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 probably no such thing as a perfect pillow for everyone, but we set out to find one anyway. From down and down-alternatives to adjustables and fixies, a pillow exists out there for your sleepy little head.
The Best Pillows, at a Glance
- The Best Pillow for Most People: Marlow, $49
- The Best Pillow for Stomach Sleepers: Saatva Latex Pillow, $165
- The Best Adjustable Pillow: Luxome Customizable Pillow, $140
- The Best Organic Pillow: Avocado Down Pillow, $119
- The Best Down Pillow: Brooklinen Mid-Plush Down, $129
- The Best Down-Alternative Pillow: Boll & Branch Pillow Insert, $89
- 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 Budget-Friendly Pillow: Beckham Hotel (2-Pack), $60
- The Best Gel Pillow: Purple DreamLayer, $199
Looking for Something Specific?
The Best Pillow for Most People: Marlow
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. 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.
If you’re only used to spending $10 on a pillow from Target to poorly cradle your head, spending anything over like $20, then the Marlow might cause some sticker shock, but we swear, this is the least you’ll want to spend on a pillow—and it’ll be worth every snore.
The Best Pillow for Stomach Sleepers: Saatva Latex
Some people want huge, fluffy, soft pillows, and who are 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 Organic Pillow: Avocado
When it comes to organic bedding, Avocado is one of the first brands to come to mind. From sheets to mattresses, the brand has cornered the market in clean sleeping. We love its pillow because it’s filled with toxin-free down that’s been ethically sourced. Its 650-fill power loft is swaddled in a crisp cotton shell, and thanks to the triple-chamber construction, all the fluffing stays evenly distributed so there are no lumpy or flat spots. The pillow’s available in three firmness levels so there’s really something for everyone.
The Best Adjustable Pillow for Combination Sleepers: Luxome Customizable Pillow
Luxome made a pillow that’s for the Goldilocks among us, where every pillow feels either too soft or too firm. The fully adjustable pillow is filled with removable inserts so that you can adjust the height and firmness of the pillow until you reach your desired level of comfort. It’s super easy to adjust, eschewing typical removable shredded memory foam for something that’s way neater to use. The pillow is also great for those who sleep hot because it has optimized airflow and the outer cover is made of thermo-regulating bamboo viscose.
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: Boll & Branch Pillow Insert
Boll and Branch’s enviable sheets grace many GQ staffers’ beds, but the brand’s pillows? Maybe less so, though we’re hoping to change that (for our coworkers and readers). The brand’s pillow insert is available in down and down-alternative, though we’re recommending the latter for those who get the sniffles around feathers. Its top-notch quality turns your studio apartment bedroom into a five-star hotel, all without having to put down your credit card for incidentals. It’s also available in three firmness levels, though the firmer the pillow, the pricier it gets. We like that it’s sot yet supportive, and it stays in shape because of its ingenious construction.
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 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 glorious 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.
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.
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!
