Pros
- Soft yet supportive
- Designed for back, side and stomach sleepers
- Naturally breathable due to the silk fill
Cons
- Pricier than others we tested
- Not as cooling as our top pick
- Cannot go in the dryer
Specs
- Standard and King sizes
- Suggested care: Spot or dry clean only, or machine wash with no spin
People who are partial to a pillow that isn’t foam or down will appreciate this Cozy Earth option made of 100% mulberry silk, which is breathable and has natural cooling properties. Its cover is made of viscose bamboo, a semi-synthetic fabric known to be breathable. In our testing, the Cozy Earth pillow was a high performer — while not cool to the touch like the Tempur-Cloud pillow, it didn’t feel hot throughout the night or upon waking in the morning, like some of the others we tested did. And the infrared camera showed it took roughly 5.5 minutes to return to its baseline temperature, comparable to the other models we tested.
We liked that this pillow isn’t specific to back or side sleepers — we felt comfortable and supported in both sleeping positions. We also found that the silk fill isn’t as firm as foam pillows but offers more support than a down or down alternative option. Even with this support, the pillow is, well, pillowy soft.
Due to the pillow’s silk filling, the manufacturer recommends spot or dry cleaning, even though it can technically be machine washed (rinse only) with no spin. In our experience, if a pillow can’t be spun, it retains excess water, which makes it difficult to dry. The upside of the silk fill is that it keeps its shape, the company says, and sure enough, throughout our testing, the fill did not shift.
Others you should know about
The Slumbercloud UltraCool Pillow, a down alternative pillow, comes recommended by one of our experts, who notes its superior temperature-regulating ability. It’s made from a lightweight fabric that reacts to your increasing body temperature throughout the night by removing excess heat. While this pillow did stay cool through the night, we encountered a problem when washing it. The pillow caused an unbalanced load washing-machine error and wouldn’t dry properly, and then the seams ripped. Although this could have been a one-off problem — a Slumbercloud spokesperson said he had never heard of these issues before — our feeling was that this pillow would need to be spot-cleaned.
The Bedgear Cosmo Performance Pillow is customizable in that consumers choose a size based on their body type and sleep type (back, stomach or side). The cover can be cleaned in a washer and dryer, too. The pillow feels cooler to the touch without a pillow case, but we were surprised it didn’t feel consistently cool given its high number of vents and the fact that, according to the company, the fabric is designed with “instant cooling technology” to pull heat away from the body.
How we picked
Trust us
I have researched and tested products and gear, from infant car seats to sports bras, for nearly a decade. This work has taught me how to ask important design and function questions, and to consult experts who are well-versed in their respective fields.
I’ve also tested my fair share of pillows for personal use, thanks to neck pain and my distaste for poky feather quills. I spoke with three sleep physicians to better understand cooling-pillow benefits and the market. They shared their expertise on the best sleep environments and how cooling pillows can promote sleep.
We tested
There are a lot of companies that tout their pillows as the best cooling pillows. To cut through the noise, we focused on tried-and-true mattress and bedding companies that offer a cooling pillow, scoured highly reviewed items, and used our experts’ recommendations on what to look for when shopping for a pillow with a cooling effect.
Then, we slept. We tested each pillow for several nights, assessing these key factors in determining the most effective cooling pillows:
How comfortable is it?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, our experts said comfort is the most important factor in choosing a pillow, cooling or otherwise. You might have the most expensive, top-rated cooling pillow under your head, but you won’t sleep well if it’s uncomfortable.
We recognize that comfort is subjective; a sink-in-as-deep-as-possible pillow fill may be great for one person, while another prefers to sleep on a stiff-as-a-board pillow. In our reviews, we point out the features of the pillow — whether it’s filled with down or memory foam, for example — to help readers determine what they might like.
What is the cooling technology used?
An effective cooling pillow will pull heat away from the head. To do that, a pillow will use either a cooling gel or breathable materials like cotton or silk. Often, pillows will use a moisture-wicking fabric to help pull away sweat.
We found that the more effective cooling pillows also have mesh paneling and venting systems to promote airflow.
To get a sense of how well a pillow kept temperatures low, we conducted an at-home science experiment. We measured the pillow’s temperature to register its baseline, say 71 degrees. Then we set a heating pad to the highest mode, rested it on the pillow for three minutes, and measured the temperature again. We clocked how long it took for the temperature to return to baseline to understand how quickly the pillow can shed heat. All the pillows we tested returned to baseline in about five and a half minutes, but some heated up more than others.
Is it easily washable?
If you’ve found yourself relying on a cooling pillow because you sleep “hot,” chances are you’ll want to be able to wash away that sweat easily. Pillows are generally not easy to wash because of the various fills — foam tends to take a long time to dry thoroughly and properly, especially.
At first, machine-washable sounded like a plus, but in our testing, all of the pillows that could be tossed in the washer and dryer caused errors with the machine and came out saturated. One that made it into the dryer caused a burning smell, and the seams ripped. Many of the pillows we tested come with a special cover (not a pillow case) that can go in the wash, and ultimately, we determined this is the way to go.
Our experts
- Alon Avidan, M.D., professor of neurology and director of the UCLA Sleep Disorder Center in Los Angeles
- Kenneth Sassower, M.D., attending neurologist and assistant professor of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who specializes in pediatric and adult neurology, epilepsy and sleep medicine
- Eric Yeh, M.D., attending physician with the sleep department at the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, assistant professor at the Case Western School of Medicine and associate program director for the Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program, all in Cleveland, Ohio
