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Everyone has opinions on the best pillows, all skewed by their highly specific body type and sleeping preferences: Any hunk of fluff can be vetoed for a myriad of reasons: not soft enough. A tad too soft. Not supportive. Overly firm. There’s no such thing as a perfect pillow for everyone, but we set out to find out anyways.
The Best Pillows, at a Glance
- The Best Pillow for Most People: Coop Home Eden, $96
- The Best Pillow for Stomach Sleepers: Amerisleep Dual Comfort, $130
- The Best Adjustable Pillow for Back and Side Sleepers: Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Neck, $119
- The Best Wedge Pillow: The Company Store Down-Alternative Reading Wedge, $40
- The Best Luxe Pillow: Saatva Latex Pillow, $165
- The Best Budget-Friendly Pillow: Beckham Hotel (2-Pack), $50
- The Best Organic Pillow: Birch Organic Pillow, $119
- The Best Down Pillow: Brooklinen Mid-Plush Down, $119
- The Best Down-Alternative Pillow: Sferra Arcadia, $90
- The Best Gel Pillow: Purple DreamLayer, $199
- The Best Buckwheat Pillow: Hullo, $109
Because no amount of research can beat trying one out at home, we've had staffers with all kinds of sleeping preferences take home dozens of types of pillows over the past few years to suss out what's worth buying and what's better off shelving. All of these factors considered, here are the best pillows for every kind of snoozer.
The Best Pillow for Most People: Coop Home Eden
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.
The Best Pillow for Stomach Sleepers: Saatva Latex
Some people want huge, fluffy, soft pillows, and who am we to stop them? This Saatva latex pillow is just like one of those large, glorious hotel pillows—wide and luxurious and what you’d imagine kings and queens slept on. It’s got an inner core of shredded latex and an outer core made up of synthetic fiber that actually feels something like the best down pillow, without the allergens. This GQ Home Awards 2021 winner beat out the competition for its hotel-like plushness that felt like it was cradling your head in the most un-weird way possible. If you’re a stomach sleeper, this will be your dream. (And you’ve got 45 days to test, plus a one-year warranty.)
The Best Adjustable Pillow for Combination Sleepers: Amerisleep
Variety is the spice of life, as they say, and Amerisleep's dual-sided pillow (one side is firmer and steeper than the other) has plenty of it. This handsome gusseted number is intentionally slimmer so it won't restrict your breathing when you're starfished on your belly, but still supportive thanks to its perforated memory foam innards. The firm side feels dense but not overly brick-like, and the softer end of things is plush and contours around your head without that telltale sinkage. That's not to mention you can choose between two loft heights, 5 inches or 6 inches, when you purchase yours. Our tester appreciated that “the band around the side feels like a loom-spun, seamless T-shirt without any pointy edges or corners,” and all that customization helped earned this fellow a nod in this year's GQ Sleep Awards.
The Best Down Pillow: Brooklinen Mid-Plush Down
Brooklinen makes a lot of the best gear we’ve tested for getting a good night’s sleep, including excellent sheets and down comforters. Accordingly, the company comes prepared with three options depending on your sleep habits, from a plushy low-loft style to a firmer rise. Among the three, the most versatile is its mid-plush option, which is supportive enough for side sleepers, yet still squishy enough for someone who sleeps on their stomach. It gets this unique medium firmness level from its hybrid construction, which includes an inner layer of long feathers and an outer layer of down clusters. The center-most layer is more densely packed, providing support, while the more loose outer layer gets you that soothing “ahhhh” sink. But ultimately, depending on your personal preference, any one of Brooklinen’s three pillows is going to be a winner.
The Best Down-Alternative Pillow: Sferra Arcadia
With ample cushioning and a decent amount of loft, the Arcadia pillow makes a great down-alternative pillow for those who get the sniffles around real feathers. The brand's Italian-made bedding and pillows have become the go-to luxe brand for wedding registries and five-star hotels, and they're available for us plebes who want to sleep like royalty. The Arcadia pillow—available in three firmness levels, multiple sizes, and ranging from $80 to $90—features a down-alternative fill that's reasonably downy compared to the real stuff. The Arcadia pillows are also a better choice for those who want the brand's top tier quality at a budget. Our tester found that this style was comparable to Sferra's much more price-y $600 Cardigan pillow.
The Best Wedge Pillow: The Company Store Down-Alternative Reading Wedge
Wedge pillows serve multiple important, sorta-embarrassing purposes. Maybe you've got acid reflux (relatable), you want to stop log-sawing at night (also relatable), or you just have a bad cold and need all that mucous to drain out so you can breeeathe (gross, right?). Among the few wedge pillows out there, the Company Store's down-alternative one is our clear favorite.
It offers solid head and neck support no matter how you're sprawled out, enough to curb our tester's GERD-related night coughing. Compared to other options out there (sorry, Helix), the medium wedge we tested is also roughly the size of a standard pillow, meaning you can slip your usual pillow cases on it. As a reading or working wedge, there's not quite enough support to prop up your back while you tinker away at an email from bed. But for $40, it costs significantly less than most other options on this list, and far outperforms some of its pricier peers.
The Best Budget-Friendly Pillow Set: Beckham Hotel
At just around $40 for a set of two, these Beckham Hotel Collection pillows (no relation to David, Posh, and/or any of their unusually-good-looking children) might seem too good a deal to actually deliver. And yet, over 100,000 five-star Amazon reviews cannot be wrong! Here’s what those shoppers—and GQ’s own tester, who loved his initial set of two enough that he shelled out for another pair—fell in love with: They’re soft and comfortable, but still firm enough to not lose their shape; packed with a cooling down alternative fill that won’t cause your allergies to act up; and just the right height to sleep with one alone or stacked, depending on your preference. If you’re looking for a simple, no-fuss pillow—either for your own bed or to dress up your guest room with—this is the ticket.
The Best Organic Pillow: Birch Organic
Birch is a brand for the CSA-supporting, organic-only shoppers in the produce aisle who want to sleep on something just as thoughtfully produced. The brand's organic pillow uses an all-natural crushed talalay latex core that comes wrapped in organic wool from New Zealand, one of the best of the best wool suppliers. The temperature-regulating wool is both breathable and moisture-wicking, while the organic, eco-friendly production also nixes the kind of chemicals that keep you up at night.
While most other pillows seem to breeze past the exterior design, Birch clearly took the time to get it right. The organic cotton cover has a luxurious peachy handfeel that’s so soft, it feels wrong to cover it up. Best of all, the pillow is also dense enough to support your heavy dome, teetering on the firmer side. Our tester called it the most comfortable pillow he's tried, though be aware that these are made-to-order so they may take a little longer to ship out.
The Best Gel Pillow: Purple DreamLayer
Purple’s calling card is its signature honeycomb gel that's perforated all over for extra ventilation and extra squishy and supportive. Its space-age designs make their peers look stuck in the past, and its newest DreamLayer amps up its next-gen sleep tech with even more customization. This GQ Sleep Award-winner includes a sizable hunk of foam wrapped up in a gridded GelFlex covering, all ensconced in a stretchy knit cover. That cover expands to squeeze in two additional support layers that you can add even more loft for your Phelps-ean shoulders. It evenly distributes your weight, never bends out of shape or needs to be fluffed, and sleeps extra cool thanks to the built-in perforations all over.
Plus, 5 Other Pillows We Like
Casper's firm-leaning foam pillow is an excellent option for side sleepers and back sleepers, and it's an especially welcome choice for those who burn up at night. Thanks to its proprietary cooling “Snow” technology and a series of heat-diffusing bands, this option doesn't have just one cool side because both are designed for extra breathability. Casper claims that this pillow will secure you over 12 hours of cooler sleep—though we doubt that anyone's sleeping in that late to truly put it to the test. From our calculation, it's certainly breathable for a regular six to eight hours.
The Company Store is one of our favorite places to source primo bedding at reasonable prices (see the $40 wedge up above). Its GQ Sleep Award-winning down pillow makes the most of the retailer's knack for fluffy, warm, down feather offerings with a customizable pillow you can shop based on how puffy you want your pillow to feel. Our tester appreciated that the “firm” fill left just enough room to form a neat little pyramid of feathers when she lay her head down on it. Still, we'd recommend going one fill size up from what you'd normally buy since the fluffy factor was a little sparser than expected. The “extra firm” might be the best fit for people who want an even amount of support for their back and shoulders. This pillow's not quite as supportive or affordable as the Brooklinen down pillow above, but it is guaranteed for life in case the feathers lose their loft over time or the cover rips.
True to the Tempur-Pedic name, this ergonomic hunk of a neck pillow is made from the sleep brand's signature cushioning, pressure-relieving Tempur foam. This one has dedicated curves—one larger and one smaller—that prop up your head and neck when you're side sleeping, or sleeping on your back (with the option to toggle between the two). The shorter end feels like you're comfortably drifting off to sleep on a carved-out nook for your head, while the taller end offers slightly more elevation when sleeping on your back, and a little digestion aid if you like to snack at night. Despite the soft and foamy surface you might associate with Tempur-Pedic, this one's firmer than most other pillows we've tested here (which is a boon for side sleepers but might be polarizing for people who prefer a squishier surface). Other perks: The Tempur-Neck also comes with a washable cover you can toss in the wash, along with a five-year warranty.
One of many reasons why we crowned Layla's Kapok pillow as a top choice in our 2022 Home Awards is its Goldilocks combo of lofty yet squishy neck support. Filled with airy, plant-based Kapok fibers and shredded memory foam, the pillow maintains its shape without deflating as quickly as a cotton- or wool-filled pillow. The cooling polyester/viscose outer also ensures you stay cool throughout the night, and its stylish hexagonal design looks great when the pillow case comes off. The Coop is still our top choice since it comes with a bag of additional fill, has a gusset to it for additional structure and support, plus clocks in at a slightly cheaper price point. Still, the Kapok pillow doesn't fall too far behind if you want to give it a shot.
Marlow is a sister brand to Brooklinen (no introduction necessary), except it only makes one thing: pillows. While other pillows usually offer some sort of adjustable fill, Marlow is customizable in a unique way. You can zip or unzip part of it to make it firmer or softer. It sounds beyond simple, but it somehow works perfectly. Aside from the zipper gimmick, the pillow is a winner. It's packed with cooling memory foam and down alternative materials, and there's an inner mesh layer to further assist with breathability. The only drawback is that you can't toss this pillow in the washing machine, you can only spot treat the cover, though we appreciate the antimicrobial shell that helps with keeping bacteria at bay.
Like the pillow from Coop Home, the Easy Breather is filled with a shredded foam material. If it's feeling a bit too lofty, you can easily pull some out. That makes it a pretty good pillow for anyone, but especially good for side sleepers. Unlike the Coop Home pillow, the Nest Bedding pillow cover is made with Tencel. Tencel is a eucalyptus-derived fabric that tends to be a little more breathable than traditional cotton or bamboo fabrics, which might explain why the Easy Breather performs like a cooling pillow without any of the weird gels some companies try to sell. If you’re looking for an airier alternative to the Coop, the Nest Bedding pillow is calling your name.
How to shop for 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.
Materials: 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.
Firmness: 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.
Loft: 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.
Lori Keong is a contributing writer and editor at GQ, where she heads up special projects for the GQ Recommends team (like the GQ Sleep Awards) and covers lifestyle, design, and wellness topics. She's tested numerous bedding brands and mattresses in the past, from plushy-yet-supportive hybrid beds to lots and lots of fluffy pillows.
Tyler Chin is the associate lifestyle commerce editor at GQ, covering topics ranging from cookware to furniture and tech. His work has been featured in Gear Patrol, Men’s Health, and Insider.
