Are your pillows starting to feel a little flat? Have they lost that plump look with all their softness sagging away? If so, here’s how to fluff a pillow and get that comfort back.
Why Should You Fluff Your Pillows?
We know that it’s important that we regularly change our pillowcases to make sure that they are clean and can give us a comfortable and hygienic night’s sleep. But if we don’t fluff our pillows regularly, we’re really only doing half a job.
One of the main reasons to fluff pillows is our own comfort. When we first buy pillows, they are often soft but still supportive. Over time though the weight of our heads and our movements during the night can slowly compress our pillows.
We might not realise it but flat pillows or having the wrong pillows could be contributing to neck and back pain by putting our spines out of alignment or making us sleep in unnatural positions.
Lastly, a lot of how we style our bedrooms revolves around a sense of comfort. Flat pillows can look unsightly, and while that might not sound like a problem, we want our bedrooms to be a welcoming, mentally relaxing space that is a joy to sleep in night after night.
How To Fluff A Pillow By Hand
The easiest way to fluff your pillow is to do it by hand. This is suitable for down pillows, down alternatives, and most pillows that contain fibre materials that move around within the pillow.
Grab hold of either end of the pillow and squeeze it. You don’t need to do this with all your strength, but just enough that you can feel the pillow changing shape with each squeeze. You can do this on the long sides too to help fluff the pillow from all sides.
Repeat this process as needed. The main aim here is to get lots of air in your pillows and help separate any parts of the stuffing that might have clumped up.
Here’s a quick video to show the technique:
If your pillow has some persistent lumps in it, massaging the pillow can also help.
If you have a memory foam pillow or a pillow with other foam-like properties, it can be a bit more difficult to fluff, but it is possible as this video shows:
How To Fluff A Pillow In A Dryer
If your pillows are proving stubborn, or hand fluffing is not something you feel up to, you can also fluff them up in a tumble dryer.
To do this, take your pillows out of their cases and pop them in the drier.
Some dryers have an “air fluff” setting which is ideal, but a low heat setting for about 15-20 minutes should be enough. If you have tumble dryer eggs, you can use a few of them as it will help to get air into your pillows.
A note of caution: Always make sure to check your pillows are tumble dryer safe, and keep an eye on the dryer during its cycle to make sure everything is okay.
After you take your pillows out of the dryer they may still need a very quick hand fluffing, but this should be much easier.
Fluffing Your Pillows in the Sun
If you don’t have a tumble dryer or would prefer not to use the tumble dryer fluffing method, it is possible to use sunlight or another indirect heat source to fluff your pillows.
Taking this opportunity to give your pillows a wash before putting them out to dry (if your make of pillow is washable), you can then leave them in the sun.
During the drying process, return every so often to give the pillows a light fluff. This will help improve their shape.
You can do this even if you decide not to wash your pillows, and it may still help to give them more volume. That’s because our pillows absorb a lot of moisture from sweat and, yes, drool. Putting them in the sun can help them dry and make them fluffy again.
This sun drying method may not be as effective as the tumble dryer method because you are not beating air into the pillows as vigorously, but for pillows that only need a little reshaping, this might be fine.
Regular Pillow Fluffing Can’t Hide a Cheap Pillow
Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how often and how well we fluff a pillow, if low quality materials were used to make the pillow it will probably lose its shape more quickly than a quality product and could be more prone to going flat.
That doesn’t mean we need to spend over a £100 or more on a set of pillows, but it does help us to get a handle on what to expect from our pillows.
Regular Pillow Fluffing Won’t Fix Old Pillows, Either
While fluffing your pillows often can help you to get the most out of your pillows and have a comfortable night’s sleep, once a pillow’s time is up no amount of fluffing will really restore its former comfy shape.
Experts suggest replacing our pillows every six months for normal polyester pillows, through to every one to two years for memory foam and other pillows.
A good way to assess whether a pillow might need retiring is to see if it has any lumps or bumps that simply don’t go no matter how much we try to reshape the pillow. Also, if you feel like the pillow isn’t giving you the same support it once did, trust that instinct.
Final Thoughts
If your pillows are flat rather than fluffy, you now have all the tips you need to revive them by hand fluffing or using a tumble dryer.
If your pillows just won’t fluff up, it’s probably time to invest in a new set of pillows to give you the quality sleep and comfort you deserve.
Do you have any tricks or tips for fluffing pillows? Let us know in the comments.
