What is the Silk Sleeping Pillow?
Like many things found in Japanese culture, the J-Life Silk Sleeping Pillow is simple and practical. Our silk pillows are made with a 100% cotton shell filled with 1,000 grams of 100% natural silk filling. These pillows come in standard pillow size (26” x 20”) and feature a soft to medium firmness level. They are ideal for anyone who finds the buckwheat hull pillow (soba gara makura) to be too firm, or to be used in tandem with one.
Each of these plush, luxurious pillows is quilted to guarantee that the silk filling does not shift while you sleep. All of our handmade Japanese pillowcases are sized to perfectly fit your Japanese silk pillow, so you can choose the perfect cover to match with the other covers in your Japanese Sleep System, or other bedding.
Silk Pillow Benefits
Silk is a natural product produced by silkworms and offers a variety of health benefits as a bedding choice. It is naturally hypo-allergenic, meaning that it is a great choice for asthmatics and allergy sufferers. Pure silk naturally repels many environmental allergens and pests, such as dust mites, mold, mildew, bed bugs, and bacteria.
In addition to being beneficial for those with allergies, silk possesses natural temperature regulating properties. This means that these traditional Japanese pillows keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It is also highly breathable, making it a popular choice amongst people who suffer from hot flashes or are hot sleepers (meaning no more flipping your pillow to the “cold side” in the middle of the night!) Additionally, silk pillows are often considered the best pillows for hair, skin, and preventing wrinkles, thanks to how soft and frictionless of a material it is.
(Pictured: Complete Japanese Sleep System with tatami mats, shikifuton with cover, kakefuton with cover, silk sleeping pillows w/ cases, and buckwheat neck pillows.)
How to Wash Silk Pillows
To get the most life out of your Japanese sleep pillow, we recommend spot clean only. If needed, the pillow may be cleaned by a professional dry cleaner that specializes in cleaning silk once or twice per year. This should not be done too often, as this will damage the delicate silk over time. Our Silk Sleeping Pillows can be aired out outside to help refresh them as needed. Machine washing silk can cause the silk inside the pillow to form clumps and lose its delicate texture.
All of our cotton traditional Japanese pillowcases, on the other hand, can be machine washed in cold water and line dried. Cotton can shrink in the dryer and in hot water, plus washing with heat regularly will also degrade the fabric over time. As for our washable silk pillowcases, please refer to our silk bedding care instructions.
If you’d like to add more silk items to your bedding, be sure to see the J-Life kakefuton. These Japanese duvets feature all of the same benefits of silk bedding and pair wonderfully with our silk pillows. We also now offer a line of pure silk fabrics, available for all of our bedding covers and pillowcases.
Be sure to visit the rest of our care instruction blogs to learn how to properly care for your J-Life products.