so they take water from the air around them, and they need it above roughly 50 percent humidity to hold their balance. Wool holds the air around your head too dry for them to settle in. Lanolin keeps dust mites out as well, and the fiber carries keratin scales rather than a smooth surface. None of it is a coating that washes out.
You never touch the wool, so there is nothing to be itchy. The fill sits inside a sateen-weave organic cotton cover, and cotton is what rests against your face all night. If you have a diagnosed wool allergy, take the kapok or the cotton pillow instead.
Wash the cover and let the wool be. Machine wash the cover cool, hang it to dry, and give the wool a few hours of sun on a dry day two or three times a year. Sunlight and air do more for wool than a washing machine, which will felt it.
Medium, and you set it. It arrives full, about a third more than most people keep. Open the side zipper and peel a whole sheet off the outside of the wool, never tearing pieces out of the middle, until your head sits level with your shoulders.
Three to five years. When it settles below the height you want, a wool refill through the side zipper puts it back rather than putting the pillow in a bin.
Yes, as a finished product, which means the wool inside as well as the cover, under license GOTS-10229 issued by Oregon Tilth. That is a stronger claim than the common one, where only the outer fabric is certified and the whole pillow gets called organic. Ask us for the certificate and we will send it.
New Zealand grown, processed in the United States, and sewn into pillows by hand in our New Jersey workshop.
Wool if you wake up warm or damp, because moving moisture is the thing it does that nothing else does. Cotton if you want a denser, flatter pillow that holds its shape slowly over years and makes no sound at all. Both are GOTS Certified Organic as finished products.
Set the height on the first night, air it in the sun a couple of times a year, and it will hold up for years. Sixty nights to be sure, handmade in our New Jersey workshop.
See the wool pillows201 verified reviews
If you've sent more pillows back than you've kept, you're our customer.
“I have owned more pillows than I have owned houses and I have owned 12 houses.” This is by far the only pillow to use if you don’t want to wake up with sore shoulders or neck. I have replaced all the pillows in my house with this pillow.
I have compressed discs in my neck, and I have spent hundreds of dollars over the past 6 months trying to find one that will help me sleep. Every pillow I bought caused me to wake up in even more pain than the night before!! The buckwheat pillow is life-changing!! I have slept through the night and wake up with no pain!!
I was leery to try another expensive pillow without some sort of trial period after being very let down by a different company's natural fiber pillow… I don't hear anything at all with the buckwheat! It does stay fresh and cool as well, but most importantly it actually holds my head/neck up and in place. Which allows me to actually get rest instead of always adjusting.
I've been a buckwheat pillow customer for the last 7 years and I can say that Circadian has the highest standards of quality paired with incredible customer service. Very very impressed and would not hesitate to send anyone their way.
I have spent years searching for a pillow that feels supportive and comfortable all night. I have finally found it. I absolutely love the Buckwool pillow. I removed a bit of the material to get it to exactly how I want it… I rarely wake up with neck pain now.
I find myself switching between the two and loving the feel of both. I haven't woken up with a sweaty head with either and that's an amazing feeling especially in the AZ summer. The buckwheat side is a lot quieter and more comfy/soft than others I've tried in the past.
I have tried at least 10 different pillows in the last 3 years. Nothing has worked out except for this wool pillow. I have chronic neck pain which has been greatly reduced. I am very happy with my new pillow.
I have pretty bad chemical sensitivity (housebound most of the time)… I try to only buy totally safe, non-toxic products. I found this pillow to be very safe and non-toxic, and the packaging was fragrance free which is always a huge plus.
I ordered this pillow to replace my very old (but beloved) down pillow and I'm so glad I did. It is heavenly!… I advise you to heed the recommendation given by the quiz. I ordered cotton initially despite the quiz giving me kapok as a result… the quiz was right.
The quality craftsmanship and materials is evident… when I asked if extra stuffing were available for the second one I'm using as a knee pillow, they not only pointed me to the right place on their site, but also created a new, smaller 1-lb. refill size based on my request.
The three-star ones are in there too. Read all of them
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