Not many people are back sleepers, through and through.
What’s more, while shopping for bedroom accessories, a good number of back sleepers tend to focus only on getting a quality mattress.
But while buying the right mattress is essential, it won’t do much good coupled with the wrong pillow; say, a pillow whose fill texture contrasts unfavorably with your mattress firmness.
Like most other purchases, picking out the right pillow requires some familiarity with brands, materials, buying factors, chiropractic dos and don’ts, and, of course, the knowledge to balance out each of these needs.
Today, we review five pillows for back sleepers and offer a couple of shopping pointers.
Let’s get right into it.
The Five Best Pillows for Back Sleepers, Reviewed
Amerisleep Dual Comfort Pillow
While most memory foam pillows have garnered a negative reputation as heat retainers, the Amerisleep Dual Comfort Pillow proves otherwise. All while still retaining the impressive ventilation and air circulation of any high-end memory foam pillow.
Just as the name suggests, it comes in two firmness levels: medium firm and medium soft.
It also comes in two thickness settings: 6 inches and 5 inches, both suitable for dry cleaning and spot cleaning.
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Amerisleep Dual Comfort Pillow
The Dual Comfort Pillow’s soft and firm design allows you to choose the level of support you want based on your preferences and sleep style.
Kassatex European White Goose Down Pillow
Right off the bat, we’ll be the first to tell you: this isn’t the cheapest option. But for the luxury it offers, this Kassatex offering deserves a spot on our list.
First, it comes in three versions: firm, medium, and soft, representing the amount of down used in each.
The material used in the Kassatex Goose Down Pillow is doubly cleaned before assembly — not only to reinforce the pillow’s breathability but also to reduce the likelihood of an allergic reaction.
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Kassatex European White Goose Down Pillow
The Kassatex pillow features lofty 650 fill power European white goose down cleansed to 2x government standards to be environmentally friendly.
Zoma Sports Pillow
This pillow is filled with a patented mixture of fiberfill and shredded memory foam, specifically designed to offer excellent pressure relief.
Picture yourself getting home from work and letting out a gentle, “Aaah!” as soon as your head hits the pillow. That’s the idea.
The innermost core consists of the patented MicroCushions mixture we just mentioned. And the pillow covering contains a well-aerated polyester mesh fabric, which is cool to the touch by design.
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Zoma Sports Pillow
The Zoma Sports Pillow is covered in a lightweight, breathable mesh fabric. With air flowing freely, you can sleep cool and uninterrupted.
Brooklinen Down Pillow
The Brooklinen Down Pillow boasts all of the most notable luxurious elements that down pillow enthusiasts have come to expect, all with a surprisingly reasonable price tag.
It comes in three versions, with the softest and most expensive being the plush, which contains
100% down.
Its shell is 400 thread count cotton, making it a breathable and temperature-neutral option.
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Brooklinen Down Pillow
No matter what position you sleep in, the Brooklinen down pillows are super soft, yet extremely supportive for a perfect night’s sleep.
Pacific Coast Double Down Medium Pillow
The average down pillow will set you back a fair bit. But the premium quality offered by the king-sized Pacific Coast pillow certainly makes a solid case for itself — and that’s comparing it even to the higher-end down pillow brands.
Its feathered core comes in several chambers of patented Resilia feathers. Simultaneously, its outer layer consists of hyper-cleaned down, which provides the pillow with a decent amount of elasticity while retaining its advertised supportive form.
The Pacific is fitted with a 4-cm thick gusset to ensure it retains its full shape after all the tossing and folding that happens during sleep. This way, you won’t have to fluff it back into shape too often. Another perk with this pillow is you can throw it in your household washing machine — front or top loaders.
In addition to the standard medium firmness, the Pacific Coast Double Down Medium Pillow also comes in two versions: firm and soft.
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Pacific Coast Double Down Medium Pillow
Preferred in over 1 Million hotel rooms nationwide, this pillow-in-a-pillow design combines fluffy down and resilient feathers for a comfort experience like no other.
Best Pillow Materials for Back Sleepers
Most fabrics and fill materials can be used to make good (and perhaps even the best) pillows for back sleepers, but there is a propensity within manufacturers to go for memory foam fill.
Memory Foam
In all its forms, a memory foam pillow is an excellent choice for those who want something that conforms easily to the neck’s curvature.
There are several forms of memory foam pillows:
- One-piece Memory Foam Pillow (AKA traditional memory foam pillows)
- Shredded Memory Foam Pillow
- Cooling Gel Memory Foam Pillow
Buckwheat
A pillow made of buckwheat is filled with all-natural shells extracted from buckwheat kernels.
The good thing with buckwheat pillows is they’re easily expandable since they’re pre-loaded with more hulls in the fill area. This pillow material gives them a decent amount of elasticity while leaving room for air to flow in and out.
Latex
Latex fills are extracted from rubber, which is turned into a fluffy, retractable material then used to fill the pillow. Latex fill does not need fluffing and possesses a good amount of elasticity, allowing it to retain its shape for a long time.
Latex pillows are slightly more expensive than the average standard pillow, but your extra dollars buy you the plush feel of a down pillow.
Down
This type of pillow contains all the feather fill in the pillow’s center core. These are the main soft bits that you fluff out every morning.
The “down” is the outer core surrounding the feather fill, extracted from the front chest area of avian animals: ducks, swans, and geese.
Down feathers are extremely soft and tender in feel and bear a close resemblance to dandelion petals.
This material endows down pillows with their incredible softness and elasticity. It lies at the top end of the luxury spectrum.
Tips & Tricks for Back Sleepers
Look for a Pillow With Good Loft
Of all the boxes that need to be checked before buying your pillow, this one is the most important.
What you want is to find a pillow of perfect medium thickness. A pillow that’s too thick will prop your head up too far up for comfort. And that’s not good for your spine alignment.
And an inordinately flat pillow will sink your head too far down, which might stress your neck and back.
Our suggestion? The Pacific Coast Double Down Medium Pillow is a good place to start for a medium-loft pillow.
Wash ONLY as Instructed
It’s fine to clean most pillows in a washing machine.
However, particular specially made pillows (foam pillows, for instance) might not be suited for machine washing or, say, dry cleaning.
To prevent irreversible damage to the interior fill material, it’s paramount that you read the label and follow the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions.
Additionally, using certain detergents on it might leave the pillow with a lasting odor that may not appeal to you.
Pick the Right Size
It’s essential to pick out a pillow that’s just the right height. The sizes available for down pillows are the same for most pillows on the market:
- King: the biggest size
- Queen: large enough to be suitable for those who often toss at night
- Euro: square-shaped; ideal for use as a backrest
- Standard: the most common size
Next Step to Peaceful Sleep
While sleep experts have observed that less than 15% of people sleep on their backs, it’s well established that sleeping on your back is the healthiest option. So if you’ve made it this far, then you’re on your way to maximizing your sleep health.
That said, the takeaway here is to understand your needs as a back sleeper; particularly those related to your neck’s natural curvature, followed by your comfort preferences.
In the meantime, our team here at Sleep Reviews has stocked our blog with everything you need to know about bedroom curtains, mattress choices – even alarm clocks!
So if you want to know more, be sure to check us out.
