Sometimes, the biggest barrier between you and a great night’s sleep is right under your head. Even with the support of a good-quality mattress, if your pillow is too firm, too soft, or just doesn’t offer the support that you need, you could find yourself waking up with aches and pains.
A pillow isn’t a trivial bed accessory. Its core function is to support your neck and back and keep your upper body in alignment as you sleep. That means the right one for you may miss the mark for somebody else. And the wrong pillow could leave you tossing and turning.
“You need to find a pillow that doesn’t crane your neck in any position,” says Joel Press, MD, physiatrist-in-chief at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. “The idea is to keep your neck as neutral as possible when you sleep.”
How to Care for Your Pillows
Pillows require a bit of maintenance to be kept in good shape. Be sure you know how to wash your pillow. And if you have asthma or a dust mite allergy, consider adding a pillow protector. Regardless of how well you take care of your pillows, they do need to be replaced regularly, particularly if you have allergies. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recommends replacing pillows every two years—indoor allergens, such as dust mites, thrive in places that trap moisture, and that includes bedding. For more about pillows, consult our pillow buying guide, where you can learn more about how we test pillows and additional factors to consider as you shop.
How Consumer Reports Tests Pillows
Consumer Reports currently rates more than three dozen pillows from widely available brands, each poked, prodded, and pounded by machines in the lab. We assess how well each one supports the head and neck of people of various sizes—petite, average, and large/tall—whether they sleep on their side or their back. And we use a pressure mat to analyze about 1,600 pressure points, focusing on the contact area between the head and the pillow.
We also evaluate how well pillows hold their shape by placing an evenly distributed 225-pound weight on each one (to simulate the human body) in a room set to 98.6° F (to mimic body heat) for 96 hours. “Some pillows will show considerable changes, but fluffing will bring the pillow back to the exact characteristics it had prior to the test,” says Chris Regan, the CR test engineer who oversees pillow testing. “Some aren’t able to bounce back.” That’s reflected in a lower resilience score.
Our latest batch of tested pillows includes a dozen new models from popular brands like Brooklinen, Leesa, Casper, and Tempur-Pedic. Four of the newly tested models performed well enough to receive a CR recommendation.
The Best Pillows
If it’s time for you to upgrade, read on for a closer look at the top five pillows from our tests, listed in alphabetical order. Some are adjustable, meaning you can remove some of the filling to your liking. For more options, check our pillow ratings to see how the full slate of pillows performs in each of CR’s tests.
To see all of CR’s sleep coverage, go to our Guide to Better Sleep.
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