I've had a chance to use this pillow continuously for over a couple weeks now. This is the fourth kind of pillow I've tried. The others were: 1) a regular pillow, 2) a foam wavy-style pillow, and 3) the "Tri-Core" pillow which I'll talk more about below. Of these four different kinds of pillows, I would place this pillow in second place between a regular pillow (in 3rd place) and the "Tri-Core" pillow (in first place). It's a great improvement over a regular pillow, but it's a little too quirky and a bit harder to use than the "Tri-Core" pillow. And that's why I gave 4 stars instead of 3 or 5. First off, this pillow differs from a regular pillow in a number of ways. Obviously its shape is different. And it's the shape that makes it a bit difficult to use, even after you get used to it. I don't know if there's a definite, official way to sleep on this pillow. There was no user manual that came with it. So I had to figure it out on my own, which is good I suppose, because each person will have their own "sweet spots". I'm a side and back sleeper, and that's what this pillow is supposed to be good at. It said it can accommodate front sleepers also, but I didn't try that position very much, and I doubt most front sleepers will find this much of an improvement over regular pillows. I felt that the back position was the best position on this pillow. It was a little like being cradled in loving arms. It felt very good. And it actually blocks out noises and adjacent light from your clock when you've sunk down in the middle. It's like it creates a nice, soft bubble around you, and that's very relaxing. But while the back position was very good, I found it awkward finding a good position on my side. On my side, I would fidget with the pillow, trying to decide whether to put my head on the bottom part, top part, or in the middle somewhere. Most of the time, I opted for the bottom part. But I ended up having to keep my hand pressed against the outside edge of it that way. It wasn't great, and I'm still not sure what's best. As for the back sleeping position, you can only sleep at the top part of it. As I said before, this does feel pretty good. But since I go back and forth between the back and the side positions, I often found myself waking up in the middle of the night trying to change the pillow from the high position for the back to the low position for the side. Or I'd turn over onto my back and find myself sunk down too far. That just was not very ideal in my case. Obviously, you will have your own favorite sleeping positions, so you may not have this issue at all. It's also a bit bigger than you may think, based on its picture here. I think it's meant to be on the outside of your shoulders when you lie down on your back. So try to imagine lying down on your back, and then picture the pillow hugging the outside of your shoulders and upper arms. Yes, it sticks out pretty far. This is fine if you're sleeping alone. But if you have a partner, and you have a queen sized bed, then there is a real possibility that this pillow will be so big that it could end up hitting up against your partner's pillow or face. In my king sized bed, it gives about 3 to 5 inches or so of space before it would hit the adjacent pillow. You may also need to pull the pillow over towards you when you switch sides so that you're not right up against your partner. Just a warning. One other thing about size. I'm a 5 foot 11 inch male with average shoulder span, not overly big or anything. But I find that in the back sleeping position, I have to spread the pillow's arms out a bit to fit inside of it. Otherwise, I'll have the back of my arms pressing downwards on it slightly, which can be annoying. It's not a big deal, though. It could be that this pillow is best used by women with relatively shorter shoulder spans than men, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that men should not buy it. As for the feel of this pillow, it's much more firm compared with even the most "extra firm" regular pillow you'll find in stores. It makes those pillows feel soft by comparison. Compared with the "Tri-Core" pillow (which I'll talk about soon), however, it's significantly less firm. By my estimation, it falls exactly half-way between a regular pillow's firmness and the "Tri-Core" pillow's firmness. I think many people will think this is the perfect firmness for them. But for me, I prefer the "Tri-Core" pillow's firmness. One of the biggest problems I have with regular pillows is that they are not firm enough. A lot of people mistakenly go out looking for extra soft pillows, thinking they're the best. What you really want in a pillow is to have it support your head so that your neck remains straight. When you have a soft pillow, your face basically falls down into the pillow until you feel the bed underneath it. In that case, your neck will bend at an angle, and that will cause pain and stiffness later on. And if you have a plush, soft pillow, you can't sleep in the side position while being in the middle of your pillow, because doing so would suffocate you. So you end up having to sleep on the edge of the pillow, which provides no support at all. I used to deal with this with a regular pillow by constantly folding the pillow under itself or by sticking my arm underneath the pillow to provide some extra support, but it would just unfold while I was sleeping or would cause my arm to lose blood circulation if I tucked it under the pillow. That's why I started looking into other pillow types in the first place. I then tried a foam rubber pillow with a wavy design in it, similar to the many memory foam pillows you see out there. I'm sure you've seen them. I thought that kind of pillow would be much better, since it was much firmer than a regular pillow. But for some reason, it gave me nothing but pain and stiffness. It was actually worse than a regular pillow. I think it might have been because it doesn't permit folding underneath itself to increase firmness, but I'm not sure. Either way, I'd say don't try those wavy foam pillows. Avoid them like the plague. Then I tried the "Tri-Core" pillow which you can find on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Core-Products-Tri-core-Cervical-Pillow/dp/B000ET9TXQ You can even read my review of it here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RQ1MEE7OYMQS4/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm Anyway, the "Tri-Core" pillow was a lot firmer than this Hugg-A-Pillow. I've had it for well over a year now, and it hasn't worn virtually at all. But the Hugg-A-Pillow, since it is relatively softer, I expect it will wear out faster, maybe in about a year or so, I'm not sure. Both the "Tri-Core" pillow and the Hugg-A-Pillow have their quirky points. But in my opinion, the Hugg-A-Pillow was too different from a regular pillow. The "Tri-Core" pillow was a lot more like a traditional pillow and yet gives great neck support. In fact, I'd say that if neck support is your particular issue, the "Tri-Core" pillow is a better choice than the Hugg-A-Pillow. Mind you, after using the Hugg-A-Pillow for over two weeks, I haven't felt any neck pain, and I think most people would be fine with it. One other thing. About the pillow cases... The Hugg-A-Pillow uses a special pillow case. The one that came with it felt a bit "itchy" even after washing. It's also pretty thin, and I expect oils from your face will eventually make their way into the pillow itself. It needs to have a pillow protector, but I don't think any exist in this shape. You can always use a king sized pillow case and pillow protector, but it will feel a little weird, because the fabric will be strained and twisted in the middle and corners. It's not a good feel. Whereas, with the "Tri-Core" pillow I mentioned above, you can use any regular pillow case and pillow protector without any issues. So after saying all of that, I think whether or not you're going to like this pillow depends on too many variables for me to say yes go get it, or no don'
