sleep
By Amelia Jerden, the Strategist’s sleep writer, covering mattresses, pillows, and more. She has been writing about sleep products since 2021, previously as a staff writer for Sleepopolis.
This little dino, from Target’s Pillowfort line of kids’ décor, had a viral moment on TikTok a couple of years ago. As a sleep writer (and stuffed-animal lover at heart), I picked one up to try. Normally, I’m pretty skeptical about seemingly unnecessary products that blow up on social media — so I was surprised by how quickly this dinosaur became so integral to my life. I haven’t slept with a stuffed animal since I was a tween, but now I’m going on two full years of sleeping with my arms wrapped around this dino every single night.
At just about three pounds, the dino is just weighted enough to add a comforting pressure on my chest when I’m lying on my back with my arms wrapped around it. It kind of feels like having a (very) little cat lay on your chest — minus the actual pet care. I find that I like this small, concentrated weight better than a whole weighted blanket, which sometimes makes me feel trapped. It’s also large enough for me to fully wrap my arms around without being too bulky.
The plush is designed so that the dinosaur is laying flat on its stomach, with its legs splayed to the side. And the weight is all in the dinosaur’s body, so the body basically functions like a weighted pillow, with the legs and heads as decorative elements only. This makes it so the weighted part of the plush is designed perfectly to rest on top of my upper body and wrap my arms around without the head or legs being in the way — it’s basically like me and the dinosaur are in a loving embrace. And the exterior of the dino is a soft, velvety polyester, which I find so cozy to snuggle into every night.
From left to right: the Darcy the Dog plush, Gray Penguin Warmies plush, and Pillowfort Green Dinosaur plush. Photo: Amelia Jerden
I have tried other weighted stuffed animals since getting the dinosaur, but none of them quite match it. I have an adorable little weighted penguin plush from Warmies — which you can heat up in the microwave like a heating pad — that I received as a gift awhile back. While I think the plush’s design is to die for and I love the heatable aspect, I find this penguin is a little too small to make for a good cuddle buddy every night. It’s about half the size of the dinosaur and it can’t really “hug” me back, the way the dinosaur does, because of the size and character design. I also recently tried out weighted-blanket-brand Bearaby’s foray into weighted stuffed animals with the Darcy the Dog plush. Again, points to Bearaby for a truly charming character design, but the plush is quite large and wide, which I found slightly more awkward to sleep with. It seemed slightly too bulky and too stiff to comfortably wrap my arms around, like I do with the dino, which is a little floppier, since there’s no weight in the head and legs. And the dog’s head being so much larger than the rest of its body makes it feel slightly awkward to hold on to. I also prefer the dinosaur’s soft, velvety material to the textured, thick knit on the exterior of Darcy the Dog.
Another plus for the dino is the price. The Bearaby weighted plushies run about $100 a piece and other similar weighted stuffed animals from brands like Hugimals or Hugz run around $50 to $60. Warmies fall on the cheaper end, around $30 for a standard-size plush, but the Pillowfort dinosaur is just $20. And the lower price doesn’t mean lower quality. I’ve had my dinosaur for close to two years, and it still looks good as new. The materials feel comparable in quality to the other weighted stuffed animals I’ve tried, and I think the design of the dinosaur is as cute (if not cuter) than many other brands’ plushies. There are other animals to choose from, too, if a green dinosaur isn’t your jam, including a unicorn, dragon, pegasus, and a pink dinosaur. My soon-to-be mother-in-law has the pink dinosaur — a purchase she was inspired to make after seeing my dino when visiting.
$15
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