How to Pick the Best Pillow for You

Getting a good night’s sleep hinges on a lot of variables lining up. In addition to having a good mattress, comfortable sheets, climate control, lighting and mental distractions all play a role in how well you rest.

So does your pillow. Where you lay your head at night can affect not only how well you sleep, but how rested you feel when you wake up.

If you’re not waking up refreshed and you’re unsure why, the problem could be that you’re sleeping on the wrong type of pillow.

Back, side, stomach, and combination sleepers all have different support needs. When you’re lying on the mattress, your head and neck should be level with your spine. Test out different arrangements to see if you need more than one pillow for proper cushioning and support. If your pillow is more than two years old or has lost its buoyancy, it’s time to toss it. Beside a lousy night’s sleep, the wrong pillow can lead to headaches and neck pain.

If you lack the right amount of support, your neck muscles, ligaments, and tendons can become worn and tired throughout your sleep. Since these structures are the ones that work to support your neck, letting them tire out can cause your neck to stop being supported and to fall into curves and unnatural positions.

On the other hand, choosing the right kind of pillow and a supportive mattress helps relax the spine and rejuvenates the body for the next day.

How to choose a pillow for a great night’s sleep:

What’s true for mattresses also applies to choosing a pillow: To make the best choice, match the pillow to your sleeping habits and preferences.

Consider your sleep style

Good sleep posture means aligning your body and having good support. The head, neck, spine, hips, even knees and ankles should be supported and aligned so you don’t wake up with aches and pains.

The first step to picking the right pillow is identifying which position you sleep in most often. How you sleep informs you what level of support your body needs in a pillow.

Back sleepers need a medium-thick pillow to keep the head, neck, and spine nicely aligned. The perfect pillow for side sleepers (the majority of people) is a slightly thicker, firmer pillow for optimal alignment. Finding the perfect pillow for stomach sleepers may mean not buying a pillow at all. Stomach sleeping already puts strain on your lower back; raising your head can make it more extreme. (In fact, when you sleep on your stomach, the best place for a pillow is under your belly and pelvis, to help maintain the natural curvature of your spine.)

Mixed sleepers—those who move from back to side to side—will want a medium-thick but softer pillow that can be used comfortably in multiple positions.

The WHISPER Pillow comes with the unprecedented benefit of having an adjustable height. This means that no matter what style of sleep you adopt, or even if you switch from time to time, the WHISPER Pillow is there to support you every step of the way.

Choose a pillow filling

When it comes to choosing a pillow filling, the first consideration should be any medical issues you may have, such as asthma or allergies, or neck and back pain, which may steer you to one type of material or construction over another.

Memory foam provides good support, especially if you have neck, jaw, or shoulder problems. Memory foam also can take time to re-mold into different shapes if you move around a lot in your sleep.

In addition, natural materials like real silver yarn are breathable and wick away moisture for a cool, comfortable night’s sleep.

Temperature

Do you sleep hot? Some pillows include cooling memory foam to keep you comfortable.

If you’re really serious about keeping a cool pillow, consider high a performance one with air channel ventilation. Like athletic clothing fabric, these are designed to keep away heat and moisture.

If you suffer badly from allergies or if you’re unsure about your allergic reactions, you may want to stick with hypo-allergenic pillow filling.

Washability

While most pillows can be cleaned in one way or another, the method used depends on the materials the pillow is made of. Some pillows, like down or feather, can withstand a beating in your washer and dryer, but others like memory foam are a bit more delicate and might need to be hand washed.

It might be a good idea to find a pillow that’s easy to wash. You want to be able to get rid of things like dust mites, bacteria, mold, and fungi, as well as any bodily fluids that accumulate — head oil, sweat, and drool.

For most people, washing a pillow a couple of times a year is enough to keep it decently clean and alleviate allergy symptoms.

A good thing to note is that loose-material pillows tend to harbor far more irritants than more solid pillows. Feathers and husks have a large surface area for microbes to coat and are easy for dust mites to burrow into. Solid materials like memory are less prone to such issues.

Airflow

Your head dissipates quite a lot of body heat throughout the night. This can cause you to wake up in sweat if your pillow cannot dissipate the heat adequately. Pillows usually present a trade-off between strong heat dissipation and adjustability and suppor, but quantum memory foam pillows have gone a long way in solving this by providing both good support, as well as air flow to keep your head cool.

When to replace your pillow

There’s no set schedule for replacing a pillow, though sleep experts recommend getting a new one every one to two years.

Because they can be packed with illness and allergy triggers such as mold, dead skin cells, and dust mites. Pillow protectors can help extend the healthy life of your pillow.

To determine if it’s really time to get a new pillow, test it by folding it in half and seeing if it springs back to flat. If it doesn’t go back to its original shape when released, it’s time for a new pillow.

To check out our WHISPER Pillow, made of Quantum memory foam that not only regulates heat but can be adjusted to each person’s preferred height, simply click the button below. And we’re so confident in the quality of our products that we offer a 100-night risk-free trial. You have nothing to lose and a lifetime of rest to gain!