If you browse through my website, you’ll see that I have tested a lot of baby and toddler sleep gear for airplanes. When we would take long flights with our small children, I was a huge fan of inflatable airplane beds. But as our kids got older, they outgrew the airplane toddler travel beds, but we still needed a kids travel pillow to help them sleep on long-haul flights. Enter the Seat to Sleep Travel Nest – the kids travel pillow which changed everything for us.
We took our first overseas flight with a Seat to Sleep kids travel pillow in early 2022. It was a big success! Our kids got a great sleep on our international flights to and from Spain, and they liked it so much that they still use their Seat to Sleep airplane pillows on long flights today.
We have taken our Seat to Sleep travel pillow for kids on over 10 international trips now, and it works every time. Our Seat to Sleep travel pillows have become an indispensable part of our family travel gear.
KEEP READING TO FIND OUT HOW TO GET A 10% DISCOUNT ON YOUR SEAT TO SLEEP TRAVEL PILLOW!
This post contains compensated links.
This post contains compensated links.
What is the Seat to Sleep Travel Nest Pillow?
The Seat to Sleep is a kids travel pillow designed to turn an adult airplane seat into a more comfortable place for children. It offers supports for both their head and neck, plus it helps add padding to those hard arm rests on the plane.
The Seat to Sleep Travel Nest is best for kids aged 3 to 10 years old, so you’ll get a ton of use out of it.
How does the Seat to Sleep work?
The Seat to Sleep is an inflatable kids travel pillow that surrounds your child to create a comfortable seat for toddlers and kids.
You inflate and deflate it in seconds to a level that is most comfortable for your child then set it in place. You can easily inflate it by mouth (it requires very little air) with no pump required. It has a main valve and an inner valve that can be used to make it easier to inflate (without losing air) or deflate (when fully open).
For deflating, you just open the valve and press the inner valve button once. Once the air is mostly out, you can start folding it to get the remaining air out.
It fits behind your child so they can use it on the airplane for both sleeping and when they are watching a show.
The Seat to Sleep comes in a travel pouch that can be clipped to a bag, but doesn’t take up much room regardless. My kids carry it in their own carry on bags. The travel pouch comes with an attached card with all the details for using it.
What I LOVE About the Seat to Sleep Travel Pillow
It Actually Helps Kids Sleep on the Plane!
The Seat to Sleep creates a comfort nest around your child with padding over the arm rest. This helps your child be able to lean over and still have a comfortable spot for sleeping.
In the past, I found my kids often struggled to find a comfortable place to lay down with the arm rests and would often end up on my lap. Less than ideal for me and my comfort!
In our experience using the Seat to Sleep pillows on overnight flights, both our kids fell asleep in minutes using them. They both slept until we woke them. After the fact, both kids claimed they were so comfortable.
I actually really enjoyed having my child sleep on it next to me, because we moved the arm rest up and I found it comfortable to lean against as well!
Easy to Set Up
Our first experience using the Seat to Sleep kids travel pillow was on an 8 hour overnight flight. Our kids were excited to have these travel pillows that were their own and that they could carry in their own bags.
As advertised, when it was time to set up the inflatable seat cushions it took only minutes to get them inflated.
We originally set them up just before it was time for our kids to sleep, but I love that you don’t need to wait. On subsequent flights, our kids ask for us to inflate their Seat to Sleep travel pillow right away, so they can watch their shows in comfort.
No Need to Worry About Airline Rules
As much as I loved the inflatable cushions that turn an airplane seat into a bed for toddlers, not all airlines allow them, and some leave it to the discretion of the flight crew. This is a big risk if you are counting on using it to help your toddler sleep on the flight.
Since the Seat to Sleep inflatable travel seat cushion sits entirely on the airplane seat with nothing blocking the area between the seats, there’s no worry about it not being approved by the airline or not getting to use it. I love not having to worry if my sleep travel gear for kids will be allowed by the airline.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a proponent of products like the Flyaway Designs and the Fly Tot for toddlers, but as your kids get older, they will outgrow them, For bigger kids, I really like the Seat to Sleep as the next logical step in airplane sleep gear for kids. Anything that help improve the comfort level for kids on an airplane is a definite win!
It Packs Small
As I mentioned, it packs down small so I didn’t need to save bag space to pack it. In fact, my kids carry them in their own backpacks for the entirety of each trip.
I had no issues getting the inflatable travel cushion back into the bag after using it. I would usually do it as we were starting our decent, because I like to be ready to go. But you could easily do it once you land, because it really doesn’t take long.
It’s Easy to Clean
The cushion also wipes down easy enough, so the kids used them for watching movies and through their meal. I liked that I didn’t have to worry about taking a mess with us.
They Are Versatile
You could even use them for your child reading or watching TV in a hotel bed! In fact, we just brought a Seat to Sleep to use as a camping pillow while backcountry camping in the Canadian Rockies. It’s nice that they don’t need to be just for the airplane.
Our Kids Love Them
As for the kids, they both really liked them and always ask to bring them on our trips – even on short flights. I always say ‘yes’, as they are quick enough to set up that it’s not a pain to inflate them even for short flights.
What could be improved about the Seat to Sleep Travel Pillow
The Seat to Sleep has a great design, and I struggle to offer many suggestions for improvement.
The first time we used our Seat to Sleep travel pillows, we had a bit off difficulty finding the right level of inflation and getting it positioned properly. This was primarily because we didn’t know the recommended fill level (see our tips below). Once we had it figured out, it hasn’t been an issue since.
They can be a bit wide for economy seats, so I found I was trying to keep my son closer to me and letting it spill into my seat, just so he wasn’t bothering the passenger on the other side of him. When I had a row with both kids side by side, it was much better since I didn’t have other passengers to worry about.
I actually really enjoyed sharing it with my son (I draped an arm over and lied my head over the top of it) and felt I slept better.
The only other thing that could be improved is more fun designs for kids to choose from.
Tips on using the Seat to Sleep Travel Nest
As mentioned, the only real issues we had using the Seat to Sleep was due to our lack of experience in knowing how much to fill it up. Here are my tips for getting the best experience using this kids seat cushion on the plane:
- Don’t it fill fully – 80 percent or less is the best (as is recommended) depending on size of child, sleeping position and size of seat available.
- I find it’s best to blow it up almost full, then use the button to slowly let air out to get desired inflation.
- Be careful if you inflate it before taking off – they can get over inflated when reaching higher altitudes.
- Use it to make the seat comfortable for watching shows or playing games. You don’t need to wait until your child is ready for sleep to set it up.
Where to buy the Seat to Sleep Travel Nest
Forget kids neck pillows – I think the Seat to Sleep Travel nest is the best kids travel pillow out there! I’m sure you are wondering where you can get your hands on this travel pillow for kids. Currently, the Seat to Sleep is available for purchase directly on the Seat to Sleep website.
Be sure to use the discount code ‘BABYCANTRAVEL to get a 10% discount on your Travel Nest inflatable kids travel pillow.
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Celine Brewer is the owner of Baby Can Travel. Not only does she have years of experience traveling with babies & toddlers, but she’s helped millions of new parents travel with their babies and toddlers for over a decade. In addition to writing on her baby travel blog, she has shared her expertise on traveling with a baby or toddler by contributing to articles about traveling with a baby with the Washington Post, USA Today, the Lonely Planet magazine and Pregnancy & Newborn magazine.
Celine also writes about family travel on the site FamilyCanTravel.com, which she co-owns with her husband. Being from the Canadian Rockies, she shares her passion about her home and travel to Banff National Park and area on their site TravelBanffCanada.com.
