Invest in a good ‘bed for your head’

Doing your homework will help you pick a pillow that suits the way you sleep

If you dream of a better night’s sleep, you’re not alone. Researchers for the Sleep Cycle app found that Americans don’t get eight hours of sleep (although they’re close: At seven hours 19 minutes in 2017, the total is a four-minute improvement from 2016).

To make sleep even better, a good place to start is with a new pillow.

“A pillow is a bed for your head,” says Michael Breus, a California clinical psychologist who specializes in sleep disorders. “If you spend $1,000 on a mattress and use a $10 pillow, you just turned your bed into a $10 mattress.”

Researching the right pillow can be like staring down the toothpaste aisle: The options are endless.

Thankfully, pillow testers like Breus can help narrow it down.

The first thing to consider is the type of sleeper you are: back, side or stomach. Back sleepers may need a flatter pillow, to keep the head and neck in alignment. Stomach sleepers may need a soft pillow, or no pillow. Side sleepers may need a firmer pillow on the thicker side.

Then there’s fill — wool, cotton, latex, memory foam, feathers, down. Breus notes that if you have any back or shoulder pain in the morning, it’s a sign of using the wrong type of pillow.

Above all, just do the best you can, says Rebecca Robbins, a sleep adviser to the Benjamin Hotel in New York: “Invest at the highest level your budget can afford. We sleep for one-third of our lives. Why not make it the most amazing, comfortable room in your house?”

Breus, known as the Sleep Doctor, says that sleep is a performance activity. So just as a runner invests in shoes, you’ll want to choose the best pillow for your sleep.

At the Good Housekeeping Institute Textiles Lab, senior product analyst Lexie Sachs and other analysts look at how well pillows keep their shape, withstand laundering and fit into a pillowcase. Consumer testers rate pillows for comfort and support. One pillow that has come out on top is the Sleep Number ComfortFit Pillow (US$89.99US$149.99, sleepnumber.com).

“Our clients prefer bed pillows with a natural cotton cover and either a soft-yet-supportive mix of feather and down or a feather-and-down alternative,” says Seattle-based Michelle Dirkse, an interior designer whose projects have appeared in design magazines Luxe, Rue, and Domino.

Parachute’s Down Alternative Pillow is one she’s picked for her clients and herself ($74.61-$112.55, parachutehome.com).

After designing for celebrity after celebrity, Los Angeles interior designer Adam Hunter knows that everyone is different and “clients need to love their pillow and find the one that provides proper support and alignment.”

He often uses the Anti-Allergy Down Pillow in his projects, especially for kids’ rooms, because of the simple maintenance (from US$40, usa.yvesdelorme.com).