HOT summer nights can play havoc with your sleep but it is possible to find pillows with cooling properties to help stop you overheating. And that’s where Simba comes in.
Their pillows are perfect for summer because they have a high-tech, cool-touch covering on one side that is designed to remove excess heat.
Both the Simba Hybrid and the benefit from this Stratos covering, which is similar to a fabric created by NASA and used in space. Stratos helps dissipate heat, so you feel cooler and fresher.
The other side of the pillow is covered in sustainable cotton and the mesh band that goes all round the edges and connects the two, lets air through and increases breathability.
With the Simba Hybrid, cushioning layers inside are composed of airy polyester fibres that enhance air flow through the pillow, while at its core, the Hybrid is filled with foam Nanocubes. These are incredibly light with an open-cell structure, which helps with airflow and increases the breathability factor.
These same airy polyester fibres can be found in the Hybrid Firm, along with the mesh band around the outside but instead of Nanocubes, this pillow has a layer of Aerocoil micro springs that offer firmer support while at the same time helping with airflow.
We've reviewed the Simba pillows to see if they live up to their promises and to answer the question: is a customisable pillow exactly what your bedtime has been waiting for?
Adds another dimension of adjustability compared to the standard Hybrid
Cons
Very expensive
Might be too big for some pillowcases
Simba Hybrid Firm Pillow review: quick summary
As long as you're a firm fan of firm pillows and you're willing to part with a hefty bit of cash, this could be the answer to your sleep problems.
The Simba Hybrid Firm Pillow is, without a doubt, the most comfortable pillow I have ever slept on. That's thanks to its extremely hi-tec cooling properties and its adjustability, which allows you to alter both its firmess and height.
I will admit it took a couple of nights to adjust to how hard the pillow is, but that's only due to the fact that my now-sidelined former pillows were soft, bargain buys from Amazon, meaning there was a stark contrast. It's certainly a tougher form of love that this pillow provides, but once you've adjusted it's certainly more satisfying.
It's not for everyone, the Simba Hybrid Firm Pillow, thanks to its firmness and a price tag that can only be described as prohibitively high. In fact, I imagine the standard Hybrid Pillow will be a more popular product for the brand. But if you're looking for a hardcore headrest, you'll struggle to find a better bedtime companion than this.
Delivery and unboxing
The Hybrid Firm Pillow arrives in an identical box to the standard Hybrid, and in an identical way: my items were dispatched the morning after I placed the order, and they were deliverd by DPD within a one-hour time slot the day after that. The whole process could not have been smoother.
The pillow does arrive in a bigger box than you might expect, but it is a big beast, so there's not much to be done about that.
First impressions
I'd like to make a bit of an odd comparison here.
You know when you go into a fast food chain, and you see the pictures of the food plastered above the tills? It always looks amazing — plump burger buns, verdant lettuce, shatteringly crispy slices of bacon — but, at this point in life, we're all clued up enough to know that what will actually arrive is just a shadow of that (albeit still extraordinarily tasty).
Comparing a normal pillow you might buy for a tenner on the high street to a Simba Hybrid Firm Pillow is like comparing the meal you receive in a fast food restaurant to the pictures of the food above the tills.
It's huge and almost impossibly plump, and you can immediately see the price difference between it and a normal pillow thanks to a smart, techy geometric pattern and blue piping. It's an extremely well-designed piece of kit for something that is going to spend most of its time hidden by a pillowcase.
On that note, it might be prudent for me to mention that I think some pillowcases may be too small to house this pillow. Most of mine fit fine, but I have one or two that struggle to completely envelop it.
Simba Hybrid Firm Pillow, £159 from Simba
Performance
As you might expect, there are a number of similarities between the standard Hybrid pillow and the Hybrid Firm, and a few key differences (hence the £50 price jump between the two models). I'll start with the similarities.
On the outside, the two pillows are largely identical. They both have non-identical sides: one is a breathable cotton cover, which Simba stresses is made using cotton from sources approved by the .
The other is one of the pillow's party tricks: the NASA-inspired Stratos cotton cover, which regulates heat using fancy-sounding phase change technology.
In simple terms, what this means is that at a certain temperature, molecules in the cover turn from solid to liquid, at which point they begin to absorb heat. When the temperature drops again, the molecules resolidify, distributing the heat they absorbed in their liquid state.
That might sound fancy, but the important thing is that it works — and it does. I was lucky enough to get this pillow just before a major heatwave and it absolutely made a difference to my sleep.
Of course, it's not a miracle worker, and I still needed a light sheet and a fan, but the surface of the Simba pillow was noticeably cooler than that of the cheaper pillows on the other side of my bed.
Simba Hybrid Firm Pillow, £159 from Simba
Differences
Now for the differences between the standard Hybrid and the Hybrid Firm.
The starkest difference is in the filling. Whereas the standard Hybrid is stuffed with Nanocubes that can be added or removed in order to adjust the height (and to some extent, the firmness) of the pillow, the Hybrid Firm contains three individual pillows: two soft fibre pillows and one layer of firm Aerocoil springs.
These inserts can be combined and arranged to not only adjust the height of the pillow but to radically alter its firmness.
On an instruction card that comes with the pillow, Simba goes through the five recommended combinations of the inserts. Back sleepers are advised to take one of the soft inserts out; side sleepers, meanwhile, are given the choice of three combos, which create medium, medium-firm and firm hardnesses respectively.
I'd recommend trying out a few of the combos over the first week you have the pillow and you're sure to find one that is perfect for you. For me personally, the solution was to take out one of the soft inserts and put the other on top of the Aerocoil spring layer, creating a medium firmness.
The only people who might not be able to find a favourite combo are those who prefer soft pillows — my girlfriend, for example, struggled to sleep on it comfortably even at the medium firmness. If you're similar, you might be better suited to the standard Hybrid (I suppose you could take out the firm insert and just have the two soft pillows in there, but that feels like a bit of a waste of money).
Simba Hybrid Firm Pillow review: the verdict
Admittedly, it's a bit hard to look past the astronomical price tag of this pillow. At the regular price of £159 for just one, it's easy to dismiss it without a second thought.
However, if you're fortunate enough to be able to spend that on a pillow, you will be making a worthwhile investment in your sleep. The Hybrid Firm's Stratos technology means it's as good as any pillow can be at regulating your temperature while you sleep, and its adjustability is even better than that of the already-impressive standard Hybrid.
This is definitely made for people who are serious about their sleep — but it's seriously good.
Simba Hybrid Firm Pillow, £159 from Simba
Simba Hybrid Pillow review
Words by Sianade Curry. Tested: February 2022
Pros
Customisable height
Temperature regulating
Breathable
Cover is machine washable
Luxuriously soft and spongy
Cons
Expensive
Simba Hybrid Pillow review: quick summary
I'll get it out of the way first: the price. At the regular price of £109, the is not cheap.
If, like me, you're used to market-leading brands like Silentnight offering , spending a little over £100 on one pillow might feel like a stretch (although it is on offer from time to time).
After wincing at the price, I decided to give it a go – I plopped the pillow on my bed, had a lie-down and I begrudgingly couldn't believe the difference. My head had genuinely never known comfort like it.
The technology that's packed into the Simba Hybrid and the sheer comfort it provides puts it leagues ahead of cheaper synthetic pillows.
And once you compare it to other luxury down pillows that can cost hundreds, the Hybrid starts to feel more affordable. My now-gone neck twinges would also argue it's an essential investment.
The beauty of Simba's Hybrid Pillow is twofold: firstly, its interior, which is filled with hundreds of 'nanocubes' and surrounded by a hypoallergenic microfibre layer, blends the sumptuous softness of a feather pillow with the assured support and gentle firmness of memory foam.
Hence the hybrid name – it's a deluxe combination of the two.
The second major selling point is its clever adjustability. Known by aficionados as the pillow's loft (front sleepers often like a low loft, while side sleepers prefer a taller position) the Simba Hybrid can be tailored to your exact spec. In this way, it's suitable for everyone, no matter how you sleep.
To change the height, you simply take out a handful or two of the nanocubes that hide inside a zipped bag within the pillow. There's even a small bag to hold any cubes you don't need.
Putting technology and innovation aside, the Simba Hybrid Pillow is seriously comfortable. Once I tweaked the height to get it exactly right (initially it was too high), it was frankly glorious to sleep on – the outer material feels thick and plush and my head sunk nicely into it without disappearing.
There's a good level of support that made my head and neck feel at ease and the squishy outer layer is an instant sleep-inducer. The breathability of the design can be clearly felt too – despite being surrounded by plush fabric, it feels airy and wasn't too hot during the night.
Crucially, I slept in a way that felt deep and restful.
The Simba Hybrid Pillow might stretch your pillow budget to its limit, but considering its quality, adjustability and ability to induce a good night's sleep, it's worth every penny.