In my long quest for better sleep, I’ve been measuring my sleep quality religiously night after night. I’ve tested many home remedies and sleep products proclaiming benefits for better sleep, and though I’ve found some solutions that have improved my sleep moderately over time, I haven’t found anything that has made as big an impact as changing my pillow.
In this study, I slept on five different pillows that show up on various “best pillow” lists, and I measured the empirical quality of my sleep. This resulted in the biggest sleep improvement I’ve seen to date.
How I Tested
Using a sleep tracker, I measured my sleep quality sleeping on five different pillows for multiple nights per pillow and averaged the scores across the nights. I also compared against the pillow I’ve been sleeping on until now.
I kept my caffeine intake and activity levels consistent across all days. I started my bedtime wind-down at midnight and entered bed between 12:30am and 1am each night. I woke up with my alarm at 8:30am every morning.
Sleep quality is measured based on the amount of sleep in each sleep stage. Time in REM (Rapid Eye Motion) sleep and deep sleep contributes to a higher sleep score while time awake lowers the sleep score. The full details behind the sleep score can be found here.
Results
Saybrook Pillow
See my subjective thoughts
- Very comfortable filling material
- Love that the amount of filling inside can be adjusted
Tempurpedic Pillow
See my subjective thoughts
- Comfortable memory foam
- Had to fold in half to get support because it was too thin
Purple Pillow
See my subjective thoughts
- Made my shoulders sore
- Bouncy material
Old Pillow (Control)
See my subjective thoughts
- I’ve had this pillow forever
- There was nothing wrong with it, but it definitely felt middle-of-the-pack
MyPillow
See my subjective thoughts
- Had to scrunch up the filling inside to get support
- Lumpy material
Pillow Cube
See my subjective thoughts
- Gave me neck pain
- I sank straight into the pillow, and my nose felt suffocated
The Saybrook pillow resulted in the highest sleep score of 170 compared to a control of 117. The Tempurpedic and Purple pillows also resulted in a higher sleep score than the control, though the MyPillow and Pillow Cube performed worse on the sleep score.
My average time in REM sleep on the Saybrook pillow was 119 minutes compared to an average time in REM sleep on the other pillows of 81 minutes, a 47% increase
The Saybrook pilllow decreased my time awake and increased my time in REM sleep. My average time awake on the Saybrook pillow was only 2 minutes per night, while my average time awake on other pillows was 27 minutes. My average time in REM sleep on the Saybrook pillow was 119 minutes compared to an average time in REM sleep on the other pillows of 81 minutes, a 47% increase. Both of these differences exceeded two standard deviations of improvement. The results are statistically significant.
Show Full Data
| Trial | Awake (Mins) | REM (Mins) | Core (Mins) | Deep (Mins) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saybrook | 2 | 120 | 276 | 51 |
| Saybrook | 2 | 117 | 288 | 56 |
| Tempurpedic | 15 | 89 | 264 | 51 |
| Tempurpedic | 11 | 96 | 293 | 51 |
| Purple | 23 | 75 | 288 | 83 |
| Purple | 8 | 92 | 255 | 35 |
| MyPillow | 20 | 80 | 278 | 31 |
| MyPillow | 44 | 82 | 244 | 42 |
| Pillow Cube | 38 | 62 | 201 | 46 |
| Pillow Cube | 56 | 61 | 268 | 52 |
| Old Pillow | 30 | 95 | 289 | 52 |
Discussion
I didn’t expect such a noticeable improvement in my sleep from changing the pillow, especially compared to all the other home remedies and sleep products I’ve tried. The Saybrook pillow improved my sleep the most. I spent more time dreaming and less time awake on the Saybrook pillow.
For some of the other pillows, I would have trouble falling asleep because the pillow was either too tall or too flat. The Saybrook pillow can be adjusted by removing filling or increasing the amount of filling in the pillow, which allowed me to make the pillow the exact height I wanted. If you want to give this a try, I highly recommend adjusting your pillow as well to see if it helps.
I’m pleased with these results and have found a new forever pillow. However, I will continue on my journey for finding better sleep by testing even more home remedies and sleep products.
David Stewart
David is a former statistics consultant.