Many people spend hours researching the right mattress, but did you know that your pillow is just as important when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep? Your pillow supports your head and neck and absorbs all of the body heat coming from those areas. If your pillow sleeps hot or doesn’t offer the right kind of support needed for your sleeping position, you won’t get the deep sleep our bodies so desperately need to operate at our most efficient level.
When choosing a pillow, it’s important to consider your primary sleeping position (or positions), your material preference, cooling features, support and firmness level, and construction. Our team of bedding experts personally test many, many pillows on a consistent basis. We understand the difficulty of spending hours researching pillow options with no clear direction.
In an effort to make your search as quick and effective as possible, we’ve gathered our top picks for the best pillows of 2023. We’ve even assigned each model a superlative so that you can easily identify the right option for you!
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Watch sleep experts Loren and Becca take a close look at our favorite pillows.
The Nolah Squishy pillow is just as huggable as it sounds. It comes overstuffed with gel memory foam and poly-fiber fill, and can be adjusted to match your preferred feel and loft level. We recommend it to everyone except for down lovers, combination sleepers, and those with budget constraints.
The Nolah Squishy is stuffed with gel memory foam and a poly-fiber fill, a combination of materials which creates the huggable squishiness for which this pillow is named. Since this filling can be removed, the Nolah’s loft is completely adjustable, and can therefore be adjusted to suit just about any sleep preference.
Reason to Buy: The feel of the Nolah Squishy is, for lack of a better word, marshmallow-esque. It comfortably conforms to your head and neck without making you feel trapped in the foam, and the gel and poly-fiber fill do a great job of regulating temperature. For most folks, the Nolah Squishy is a dream come true, but the cost may turn some people off. This pillow goes for $198, making it a bit pricier than most pillows on this list. However, It comes in packs of two, meaning each pillow has a $99 price tag—a completely reasonable cost for this high-quality product, but if you don’t have a friend or loved one who you can give or sell the second pillow to, then it may not be your best option.
The Saatva pillow features a pillow-on-pillow design that enables users to easily adjust the height to their needs, leading to a great night’s sleep.
The Saatva pillow has a shredded Talalay latex core that’s surrounded by down-like cotton fill and enclosed in an organic cotton cover designed to wick moisture. Plus, the gussets sewn into the sides mean the pillow should hold its shape, no matter how much you fluff it, thanks to.
Reason to Buy: If you love the fluffiness of the pillows on hotel beds, then you need the Saatva pillow. For $145, you can get a soft pillow made with hypoallergenic, all-natural latex that naturally resists dust mites and other potential allergens. It also has organic cotton that won’t trap heat throughout the night.
As its name suggests, the Cozy Earth Silk pillow is made with luxurious silk—long-strand mulberry silk, to be precise. Made exclusively for Cozy Earth, this mulberry silk comprises 100% of the pillow’s filling, while the outside is covered in viscose derived from bamboo fabric.
Reason to Buy: Silk pillows come with plenty of benefits. They have a natural breathability that makes for a cooling night of sleep. They can promote healthier hair and skin. Most of all, though, they provide that luxurious feel that so many of us are looking for in a sleep experience. The Cozy Earth Silk pillow truly feels like a soft dream.
While a soft mattress might not be suitable for everyone, a soft pillow is a hard thing to argue with. This is especially true when said pillow has an adjustable loft, as is the case with the Lagoon Fox pillow.
Reason to Buy: The Lagoon Fox pillow boasts a supportive construction that doesn’t sacrifice softness (or comfort). The shredded memory foam fill does a great job of conforming to your head and neck, but isn’t so airy that you’ll dip uncomfortably far into the pillow’s surface. Speaking of the memory foam filling, this pillow is completely adjustable. Meaning, you can remove or add as much fill as you want in order to create a suitable loft for your preferred sleeping position.
The Tempur-Cloud is a great pillow for achieving proper spinal alignment— especially if you're a stomach or back sleeper.
Made from signature Tempur memory foam from Tempur-Pedic, the Tempur-Cloud pillow is great for travel because you can simply roll it up with a belt or scarf and it instantly takes up less space in your suitcase. Plus, has a removable, machine-washable cover so it’s easy to clean when you get back.
Reason to Buy: The Tempur-Cloud pillow is a must-have for any traveller. It’s hard to bring a good pillow in your suitcase because they’re typically too large and fluffy to fit along with everything else you need. But because the Tempur-Cloud rolls up so easily, you can have the comforts of home no matter where you sleep for just $79.
As is the case with most things, adjustability is a fantastic feature in a pillow. You don’t need to worry about blindly purchasing a pillow that doesn’t accommodate your needs, because now you can modify the pillow you purchase to suit your preferences. As far as adjustable pillows go, the Marlow is one of our favorites.
Reason to Buy: Some adjustable pillows achieve that designation simply by allowing you to remove or add certain amounts of filling, thereby decreasing or increasing the size of the pillow. The Marlow allows you to do this, but it also features zippers that can be opened and closed to reveal or hide loft extenders. As an added bonus, these extenders are made with breathable fabric which helps to increase the temperature regulating abilities of the pillow.
The Sleep Number True Temp pillow is made from memory foam with patented cooling technology. It comes in three shapes: Classic, Contour, and Ultimate, to accommodate all different body types and sleeping positions.
A luxury sleep experience doesn’t begin and end with the mattress. You’ll need to thoughtfully curate the perfect accessories to compliment every aspect of your environment. A good pillow tops the list of important considerations when aiming for luxuriousness, and the Sleep Number True Temp definitely fits the bill.
Reason to Buy: The memory foam with which the Sleep Number True Temp is constructed utilizes patented technology that is supposed to enhance the cooling capabilities of the pillow. Sound too good to be true? Our product reviewers found the Sleep Number to excel when it came to temperature regulation. In addition to it being cool to the touch, we also enjoyed the softness of the pillow. If luxury looks like cool comfort to you then you’ll surely enjoy the Sleep Number True Temp pillow.
Memory foam is one of the most popular mattress materials on the market today, so it’s no surprise that it’s also being used in pillows. If you’re after something that will closely conform to your head and neck while providing comfort and support then the Brooklyn Bedding Luxury Cooling pillow is a great choice.
Reason to Buy: Unlike many other memory foam products, the Brooklyn Bedding Luxury Cooling pillow combats the issue of heat becoming trapped in its dense insides. It does this through ventilation, which promotes breathability, and a cooling gel infusion that helps draw heat away from your head and dissipate it outwards. On top of that, the pillow delivers on the memory foam promise of unbeatable comfort.
If you’re looking for a down alternative that’s adjustable to your needs, the Easy Breather is a top pick. It sleeps cool, is moldable and supportive, and is easy to adjust by just removing foam fill. It might take some time to get the fill level exactly right for you, but once you do, you’ll have a custom pillow that’s perfect for you. And while the sleep trial isn’t the longest in the industry, the two-year warranty is a nice bonus.
A cooling pillow is essential if you find that you wake up in a pool of sweat even with the thermostat set to 67. The Nest Easy Breather was designed specifically with folks like you in mind, to provide cooling comfort for your head and neck.
Reason to Buy: When you think of a memory foam pillow, you might think of a single block of doughy foam. The Nest Easy Breather is a memory foam pillow, but the foam is shredded. Not only does this allow for great airflow, it also makes this pillow extra moldable, so you can get it into the exact right shape to suit your needs.
The Pillow Cube is designed to be the perfect pillow for side sleepers. With a loft level of 5” or 6” and a medium-firm feel, we agree that this memory foam pillow should help the average side sleeper get a good night’s sleep. It’s not so good for stomach sleepers or combination sleepers.
If you’re after a pillow that will serve side sleepers and side sleepers only, you can’t do better than the idiosyncratic Pillow Cube. As you can tell from the photo (and the name), this pillow is shaped like…a cube (or at least closer to a cube than most pillows)! Which may sound strange, but this shape works very well for side sleepers who would ordinarily have to angle their neck down or up when sleeping on a traditional pillow.
Reason to Buy: If you sleep exclusively on your side, we highly recommend the Pillow Cube. The reason for this is, unsurprisingly, the pillow’s shape. When you lay on your side, your shoulder and neck create a right angle. The pillow cube slots comfortably into that right angle, allowing you to maintain proper neck and spinal alignment.
Finding the right pillow largely comes down to personal preference, but you should also consider your sleep position. High loft pillows are great for back sleepers or side sleepers, but they spell trouble for stomach sleepers who need a relatively flat pillow to keep the spine in alignment. Side sleeping can lead to poor spinal alignment, which is why these types of sleepers need a pillow that will contour to their neck to offer the best support. Combination sleepers tend to sleep best with a highly adjustable, responsive pillow that they can easily switch positions on throughout the night. For a pillow that matches your sleep style, see the best pillow for combination sleepers.
Side sleepers have a larger gap between their head and the mattress to fill to keep their neck in proper alignment. This is particularly true if you have a firm mattress. If you have a very soft mattress such that your shoulder sinks into it, a low profile pillow might work better. See the best pillows for side sleepers for pillows that prevent neck pain.
Back sleepers tend to need a thinner, slightly softer pillow. Contoured “neck” pillows are often great for back sleepers because they will fill in the cervical curve in your neck. Check out the best pillows for back sleepers for our top picks.
Stomach sleepers can sometimes get away with no pillow at all. If a pillow is used, it should usually be a thin, soft pillow. If a stomach sleeper has a pillow too thick or hard, the neck can be pushed backwards at an awkward angle. If you are looking for a pillow that supports the neck and head, see the best pillow for stomach sleepers.
These are the “basic” type of pillows that use no fancy or expensive materials. It’s just polyester fiber fill. They can be filled to different amounts and the quality of fiber can vary. The quality ranges from the super cheap Target pillows for under 10 dollars up to more advanced pillows at about $75. These can also be made to be “down alternative” pillows, which generally means the fibers are shorter and shaped a little differently, which makes the pillow a little more “scrunchable.”
Pros: Inexpensive and breathable.
Cons: Not very durable, and most aren’t as supportive. Side sleepers may need to stack two pillows to get proper neck support.
These are two related types of pillows I’m combining here. Both down and feathers come from ducks and geese. Down tends to be softer and feathers tend to be sturdier and more supportive. Some pillows will use both. These tend to be a bit more expensive than the fiber fill pillows, but also last a bit longer. Old school feather pillows used to have an issue in which the feathers would come through the sides of the pillows. I still remember being poked in the face by feathers as a kid when I slept at my grandma’s house. Many feather pillows don’t have this issue. They tend to use a “double pillow” construction in which the feathers or down are surrounded by a thicker layer with another material.
Pros: Usually soft and “scrunchable” and fairly durable
Cons: Some people may have allergy issues, may need to be “fluffed” to keep its shape, and the cheaper feather pillows might have quills poking you in the face. The ones that won’t do that tend to be more expensive.
Memory foam pillows are extremely popular and are often good quality as long as you don’t mind paying a little more for them. Some are contoured, some are shaped like regular pillows. Some even have “shredded” memory foam to make it feel a little more like a traditional pillow. Sometimes the memory foam will be infused with gel which tends to keep a slightly more neutral temperature (but don’t be oversold on this point, the effect is usually slight).
Pros: Can come in a variety of firmnesses but are generally very supportive and yet contouring. Shredded memory foam options can often customize the loft by removing the fill.
Cons: Tend to be expensive, they can’t usually be “scrunched up,” and they tend to sleep a little hotter than some other types of pillows. Sometimes there will be an odor for a couple days.
Latex pillows are a personal favorite of mine since I have slept on a latex pillow since 2008 and I have four latex pillows in my house. But, what’s right for me might not be right for you. Latex pillows are made of a type of rubber processed to be comfortable and supportive. They can be made to feel either soft or firm and are extremely durable, but they tend to feel a bit “bouncy” which takes some getting used to.
Pros: Can be soft or firm, are extremely durable, hypoallergenic. Tends to keep a much more neutral temperature than memory foam
Cons: Expensive (these tend to be some of the most expensive pillows). The “bouncy” feel is a turn-off for some people. There can be a slight “rubbery” smell for a few days.
Buckwheat pillows are filled with buckwheat hulls for support. They tend to be quite heavy and have a firmer, supportive feel. They can generally be unzipped and filled with the buckwheat manually, so you can fill the pillow to your desired loft. This one of the only “adjustable” pillows you’ll find.
Pros: Supportive and adjustable. Add or remove height and firmness by adding or removing buckwheat hulls. They also tend to be more temperature neutral.
Cons: May take some experimentation to find the correct firmness, and they just feel quite different than what most people are used to. They tend to be heavy and are the noisiest pillows you’ll find.
If you tend to wake up in the morning with neck pain, there’s a good chance your pillow’s “loft” is too high. Loft is simply the height of the pillow, and pillows with a high loft aren’t ideal for everyone’s natural neck curvature. You may need a pillow that’s a little flatter or one made from a more supportive material, like memory foam. If your pillow is causing you pain, see the best pillows for neck pain.
Overheating at night doesn’t just happen because of your mattress or your sheets. Your pillow can play a role as well. If you’re looking for a cooler pillow, we recommend pillows made with shredded memory foam instead of solid memory foam or down, which tend to absorb heat. Another great material for cooling is latex, either shredded or solid.
It is very important that you’re able to wash your pillow cover because we put our heads on our pillows each night, and our heads are not necessarily the cleanest things in the world. We carry bacteria, dirt, dust mites, oils, and more on our heads every day, and our pillow cover needs washed regularly. We highly recommend only buying a pillow if the whole thing can be washed, or if it comes with a removable, machine-washable cover.
As we mentioned earlier, your sleep position is important in deciding what kind of pillow you need. Everyone’s personal preferences are different, but generally speaking, stomach sleepers need a flatter pillow to prevent lifting their head up too high and bringing the spine out of alignment. Back sleepers need the opposite: a pillow that will lift the head up high enough to keep the spine properly aligned. Side sleepers tend to sleep best with a pillow made from a contouring material like memory foam or latex. As for combination sleepers, the most important factor is adjustability, since they tend to change positions all night.
For optimal neck position you should only sleep with one pillow under your head. Just make sure the loft accommodates your preferred sleeping position. As far as how many pillows you should have around you, it’s really up to you! Some people like to sleep with a pillow to the side of them that they can cradle, and some even enjoy a pillow between their knees while they sleep on their side.
An adjustable pillow will be best. This construction will allow you to add and remove the fill will allow you to adjust the loft in order to accommodate any sleeping position.
It depends on your sleeping position. Stomach sleepers will do well with a thin pillow with a low loft, while a thick pillow tends to work better for side sleepers who need more support to maintain healthy spinal alignment.
Each of these pillows on our list brings its own amazing strengths and potential downfalls to the table. Overall, we were incredibly impressed with the Nolah Squishy pillow for its responsive, adjustable, and supportive design. We’re also impressed with the Nest Easy Breather pillow for its cooling capabilities and breathable, comfortable construction. No one pillow is right for everyone, but all of the options on our list come with trial periods, so you can try it multiple out and see which is best for your preferences!
