The Best Pillows for Neck Pain in 2025, Per Experts

After I get up with even a slight twinge in my neck, my temper nostril dives—so I’ve been on the hunt for the most effective pillows for neck ache for many of my grownup life. In the event you are likely to really feel sore, achy, or tight by your neck, shoulders, and higher again within the morning, you must most likely be part of me in my search.

Everybody’s pillow preferences are completely different, however there are some common standards you must comply with to search out bedding that helps you get higher sleep. “The aim is to make sure that your neck and head are aligned straight over your shoulders when sleeping,” Srikant Kondapaneni, MD, a pulmonologist and sleep drugs specialist in New Jersey, tells SELF. Your entire physique (together with your neck) ought to really feel absolutely relaxed as you drift off, he says. To make that occur, you’ll have to discover a pillow with a peak and firmness that fits your most popular sleeping place.

Beneath, we used consultants’s steerage and SELF staffer suggestions to search out the suitable pillows for all sorts of sleepers looking for neck ache aid.

(However first, a delicate reminder: In the event you attempt switching up your pillow and also you’re nonetheless waking up at evening, preventing a stiff neck within the morning, or noticing that your ache is radiating out of your neck to your arm, examine in with a health care provider to see if there are different elements that might be inflicting your continual neck ache.)

Our high picks

Store the most effective pillows for neck ache

Whether or not you sleep like a tablet bug or a starfish, you don’t need to spend your mornings feeling stiff as a board. Learn on to search out the supportive pillow of your (literal) desires.

Finest Total: Coop Dwelling Items Eden Adjustable Pillow

SELF’s director of health and meals admits that Coop’s bestselling Eden pillow is a little bit splurge-y, however says it’s so high-quality that it’s properly definitely worth the funding. “It made such a distinction” for her and her associate, who bought their Edens 4 or 5 years in the past, she says.

That is significantly spectacular as a result of, whereas she sleeps on her again, her associate is a aspect sleeper. Facet sleepers usually want a taller pillow than again sleepers with a purpose to align their head, neck, and shoulders, which normally means bedmates ought to go for two completely different pillows. However the Eden is adjustable—you possibly can add or take away as a lot of the filling as you want, so yow will discover the precise peak that works for you. Plus, the fill is fabricated from cooling, gel-infused foam that gained’t allow you to sink down an excessive amount of or overheat in the course of the evening.

Finest Funds Decide: Clara Clark Reminiscence Foam Pillow

This was the primary pillow I ever tried that obtained me near that absolutely relaxed, impartial place that Dr. Kondapaneni describes. With all of its shredded reminiscence foam filling inside, it stands fairly tall, which is nice for a aspect sleeper like me who wants a lot of area between the mattress and her head—the place else would my backside shoulder go?

Again and abdomen sleepers can take away a number of the fill to decrease the pillow’s peak. Both approach, it’ll really feel agency and supportive. Contemplating its worth level, its filling is impressively dense and heavy-duty—I’ve positively handled some sinkage occasionally, nevertheless it at all times bounces again the subsequent day.

Finest for Facet Sleepers: Pillow Dice Facet Dice

Until I some day have a pillow custom-made to suit the precise nook between my shoulder and head, I don’t assume I’ll discover a extra excellent pillow than Pillow Dice’s cozy, supportive aspect sleeper pillow. It’s fabricated from plush foam, however because of its rectangular construction, it doesn’t collapse beneath the load of my head. As a substitute, it cradles me whereas offering sufficient room for my backside shoulder to relaxation comfortably (relatively than scrunch up beneath the remainder of my physique).