The 11 Best Pillows for Side Sleepers, All Tested by Editors (Who Swear These Help Them Wake Up Without Neck Pain)

Because science says side sleeping can cause pain

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Published Mar 31, 2024

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best pillows for side sleepers, like ostrichpillow, marlow and eli and elm

Meet the Expert

Dr. Venkata Buddharaju is a fellowship-trained physician at the Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine from the American Board of Internal Medicine. PureWow consulted with him previously on sleep stories regarding the best pillows to use, and we used those insights to inform our testing criteria in this feature.

How We Chose the Best Pillows for Side Sleepers

While researching doctors' and sleep experts' recommendations for the type of pillow a side sleeper should have, we came up with the following criteria, which we used as a rubric while testing pillows. We took in side sleepers' personal recommendations, and called in and tested several top-rated pillows, sleeping on them for several nights. Each pillow that made the cut had to earn rave reviews from editors while checking off these boxes:

Firmness level: Side sleepers will want a tall, medium-firm pillow that can keep your neck, head and spine aligned all night long. Anything too soft can press up to your nose, making it hard to breathe, and pillows that were too firm left ears feeling squished and achy.

Customization: Some of the pillows we tested allowed for users to increase or decrease the amount of stuffing inside. This allows you to amp up the support or softness, depending on your sleeping style.

Height (AKA loft): Like Dr. Buddharaju said, side sleepers tend to prefer a loftier pillow of about 5 to 6 inches tall, so we preferred picks within that range.

Overall comfort: While we longed how our neck and shoulders felt the next day, as well as our overall quality of sleep, we tried to appeal to a range of needs—for example, those who toss and turn may prefer a squishy down pillow, whereas those who like to a more contoured, cradling experience would appreciate memory foam, so we noted the best of each.

What to Do with Old Pillows (Other Than Toss Them Out)

Melissa Lee

Freelance Writer

Melissa has been writing, editing, and producing product roundups and brand reviews for the past four years. She graduated with a degree in journalism from SUNY Oswego in 2019 and has since worked at publications like Hearst, Reviewed and Healthline. She's a freelance writer for PureWow and frequently covers health, fashion and home content. In her free time, she can be found perusing TikTok for the latest wellness and cooking trends. Learn more about her on her website.

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