Kapok vs Memory Foam: What You're Actually Choosing Between

Kapok and memory foam feel completely different. Kapok is a light, loose plant fiber you can shape by hand. Memory foam is a dense polyurethane foam that slowly molds around your head. Here's what that means once you're in bed.

What is the fill?

MAREA uses 100% wild harvested kapok, with no foam, latex or polyester blended in. Memory foam is polyurethane, and some pillows mix shredded foam with other fibers. Read the full materials line: a pillow advertised with kapok in its name may still be a blend. Our pure kapok versus blends guide explains what to check. If you are also considering feathers, see how kapok compares with down.

Which pillow can you adjust?

A solid foam pillow is the height it is. Shredded foam pillows can be adjustable, but you're adjusting crumbs of foam. With MAREA, you remove a little kapok at a time and save it in a sealed bag, then add it back whenever you want more loft. Use our pillow loft guide to choose a starting point.

Which sleeps cooler?

Memory foam is built to soften with body heat and hug your shape, and the Sleep Foundation calls it notorious for trapping heat. Kapok is mostly air (about 77 percent by one measurement), and the fill stays loose, so it doesn't close around your head the same way. I tested the question the only way I could, in a bedroom with no air conditioning, and wrote it up in Do Kapok Pillows Sleep Hot?

What about smell?

Plenty of people notice a smell from new foam that takes days to air out. There's no foam in a MAREA pillow, so there's no foam smell to wait out.

Can you refill or wash it?

MAREA sells kapok refill in 3 lb bags, so you can top your pillow up instead of replacing it. Keep the filled pillow dry; the washable outer cover, sold separately, zips off and goes in the machine.

Which should you buy?

Memory foam is built around one fixed feel. MAREA is built around yours: 100% kapok you can set to your own height, handcrafted in the USA, in Standard 20 × 26, Queen 20 × 30 and King 20 × 36 inch head pillows, plus a 20 × 54 inch body pillow.

Shop the adjustable kapok pillow and sleep on it for 100 nights with our sleep trial.

Anthony, Founder of MAREA Sleep

If you find the Sleep Journal useful, you can add MAREA as a preferred source on Google. This is an optional preference for your own Google experience.