We Tested 70 Pillows — Here Are the 10 We Recommend for Every Type of Sleeper

The reason we chose the Luxome LAYR Customizable Pillow for Best Overall Pillow is in its name: It’s extremely customizable. The pillow comes with three different inserts — soft, medium, and hard — that you can mix and match to create your perfect pillow. Because it’s customizable, it works for any sleeping position. According to company website, you should test a few configurations to find the one that works for you.

Editor Olivia Campbell tested this pillow. She found it was comfortable whether sleeping on her side or back, even if she shifted positions in the middle of the night.

The soft insert is made entirely from a down-alternative filling. The hard insert is filled with memory foam that is certified by CertiPUR-US. This means that the foam is free from a range of potentially harmful chemicals, including formaldehyde. The medium insert is a mix of foam and down-alternative.

You can also remove some of the fill from each insert, allowing you to find the perfect height as well as the ideal level of firmness. The pillow is quite high when you use all the inserts and filling, which is ideal for side sleeping.

We do wish the pillow were a bit more plush when all the inserts and filling are in. While we thought about removing some of the inserts to make it softer, we didn’t want to lose the pillow’s height. Even with that in mind, we think that the Luxome LAYR Customizable Pillow is the perfect choice if you don’t quite know what you need from a pillow. It’s made from high-quality materials and supports a range of sleeping positions.

The makers of the Brooklinen Marlow Mini Pillow clearly designed it with the ethos that the only thing a travel pillow should sacrifice in the name of portability is size. Not only is the pillow itself comfortable and made from high-quality materials — like its larger counterpart, the Marlow Pillow — but it’s also adjustable. Its zipper system allows you to alter the pillow’s height without removing or adding any fill, which is ideal for travel. Plus, it comes with a carrying case and its own machine-washable pillow case.

While most people picture neck pillows when they think of travel pillows, editor Ashley Ziegler found that the Marlow Mini’s standard shape came with key advantages. The main perk was that she could use it as lumbar support in addition to sleeping on it. The zipper system made the pillow more comfortable and increased its portability, since she could zip it down to its smallest height.

The only downsides are that it requires daily fluffing to remain comfortable, according to the website, and that could get annoying on long trips. We also found that, while the pillow never became too hot, it didn’t feel particularly cool either.

Still, the Marlow Mini Pillow stands out among travel pillows, because its adjustability means that it can work for any sleeping position. So whether you’re stuffing it into your backpack for a camping trip or pulling it out on a plane, the Marlow Mini Pillow is designed for your needs.

Our top choice for the Best Cooling Pillow is BEDGEAR’s Night Ice Performance Pillow, because its unique design prioritizes cooling over every other feature. Every element of the pillow — from the machine-washable cover to the cooling gel interior — is meant for airflow. In fact, the cover features vents allowing airflow around your entire head throughout the night.

Not only is the pillow cool, but it’s also comfortable. The pillow comes in four different heights, so you can choose the one that works best for your size and sleeping position. Our tester, writer Kara Wahlgren, chose the size 2 pillow. According to the website, that pillow is best for medium-build people who sleep on their sides. She found it to be the ideal firmness for side sleeping and didn’t wake up with any of her usual neck stiffness.

The BEDGEAR Night Ice Performance Pillow is designed to be used without a pillowcase. While this enhances the pillow’s cooling effects, it also means you’re stuck with the aesthetic design of the pillow. Wahlgren referred to it as her “space pillow” due to its iridescent, deep-blue color and the fact that the vents reminded her of a space shuttle’s airlock. In the end, she wanted to use it with a pillowcase simply to dim its overly eye-catching properties.

We chose the SIJO FlexCool Pillow as the best memory foam pillow, because it combines the benefits of memory foam with adjustability and cooling properties.

Memory foam can be an excellent option for those looking to relieve muscle pain or tension. In fact, multiple experts we spoke to cited memory foam as one of the best pillow materials. “Memory foam and latex provide contoured, firm support for the neck, great pressure relief, and are very durable,” says Dr. Wu.

SIJO’s FlexCool Memory Foam Pillow provides all of these benefits and more. We found the memory foam itself to be of excellent quality. While some pillows made of shredded foam have hard pieces, we felt that the entirety of the FlexCool’s fill was soft. Plus, the pillow allows you to add fill to get it to just the right height.

The biggest standout feature, however, is the pillow’s cooling cover. “Of all the pillows I’ve tested, this is one of the best covers,” says Wahlgren, who tested the pillow. “The outer shell on this one is a nylon/spandex blend, and it’s icy cold, but it feels almost like a Supima cotton — just very soft and luxe.”

It’s easy to add fill to the pillow, but removing the fill comes with a downside: It’s difficult to store any that you take out, because the bag the extra fill comes in is packed too tightly to accommodate any additional fill. That said, this pillow remains our top choice for Best Memory Foam because it delivers on every level.

SIJO’s CloudSupport Pillow is the best for side sleepers because it provides a high level of support while remaining cool and comfortable throughout the night. When it comes to sleeping on your side, finding a firm pillow is key. According to Dr. Hassan, a side sleeper’s pillow “needs to be firm enough to maintain its loft and high enough to keep the ear roughly level with the shoulder.”

The CloudSupport Pillow delivers on this front. Like many latex pillows, we found it to be extremely bouncy. “It is so bouncy ... this was next-level springy. I could literally bounce things off of it like a trampoline,” says Wahlgren, who tested this pillow for us. According to SIJO’s website, the pillow doesn’t need to be fluffed, and we found that claim accurate. The pillow holds its shape throughout the night, providing continual support even if you don’t toss and turn much.

The pillow also stays cool throughout the night in part because of its ultra-cooling nylon covering. One issue we had was that the cover was so slippery that the pillow slid around the inside of a pillowcase. Also, the pillow isn’t adjustable, so if it’s not a good height for you, it simply won’t work. Still, if you’re a side sleeper looking for a pillow that makes you feel like you’re sleeping on a cloud, SIJO’s CloudSupport Pillow is your best option.

The type of pillow you rest your head on influences more than neck and shoulder pain. It can impact your back, too. According to Hassan, this is because tension in your neck can travel all the way down your back. To prevent this, he recommends choosing “a pillow that keeps the head and neck from pitching too far forward [and] reduces tension.”

With this advice in mind, we chose the Plant-Based Pillow by Sweet Zzz as our top choice for addressing back pain. Its soy-based, vegan down-alternative is soft, so that your neck isn’t pinched. However, it isn’t too soft, because it features a firmer inner core to counteract its softer outer layer. It also comes in two heights: The higher 7-inch (in) loft is meant for side sleepers, and the lower 5-in height is meant for back sleepers.

Note that the Sweet Zzz Plant-Based Pillow is not adjustable like many other options. It remains an excellent choice, however, for those with back pain due to its balance of softness and support.

Having the correct pillow is vital for those with neck pain. As Hassan says, your pillow is “a brace for your neck during sleep,” holding it in (hopefully) the correct position throughout the night. The Kapok Pillow by Layla does just that. It’s filled with a mixture of kapok fiber and shredded memory foam. Kapok is an eco-friendly alternative to down.

I personally tested this product and found that this mixture of fill types forms a pillow that is both soft and supportive. I get a fair amount of neck pain as a para-athlete, and I was surprised by how comfortable the Kapok Pillow is. It cradled my neck while allowing my head to relax. It also remained cool throughout the night, despite not having a slick cover.

The pillow is also adjustable. While it doesn’t come with any extra filling, you can remove some of the filling if you choose, and it comes with a fill storage bag. That said, I didn’t remove any of the filling. According to the product website, the pillow is “generously overfilled,” but I didn’t find it to be overfilled in the slightest. If you’re looking for a super-lofty pillow, the Kapok isn’t the best choice.

The biggest downside, however, is that the pillow doesn’t hold its shape well. By the time I woke up, it was significantly flatter where my head was. We still chose it as our top choice for neck pain, though, because the loss of loft didn’t translate into a loss of comfort. The Kapok Pillow is the comfiest pillow I’ve ever slept on, and it did wonders for my neck pain. So if you’ve been getting neck pain, we recommend giving Layla’s Kapok Pillow a try.

BEDGEAR’s Cosmo Performance Pillow provides stomach sleepers with the cooling and support needed to accommodate what can be an uncomfortable sleeping position. A key component of a good pillow for stomach sleepers is that it maintains breathability and coolness. The Cosmo Performance Pillow maintains its cool temperature with a combination of air vents and specialized cooling fabric.

Writer Mary Sauer, a self-confessed stomach sleeper, found that it remained cool and comfortable throughout the entire night, no matter how long she slept.

Plus, the Cosmo Performance Pillow is highly customizable. When you purchase the pillow, you choose from four heights. This is important for stomach sleepers, since getting the height of your pillow is crucial if you sleep in this position. And you can choose the firmness of the pillow simply by turning it over; one side is much firmer than the other.

This pillow isn’t for everyone, though. It isn’t adjustable, so if you choose the wrong height when you purchase it, you’ll have to return it. The website has a helpful guide for picking your ideal loft, so you should receive a good match. Nonetheless, we believe it’s worth it, due to just how comfortable and breathable it is, even if you sleep face down.

Though Wildbird’s Pregnancy Pillow is marketed only to those who are expecting, we’ve chosen it as our best body pillow due to its versatility and convenience. Multiple experts we spoke to recommended putting a pillow between or underneath your knees to help manage back pain, and having a body pillow can make doing so much easier.

“It’s so comfortable and useful for the stage of pregnancy I am in,” says writer Carrie Murphy, who tested this for us. “It takes up less room than a typical pregnancy pillow.”

Wildbird’s Pregnancy Pillow has several advantages over other body pillows. First off, it’s filled with polyester pearl foam, which means that the entire pillow is machine-washable. Not only does this benefit those dealing with the messes that sometimes accompany pregnancy and newborns, but also those who sweat throughout the night.

We also found the pillow to be smaller and easier to store than other pregnancy pillows. And if you’re concerned about the aesthetics of having a body pillow on your bed, the covers (sold separately from the pillow) come in nine colors.

The Wildbird Pregnancy Pillow has some downsides, though. We wish it were firmer, especially for a body pillow meant to be supportive. Also, the middle lost its plumpness after about a week of daily use and needed to be fluffed (a common issue with polyester fill).

Still, the Wildbird Pregnancy Pillow’s sheer convenience far outweighs these downsides. It’s a great option if you’re looking for a body pillow that won’t take up your entire bed, regardless of whether or not you have a little one on the way.

Coop’s Adjustable Wedge Pillow is our top choice for the best pillows for snoring, because it provides the support and angled height needed to address snoring. It also features a soft topper that keeps the pillow comfortable.

One potential solution is using a wedge pillow. Wu recommends that patients who struggle with snoring choose a firmer pillow, especially a wedge pillow, that keeps them partially upright throughout the night. (That said, Hassan emphasized that if changing your sleeping position doesn’t help your snoring, it’s time to talk to your doctor.)

This is why we chose the Adjustable Wedge Pillow. It comes with three inserts, ranging in size from 2 to 5 in, as well as a softer 2-in pillow topper. This means that the pillow can be up to 12 in high.

The pillow topper is really the standout feature here. Many wedge pillows are far too firm for most people, especially those who sleep on their sides. The soft pillow topper means that you get the support from the wedge pillow, but you also have somewhere soft for your shoulder to sink into.

And the Adjustable Wedge Pillow truly does help with snoring. Campbell found that it stopped both snoring and acid reflux completely in her partner. The only downside is that it takes some trial and error to figure out the perfect height. Campbell had to experiment with balancing the loft preferences with being so high they slipped down off the pillow. If you or your partner struggles with snoring, Coop’s Adjustable Wedge Pillow could be the game-changer you’re looking for.