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    Side sleeper pillow height guide - I measured so you don't have to

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    Anonymous

    5 months ago

    I bought 8 different pillows and measured their actual loft under head weight (not the marketing numbers). Here are my findings for side sleepers:\n\n- Shoulder width matters MORE than weight\n- If your shoulders are under 16", you need 4-5" loft\n- 16-19" shoulders: 5-6" loft\n- 19"+ shoulders: 6-7" loft\n\nThe pillows that matched their advertised loft: Coop Original (adjustable, so you set it), Tempur-Pedic Ergo, and Eli & Elm. The ones that compressed way more than expected: MyPillow, Beckham Hotel Collection, and Casper Original.

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    Anonymous5 months ago

    This is incredibly helpful! I've been using a flat pillow as a side sleeper and wondering why my neck hurts. Just measured - 18" shoulders. Going to try a 5.5" loft pillow. Any specific recommendations in that range?

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    Anonymous5 months ago

    The Coop Original is perfect for this because you can add/remove fill to dial in the exact loft. I'm 17" shoulders and settled on about 5.25" after some experimenting. Neck pain gone within a week.

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    Sleep Sage research on this topic

    Community answers are the lived experience half of the picture. The other half is measured data. Everything below comes from our own lab work in Encinitas, where we record pressure-mapping results, surface-temperature change over an eight-hour night, motion transfer, and edge-support deflection on every mattress we buy. Use the discussion above for real-world ownership detail — how a bed felt after a year, how a brand handled a warranty claim, whether a sale price was actually a discount — and use the guides below to check those impressions against repeatable measurements before you spend money.

    Sleep Sage buys the mattresses it tests and earns commission on some links, which never changes a score. Forum posts are member opinions and are not medical advice; talk to a clinician about persistent pain or a suspected sleep disorder.