Coop Home Goods’ “Eden” pillow balances even support and just the right amount of sinkage for comfortable sleeping. It’s accommodating for most people whether they sleep on their back, side, or stomach—or are a bit of everything, combination sleepers. Shredded memory foam pillows are the new standard for good general pillows: As with a bean bag, the smaller pieces of foam make the pillow easier to mold around your weird head and provide perfectly even support. Compared to a big block of memory foam, that means it stays cooler and is easier to adjust until things are just right. Plus, it’s hypoallergenic, no feathers here!
The Coop Home also includes a little baggie of extra fill, and it’s easy to add more (or remove foam) until you’ve achieved the perfect amount of height. The adjustable loft is ideal, especially if you’re still trying to figure out what your actual ideal sleep position is in the first place. The gusseted outer cover, made of bamboo and polyester, keeps the pillow cool, negating the one big downside of most memory foam pillows. At this price on Amazon, and with a 100-day guarantee and a five-year warranty, it’s a no-brainer pillow to buy right now.
What to Look for in Pillows
There are several factors to mull over when you’re browsing pillows online. Firmness, size, and material matter most, and that’s already enough variables to think about. The rest will come down to “headfeel,” or how you want your head to feel supported on the pillow, which is where loft comes in.
Your sleeping preferences can tell you a lot about which pillow material will work best for you. If you’re a hot sleeper, memory foam—which tends to trap body heat—isn’t ideal. But a number of new players in the bedding stuff are producing something sorta different: airier fills made of shredded latex and memory foam that conform to your head for a cradle-like feel. Other pillows use perforated materials and cooling gel or plant-based Tencel fabrics to ensure that you don’t burn up at night. Down—made up of goose feathers—or a down-alternative pillow that mimics the same feel, are soft and fluffy but might lack the support you need if you pass out supine or curled in the fetal position. It’s also something to steer clear of if you know you’re allergic.
A pillow’s firmness can also spell out the difference between a comfortable night’s sleep or a giant crick in your neck when the alarm goes off. Firmer pillows are a great option for back sleepers because they won’t let your head sink into the pillow, and they offer the back support and neck cushion you need while lying on your side. A softer pillow allows for more sinkage, so it’s good for stomach sleepers who don’t want to feel like they’re smushing their head into a brick.
And then there’s loft, which is a measurement that speaks more to the height of a pillow. Your preferences here will have a lot to do with your body type and sleeping style. If you’ve got shoulders like Dwight Howard, say, and you’re a side sleeper, you’ll need some extra height to prop you up. If you’re a stomach sleeper, maybe you prefer a thinner memory foam pillow that won’t suffocate you with its loft. Many pillows these days have some sort of adjustable fill which allows you to tinker with the loft height, which is a major boon for not only the longevity of the pillow if it sags over time, but also for adjusting it to suit your body type.
How We Tested
Finding the right pillow for you will involve some trial and error, so we called in pillows from across the firmness spectrum, and with all sorts of fill (including buckwheat hulls, feathers, foam, and gel) for staffers of all sleep styles to try out over a couple nights at least. Across the board, we looked for ones that struck a balance between sinking-in comfort and support, used quality materials, and didn’t run hot. Even better if these pillows came with either adjustable features (removable shredded foam! double-sided textures! interchangeable heights!) or a trial period to test them out before committing.
How We Chose These Pillows
Our staffers have tested dozens of pillows over the years, meaning that this list has fluctuated as the market has become more and more saturated with all kinds of cooling, space-y, optimizable options. We believe that the best feature of all is customization, and accordingly our mainstays have always been ones that let you adjust the loft of your pillow as you please. We’ve delisted a couple of our former top picks (like the Leesa pillow, the Dreamcloud memory foam pillow, and the Sijo CLIMA latex pillow), which while supportive, weren’t quite as plushy or well-reviewed as the others. Meanwhile, the original Purple pillow and the Hullo buckwheat felt polarizing to too many sleepers to include them among our favorite winners of all time. Others, like the Pluto, prioritize customization but fell a little short of the mark.