Consumer Reports: Picking a perfect pillow
When it comes to getting a good night's sleep, we often spend a lot of time thinking about the mattress. But the pillow you sleep on is just as important!
To help, Consumer Reports just finished testing pillows from popular brands to see which ones are best for rest.
What makes the perfect pillow? Could MyPillow be your pillow? That depends on who you're asking!
Consumer Reports tested nearly a dozen pillows from popular brands including Sealy, Tempur-Pedic, and MyPillow.
"In our tests, we assess pillows based on how well they support the head and neck of both back and side sleepers of a range of sizes," said Consumer Reports Home Editor, Haniya Rae.
The resilience test measures the firmness of the pillows to determine how each one holds up over time.
The pillows - ranging in price from about $4 for one from Mainstays at Walmart to $170 for a Tempur-Pedic - consisted mostly of memory foam, polyester fibers, or a combination of both.
If you want good support and a long-lasting pillow you'll have to spend some money, but maybe not $170.
Consumer Reports found that some of the cheaper pillows did offer good support out of the box, but when it came to keeping their shape - many, fell flat.
"In our tests, we found that pillows that were lower priced tended not to hold up as well as pillows that cost a little bit more," said Rae.
And even some pricier pillows, like the $40 MyPillow Classic and the $65 Casper, earned earned only fair scores for resilience.
The best of the bunch?
Consumer Reports recommends the $60 Coop Home Goods Premium Adjustable Loft Pillow. It's excellent for both side and back sleepers of any size. And it comes with an extra foam kit so you can adjust the pillow to your liking.
One caveat?
Consumer Report says all of the recommended pillows - except the top-rated Coop pillow - struggled with breath-ability.
For example, while Temper-Pedic's $170 Cloud Breeze Dual Cooling Pillow did earn a Consumer Reports recommendation, it only scored "fair" for breath-ability.
