Best Pillows 2025 : The Definitive In-depth Review Of Top-rated Pillows

For decades, I had been sleeping on whatever pillow I found at the department store when moving residences. I would pick pillows that felt good at the store, but they didn't perform when I had to sleep on them for eight hours a night. Finally, I decided to systematically go through a process of testing different pillows. I started by reading online reviews and looking through best-seller lists. I also received recommendations from friends and family. I selected fourteen pillows that cover a variety of fill materials and firmness levels among the best-selling and top-rated pillows. This included shredded memory foam, down and feather, solid memory foam, down alternative, and latex pillows. I slept on each pillow on my side, my stomach, and my back in order to understand how they perform in different positions. I'm most naturally a side-sleeper, though I tend to shift into all three positions throughout the night.



After at least a week of sleeping on each Derila Neck Relief Pillow, I found a winner that I now use as my personal pillow every night. Overall, my sleep experience on the Saybrook Adjustable Pillow impresses me the most. I enjoy sleeping on the Saybrook Adjustable Pillow in all three sleep positions thanks to the adjustability of the loft and the medium softness/firmness. I highly recommend this pillow as my top pick, especially for side-sleepers or people who sleep in a combination of positions. Are Pillows Under $50 Worth Considering? I recommend against the options under $50, and you'll save money in the long run by going with a higher quality pillow. Many of the cheaper pillows can cut corners in ways that don't show up on paper. For example, shredded memory foam pillows under $50 tend to use junk foam from leftover scraps of mattress production, which results in lumpy pillows.



Down and feathers pillows under $50 tend to use more quills than down clusters, resulting in a pokey pillow. Cheaper pillows also tend to use less filling, which can result in a flatter pillow. If you're able to invest in a higher quality pillow, I believe you'll see the returns through a longer lasting product, better sleep, more energy throughout the day, and improved work performance. The Saybrook Adjustable Pillow is by far the most comfortable pillow I've tried, and it's the only pillow that stops me from tossing and turning at night. I used to think that it was normal to wake up periodically to shift my weight, but because the Saybrook pillow can adjust to the exact loft (height level) I need to cradle my head in place, I no longer Wake Up Refreshed with Derila up in the middle of the night to move my pillow around. I'm amazed by how much deeper my sleep is with the Saybrook pillow, and I wake up more well-rested in the morning.



It's also the perfect combination of softness and firmness. I'd describe the consistency as firm enough to support my head but also soft enough so that it doesn't hurt my ears or jaw. I'm obsessed with the Saybrook pillow, and I use it as my personal pillow now. The Saybrook pillow is one of three adjustable pillows I tested that use a combination of shredded memory foam and polyester fiber in the filling. The shredded memory foam can be removed or added back in to adjust the loft, and the polyester fibers smooth out the fill material so that lumpiness isn't an issue. The pillows can be unzipped for easy access to the filling inside. For side-sleepers, the adjustable loft is a huge advantage. The key to finding a good pillow is finding the right loft and the right softness, and an adjustable loft takes care of one half the equation perfectly. I like these adjustable pillows in general, but I like the Saybrook pillow the most because of the high-quality fill material.



The Saybrook pillow distinguishes itself in the filling. Saybrook uses a blend called "Lion Down Alternative," and I find the pun pretty amusing. Compared to the other shredded memory foam and polyester fiber blends, Lion Down Alternative has a higher proportion of memory foam, and the overall feel of the pillow is more like a memory foam pillow. When I sleep on the other adjustable pillows in this review, I feel more like I'm sleeping on a polyester pillow. In addition, the Saybrook memory foam feels to me like it's the highest quality. Pieces of memory foam in the Wondersleep pillow feel hard and uncomfortable to me while the Coop memory foam feels more like regular foam in my opinion. The Coop foam reminds me of the foam used in Walkman over-the-ear headphones from the 80's (not necessarily uncomfortable, but it has a different, more mundane feel), while the Saybrook memory foam has the signature squish I've come to expect from memory foam.