Ostrichpillow: A $100 Padded Head Cocoon That Creates Your Own Micro-Environment Where You Can't See People Laughing at You
A pillow you wear on your entire head, with holes for your mouth and hands, designed for napping in public — guaranteeing that strangers will photograph you
The Ostrichpillow is a padded, fabric-covered cocoon that you put over your entire head. It has a hole for your mouth and two side holes where you can insert your hands. The concept is that you place the Ostrichpillow over your head, rest your face in the padded interior, insert your hands into the side cushions, and nap — in an airport, at your desk, on a train, or anywhere else that you'd like to be unconscious in public while wearing what appears to be a space helmet designed by someone who failed out of NASA's design program.
The Ostrichpillow costs approximately $100. For $100, you receive a padded helmet that makes you look like an astronaut who has given up, a deep-sea diver who forgot the ocean, or a person who is being consumed head-first by a very soft, very beige predator. The product creates a micro-environment of darkness and cushioning around your head while simultaneously creating a macro-environment of bewildered strangers photographing you for their Instagram stories.
You cannot see out of the Ostrichpillow. This is by design — the darkness facilitates napping. It is also the product's most elegant feature, because the things happening outside the Ostrichpillow while you wear it — the staring, the pointing, the photographing, the whispered "is that person okay?" conversations between strangers — are things you're better off not seeing.
The Ostrichpillow is the only travel product that makes sleeping in public LESS dignified. Falling asleep on a plane with your mouth open is undignified. Falling asleep on a plane inside a padded head cocoon with holes for your hands is a performance piece. The mouth-open napper is having a human moment. The Ostrichpillow napper is having an alien abduction simulation.
The Vision: What If Sleep, but Cocoon?
The Ostrichpillow was launched via Kickstarter in 2012, raising over $195,000. The campaign video showed people napping at their desks, in airports, and on park benches, their heads encased in the padded cocoon, looking like the world's calmest hostage situation. The product was positioned as a "revolutionary power nap" solution for modern, sleep-deprived professionals.
The concept addresses a real problem: napping in public is uncomfortable because public spaces are bright, noisy, and structurally opposed to sleep. A product that creates a dark, cushioned, noise-reduced environment around your head could genuinely improve the power nap experience.
The problem is that the Ostrichpillow creates this environment by making you look like a person who is being slowly absorbed by their pillow. The trade-off is: better sleep quality at the cost of all social credibility. You nap better. Everyone around you questions your mental health. You wake up refreshed. They're still staring. The nap was ten minutes. The photos are forever.
The Glorious User Experience
Emily from San Francisco, CA — ★☆☆☆☆
"I wore the Ostrichpillow at my desk at a tech company — a tech company, where weird products are theoretically tolerated. I put the cocoon on my head. I inserted my hands. I closed my eyes. I was drifting off when I heard my coworker take a photo. The shutter sound. From approximately three feet away. I was inside the Ostrichpillow. I couldn't see. I could only hear the shutter and the barely suppressed giggling of a person documenting my nap for the company Slack channel. I am in the #random channel. I am the random. One star."
Tom from Chicago, IL — ★☆☆☆☆
"I used the Ostrichpillow at O'Hare Airport during a layover. I was the most photographed person in Terminal 2 who was not a celebrity. A TSA agent walked past, stopped, and doubled back. He looked at me for approximately five seconds. He was assessing whether I was a threat, a patient, or a tourist attraction. He concluded I was none of the above and moved on. But those five seconds of being evaluated by airport security while wearing a head cocoon are five seconds I will never get back. One star."
Rachel from London, UK — ★☆☆☆☆
"The hand holes. I need to talk about the hand holes. The Ostrichpillow has side openings where you insert your hands to create a cushioned armrest for your face-down napping position. The visual result is: a person with their head in a padded helmet and their hands sticking out of the sides of the helmet, like a turtle that has retreated into its shell but left its flippers out. I looked like an animal. A padded, napping animal. In a coffee shop. In Shoreditch. One star."
“The Ostrichpillow costs approximately $100”
Click to TweetMike from Dallas, TX — ★☆☆☆☆
"My wife bought me the Ostrichpillow for flights. I put it on during a red-eye from DFW to JFK. The flight attendant woke me for the beverage service. She tapped my shoulder because she couldn't see my face because MY FACE WAS INSIDE A COCOON. When I emerged — pulled the Ostrichpillow off, blinked in the cabin light, hair flattened, disoriented — the child in the row behind me said, 'Mommy, is that man being born?' I was BEING BORN from an OSTRICHPILLOW on a FLIGHT. One star."
Jennifer from Portland, OR — ★★★★★
"Five stars. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care about the photos. I don't care about the staring. I SLEPT. For twenty minutes. In an airport. During a layover. Twenty minutes of actual sleep in a place where sleep is impossible. The darkness, the cushioning, the noise reduction — it WORKS. I woke up refreshed. I looked insane. I was well-rested insane. Five stars for the nap. Zero stars for the dignity. But dignity doesn't help you survive a four-hour layover. Sleep does."
The Truth: It Works, and That's the Worst Part
The Ostrichpillow's most frustrating quality is that it genuinely works. The padded cocoon blocks light effectively. The cushioning provides comfortable face-down support. The hand holes create a stable resting position. The enclosed environment reduces ambient noise. People who use it report better power naps than any traditional travel pillow provides.
This means the product forces a genuine quality-of-life decision: do you want a good nap, or do you want to maintain the social contract that says "I will not wear a padded helmet in public"? The nap is real. The judgment is real. You choose.
The Ostrichpillow has spawned an entire category of immersive napping products — the Ostrichpillow Mini (a smaller version for your hand), the Ostrichpillow Light (a less aggressive version), and competitors like the Nod Travel Pillow and various hooded pillows that attempt to provide similar darkness and cushioning without the full head-cocoon commitment.
The market's direction — less coverage, more subtlety — suggests that the original Ostrichpillow overcorrected. The concept was right: darkness + cushioning = better naps. The execution was too much: full head coverage + hand holes + alien appearance = social death. The future of napping accessories is the Ostrichpillow's functionality in a form that doesn't make a child on an airplane think you're being born.
The Verdict
The Ostrichpillow is a $100 padded head cocoon that provides excellent napping conditions inside and excellent comedy content outside. It works. It also makes you look like a person who has been partially consumed by a pillow creature from a Japanese horror film.
The nap is worth it if you don't care about being photographed. The nap is not worth it if you care about being photographed. The product's target audience is, specifically, people who are tired enough that they've stopped caring about what strangers think — which, on a 16-hour layover at O'Hare, is everyone.
The child on the airplane said it best: "Mommy, is that man being born?" Yes. He is being born. From an Ostrichpillow. Into a world that isn't ready for him.
We rate it 1 out of 5 dignified napping solutions (and 5 out of 5 actual napping solutions).
If you want to nap in public without being photographed by strangers, see our alternatives below.
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✅What to Buy Instead
Trtl Pillow
Scientifically designed travel pillow that supports your neck without covering your head. You look like a human. You nap like a human. Nobody photographs you.
Cabeau Evolution S3
Memory foam travel pillow with chin support — shaped like a human neck support, not a space helmet. Comfortable AND recognizable as a travel product.
Bose Sleepbuds II
Noise-masking earbuds that are invisible, effective, and don't make you look like you're being consumed by furniture. The subtle approach to public napping.
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