I have, as I have mentioned in the past, three romantic partners with whom I share a bed. I have also mentioned that none of them live with me — one has a nesting partner, one lives clear across town, and one lives clear across the country. So I don’t get cuddles every night, and I’ve found that I really need them in order to fall asleep feeling comforted.

Apparently Instagram and Facebook have figured this out, because my feeds have started to show me U-shaped pillows similar to these.

I already have a regular body pillow, which I tuck under my chin and between my knees. Actually, to fall asleep at night I have to be nested very specifically — the body pillow needs to be as mentioned, my left arm needs to be under the pillows (I sleep on my left side), I need a towel on my neck (I sleep without a shirt and the towel helps prevent night sweats), and I have to be wearing my CPAP mask. It also helps to have someone behind me, hugging me, preferably if she’s naked — the body contact helps. Since I can’t have that every night, though, a U-shaped pillow might be the next best thing. Look at that image above; look how the pillow cuddles the sleeper from behind. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night I find my body pillow behind me and instead of pulling it in front I just back up to it. It’s comforting.

My only real concern would be how difficult it must be to put a pillowcase on one of these things. It’s hard enough to get a pillowcase on my body pillow, and that’s only 4.5 feet long. Plus, if I start sleeping with this, I’m sure falling asleep in other places (hotels, my parents’ house, etc.) will become even more difficult. But as I write this, I’m about to have my last sleepover for four nights, and I’m not looking forward to it.

After going through a few of these on Amazon, I decided to buy one from the same manufacturer that makes my existing bed pillow (which I’ve enjoyed for many years — it’s very firm foam). I’ll let you know how it goes.