My Pillow Journey Begins
Let’s begin with my pillow collection. It’s a long list, but hopefully not too much of a snooze. Over the years, I have tested many pillows in search of the right balance of support and alignment. Along the way, I discovered that preferences shift as our bodies, sleep habits, and comfort needs evolve. A pillow I once loved may no longer feel ideal when something newer better fits where I, or any sleeper, am now.
While this is my personal journey, I believe many people are on a similar path. My hope is that by sharing what I’ve tried, you might find ideas, guidance, or assurance as you explore your own pillow options.
The newest additions appear first. As you read on, you’ll move backward through my pillow history. What started as curiosity has turned into a continuing quest for the best pillow for every kind of sleeper.
Update May 2026
2 Cariloha - King Flex Pillows
Made from Viscose from Bamboo and polyester and filled with Bamboo Charcoal Memory Foam. Reasonable lofty, structured, a little to sinking for me, but more comfortable than most hotel pillows.
Update April 2026
Helix ComfortAdjust Cooling Pillow
The fill consists of uniformly cut, S-shaped memory foam pieces blended with soft fiber that gently binds them together, creating a light, silky, web-like structure. Each standard-size pillow contains 51 oz of fill for optimal comfort and support.
The pillow features a unique, adjustable design with two zippers along the long sides, allowing it to expand into a gusseted style for added loft. A third zipper on the short side provides easy access to remove or add fill, so you can customize the firmness and achieve your perfect level of support.
Update March 2026
**Brookstone Just Right Pillow.
Fill is 80% cluster memory foam and 20% Polyester Blown Fiber. Out of the box, soft and limpy. They give you a bag of extra fill. That does improve it quite a bit and is respectable among this pillow fill group, but does not compare to the the Brooklyn Bedding shredded deconstructed memory and latex foam pillow I bought a few years ago. Right out of the box, the BB was substantial, structured and supportive and with the extra fill they send for the asking, you cant beat it for the price they get for it.
Hutterite Down Perfect™ Pillow
700+ Fill Power 3 Chamber Firm Pillow 44oz
400 Tread Count 100% Cotton Shell
Not a bad pillow, just does not hold it’s loft enough, even when stacked on a base pillow. I can see folks loving this pillow though, I am just a bit picky.
Update Oct 2025
Rest.com EverCool Pillow - If you want a pillow that has a unique cool to touch feel, this is the best one I have felt so far. It has a QMax Score of 0.40, one of the coolest scores on the market. The pillow seems like it would be a good pillow for stomach and back sleepers, as the loft and firmness is more geared for folks who like softer feeling pillows. For myself at 6’ 220 and someone who likes a very supportive and structured pillow, it was much to squishy and soft for me, but my wife loves the cold to touch feel, so it does get some use. It is a good pillow for between your knees when side sleeping too. ----
Update June 2025
European Sleep Works Cube Cut 5’ Body Pillow
This pillow is quite amazing. It will keep you from rolling too far, keeping your body in alignment, while being able to place between your knees and keeping the lower back from straining and you knees banging into each other when sleeping on your side. The one thing is, it is a monster and my wife hates the cosmetics of it. Even though with a recent back injury, it is really comfortable. I may need to convert it to a couple of king sized 3’ long “simulated” or partial body pillows, so it does not conflict with the cosmetics of the bed. (When you put the body pillow under the covers after you make the bed in the morning, it looks like a body is still in the bed).
Update April 2025
European Sleep Works Cube Cut Pillow
1 Newly Designed cube-cut latex pillow by European Sleep Works. I knew this pillow was in development, and have been waiting for it to become available as I was anxious to order one. This pillow is quite amazing as it is not shredded, it is cut into equall sized small cubes to create nice supportive pillow that when filled to your individual comfort firmness, is very supportive, but soft like a cloud to sleep on. This pillow will be a great choice as an all around pillow and it is modifiable via a zippered enclosure where you can add or remove cube stuffing. After sleeping on it for a week, it is quite nice. For me, the ESW Oxygen Pillow has a slight edge (no pun intended) as their pillow edge support keeps my neck supported independent of the rest of the pillow. Both of these pillows are fantastic.
Update February 2025
Newer Pillows
1 Oxygen Pillow from European Sleep Works Firm 4. (Feb 2025)
1 Oxygen Wedge Topper, known as a half king topper. (Feb 2025)
New Oxygen Pillow Firm 4 and Oxygen Half King Wedge Topper as seen here and here and here.
More New Combinations: I have continued the exploration creating new pillows, experimenting with various materials. Recently, I purchased high-quality wool batting from Sonoma Wool Company, as well as several pounds of latex noodles( mostly from CozyPure), which I find preferable to shredded latex.
The pillow covers I’ve chosen are made from wool quilting ( from bedrooms and more) and cotton quilting (purchased on Amazon), each contributing a unique feel and comfort to the pillows. The pillow covers are excellent, they dampen the the any unevenness of the pillow fill, while adding a bit of softening to the horsehair when it compresses, and add firmness to the noodles which can sometimes be too squishy.
What I’ve discovered is that slight adjustments in the amount of latex noodles, or in how I layer the wool batting around them—whether fully encasing or placing it on one side—can significantly alter the firmness and overall comfort of the pillow. Through this process, I’ve created several new pillow designs using combinations of latex noodles, wool batting, and even horsehair, each with carefully calibrated volumes of their respective components.
Another new combination that is working out great.
2- bioweave organic 100% cotton zipper pillow liners consisting of 2.75 lbs of @CozyPure latex noodles each, inserted into a Bedrooms and More quilted wool fill into cotton zippered pillow cover. Inserted into a 100% cotton pillow case.
This combination has proved to be much more comfortable than any solid latex pillow I have ever tried. 6/26/2004.
Each has proven to feel slightly and sometimes significantly different, but most all comfortable nonetheless. (6/2024)
1 Baa-Noodle Latex-Wool Pillow from Cozy Pure. Nice pillow. Initially, way too soft for me (once I added more noodles, it became an amazing pillow). Waiting to get a quilted wool pillow cover from Bedrooms and More to see if it firms the pillow up, if not will add some wool batting inside the pillow, and/or more noodles. 5/2024
1 Newly Custom Created - 2 Chamber Pillow Horsehair/LaNoodle Latex Noodles (3/2024)
( Employing the same technique as described below.) 2 Zippered 100% Cotton Pillow Liners. One liner filled with 1.75lbs of Blonde Horsehair from Italy, 2nd Liner filled with 2lbs of LaNoodle Natural Latex Noodles transferred from a pillow. Both liners inserted into a BioSleepConcept Iris Cotton Quilted Pillow cover.
This combination is even better than the one below that used Brooklyn Bedding’s deconstructed shredded foam fill.
The latex LaNoodles, renowned for their plushness, blend seamlessly with the supportive horsehair, offering a unique balance without the typical resistance (push back) associated with pure all latex pillows.
This new creation has thus far has provided unparalleled comfort and support, free from the discomfort of headaches or neck and shoulder pain.
1 Custom Created 2- Chamber Pillow Horsehair/Shredded Premium foam (most recently)
(I used 2 zippered 100% cotton pillow liners, used some of the extra Blonde Horse Hair Fill in one liner and the extra fill Brooklyn Bedding sent (for the asking) after I bought their premium shredded foam pillow. Their stuffing is deconstructed latex and memory foam. Used that and filled another liner. Inserted that into a zippered Bio Sleep Concept Iris Cotton Pillow cover (you need this). This cover is nice, masks any lumps or uneven spots that may occur from the shredding fill or the horsehair.
*****This Cover from Bedrooms and More stands toe to toe with the BioSleep Cover, but is wool quilting rather than cotton. The wool is noticeably even cooler than the cotton. This is my new “go to” pillow cover!
This combination is quite good. Like a mattress for your head. Once side cuddling and supportive, the other side firmer with a bit of bounce.
- 1 Queen Hutterite Down Perfect™ Pillow 700PF 3 Chamber Pillow with Feather Core
- 1 standard DreamFit Smart Shape Pillow
- 1 Rest.com EverCool Pillow.
- 1 Latex Cube filled Body Pillow by European Sleep Works - was too much of a monster 5ft long, created two very nice King Pillows that work quite nicely as body pillows.
- 1 Latex Cube Pillow Pillow by European Sleep Works - Pillow made with fairly uniform cube shapes filled inside a beautify wool quilted Pillow cover. Very Nice.
- 1 Oxygen_Pillow by European Sleep Works - One of the best back and side sleeper pillows, period.
- 1 Brooks Brothers Queen 100% wool-filled with cotton cover pillow. (Dec 2024) (Very comfortable filled just right)
- 4 Custom Made Latex Noodle Pillows
- 1 Cozy Pure Baa - Noodle Pillow
- 2 Bed Gear Balance 3.0 Pillows
- 1 Sleepez Shredded Latex Foam pillow (July 2024)
- 4 Queen Sized Blonde 100% Horsetail Hair Pillow new September 2023
- 2 Tempur-pedic King Soft and Conforming
- 2 Tempur-pedic Contour Neck Pillows
- 1 Original TP Neck Pillow from 1992/3
- 1 Tempur-pedic Dual Breeze Queen
- 1 Tempur-Pedic ProCloud Hi Queen
- 1 Tempur-Pedic ProCloud Mid Queen
- 1 Tempur-Pedic Symphony Standard
- 2 Enchante King 100% Wool Pillows
- 1 Malouf Gel Zoned Dough Queen Hi Loft
- 1 Brooklyn Bedding Premium Shredded Foam Pillow Queen
- 1 100% Natural Latex Talalay Pillow Queen
- 2 100% Natural Latex Dunlop Eluxury Standard Pillows
- 2 Brookstone Biosense Pillows
- 2 Pacific Coast Down/Feather Pillows
- 2 Serta Shredded Memory Foam Pillows
- 2 Cervical neck pillows, one with arm wings, one just the butterfly shape
- Several bamboo contour neck pillows and neck roll pillows
- I won’t even count the cheap polyfill pillows
So, as you can see, I went a little crazy with the pillow thing. It took a while to settle on a combination that was comfortable for me. Which ended up with the TP King Soft and Conforming and the TP ProCloud Hi on top. My wife actually likes the TP King Soft and Conforming with the 100% Latex Talalay Pillow on top. I often swap and exchange pillows around to see if combination works better.
I do like the Brooklyn Bedding Pillow and The Malouf Pillow. The TP Dual Breeze is a solid pillow too. But the TP S&C with the TP PC Hi is my favorite. There are still pillows I would like to try, but I just haven’t figured out which ones I want to try first. There are just so many out there. Kapok, Buckwheat Hull, Horsehair (I wish I kept my horsehair pillows from when was a kid, who knew you weren’t supposed to throw them out).
I have found the 100% Talalay Latex too bouncy and pushes back to hard against my neck, The Malouf’s not bad, but when my head sinks into the pillow, it doesn’t stay stable throughout the night. The wool pillow compressed to the point of being too hard (I like firm, but it was a bit too much). The cervical pillows were actually really good. Kept my neck in position, kept me from snoring, they were just a little odd shaped and hard to keep my head center in the neck mold area.
What I like about the TP ProCloud is that my head sinks into the pillow about half way down and it holds me in place and I feel like I am sleeping on a cloud. Funny that my head likes that feel, but my body likes an ultra-firm/laying on top of the mattress feel. I find that if the shredded foam pillows are not stuffed enough, they feel lumpy against my head. At 6’ 220 with broader shoulders, and mostly a side sleeper, I need the two-pillow stack to keep my head aligned with the rest of my body. I don’t like when my head is pushed up too much or droops down below my shoulder when on my side.
It’s no wonder that so many people have issues sleeping. Finding the right mattress is hard enough. Then finding the right pillow/s to go along with it can be a real challenge. If you don’t get it right, it can be a rough night’s sleep. Ok, I guess I have rambled on enough. Any thoughts (other than to tell me to shut up).
I would welcome any suggestions too. I have heard of micro coil pillows, and other unique things, but haven’t seen fit to see what they have to offer. So, if any of our https://mattressunderground.com/the-underground/our-trusted-members have anything unique and different, I am always game to give it the old college try. That’s my pillow story, what say you?
I want to clarify that I’ve personally used all the pillows mentioned, even if just briefly.
My evaluations and experiences are based solely on my own opinions. If you’re curious about my thoughts on any specific pillow or have questions, feel free to ask. My reviews are always transparent and unbiased, driven purely by my personal use of the products. I’m happy to discuss how any pillow in my collection feels or performs based on my firsthand experience.