Best Pillows of 2024
We evaluated more than three dozen pillows to find out which ones will help you get better sleep
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The biggest barrier between you and a great night’s sleep could be 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 you need, you could find yourself waking up with aches and pains.
A pillow’s core function is to support your neck and back and keep your upper body in alignment as you sleep. “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.”
If it’s time for you to upgrade, read on for a closer look at the top five pillows from our tests. Some are adjustable, meaning you can remove some of the filling to your liking. Our pillows buying guide can help you decide what you need. And for more options, check out our pillow ratings to see how a full slate of pillows performs in each of CR’s extensive tests.
The Coop Sleep Goods Premium Adjustable Loft pillow is made of shredded memory foam and excels in our tests for support, no matter your size or sleep position. It’s quite versatile, too. The pillow comes with extra foam, so you can adjust the filling to your liking. It also keeps its shape well, showing little or no change in height or fluffiness in our resilience tests. Our panel of testers was also impressed by its look and feel. The only area where this pillow falls a bit short is in how well it allows air to circulate. It sleeps slightly warm.
The Sleep Number ComfortFit Ultimate is made of a blend of memory foam pieces and down alternative fibers. Inside the pillow casing are three layers that can be added or removed to tailor the pillow’s comfort to your individual needs. It earns top support ratings for both side and back sleepers, and our testers find it to be very breathable. It’s not as resilient as other options on this list, though, and might not hold its shape over time.
The PureLUX Simply Cool Memory Foam pillow is a dream for those who sleep on their side and almost as fitting for back sleepers. It offers optimal support for the neck and spine in a highly resilient and breathable package. Made of gel memory foam, this pillow does not retain heat and has cooling properties that will help maintain an ideal body temperature for rest. Because this is a slab-style memory foam pillow, only the cover should be machine-washed. The core should only be spot-cleaned.
Despite the "cooling" in its name, this Nectar pillow doesn’t actually have cooling properties. Still, it’s one of the most breathable pillows we’ve evaluated and our tests show that it doesn’t retain warmth. This polyurethane foam and polyester pillow is also quite resilient and excels at offering support for side sleepers. Back sleepers, however, would be better served by the Coop Original. Note also that the Nectar Tri-Comfort Cooling is not machine washable.
This adjustable-fill pillow from Layla marries polyurethane foam with kapok—the featherlike fiber made from the seed pods of the kapok tree, popular for being a vegan alternative to down. Our tests find that the model lives up to the material’s reputation, offering top-notch breathability in a soft and rather resilient package. Despite not having cooling properties as its name suggests, the pillow does not retain warmth. And while it offers stellar support for side sleepers, back sleepers are also well served by this pick.
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 information about pillows, consult our pillow buying guide, where we cover additional factors to consider as you shop.
How We Test 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.
