How to Choose a Pillow for Your Sleep Position

People will spend twenty thousand rand on a bed and then sleep on a pillow they bought a decade ago. It is the cheapest component and the one closest to your neck, and getting it wrong undoes a lot of what a good mattress is doing.

The rule: keep the spine in line

Whatever position you sleep in, the goal is the same — your head sits in line with your spine, neither propped up nor dropped down. What that takes depends entirely on your sleeping position, because the gap between your head and the mattress is different in each one.

Side sleepers need more than they think

Lying on your side leaves the widest gap between your ear and the mattress — roughly the width of your shoulder. A thin pillow lets your head tilt down towards the mattress all night, which is where morning neck ache comes from. Side sleepers need a high, firm pillow that fills that gap completely. If you also have shoulder pressure, a softer mattress surface helps, which is what a mattress topper or a plush mattress is for.

Front sleepers need less

Sleeping on your stomach already turns your neck sideways. Adding a thick pillow on top of that bends it further. If you sleep on your front, go as flat as you can tolerate — many front sleepers are better off with no pillow under the head at all, and one under the hips instead.

When to replace your pillow

• Fold it in half — if it stays folded rather than springing back, it is finished.
• You wake with neck or shoulder ache that eases within an hour of getting up.
• You find yourself folding or bunching it to get comfortable.
• It is more than two or three years old and washed regularly.

Pillows absorb a remarkable amount of moisture and skin over the years, which is another argument for protecting your bedding — the same logic as a mattress protector. If you are struggling to drop off in the first place, our notes on how to fall asleep and green noise for sleep are worth a look.

Browse pillows and bedding accessories, or tell us how you sleep and we will suggest a loft.