The best pillows for stomach sleepers, tested by a fellow face-down snoozer

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Stomach sleepers may be in the minority as the least common sleeping position, but that doesn't mean our needs are any less important. Interestingly, while the best mattress for stomach sleepers should be firmer to maintain proper spinal alignment, the opposite is true when it comes to the best pillows for stomach sleepers: soft, low-profile pillows are ideal to minimize neck strain. In pillow terms, this is known as "loft," which refers to the height of a pillow. A low-loft pillow is typically under three inches tall, making it ideal for reducing strain on the neck and spine in this sleep position.

After testing a dozen pillows, I've compiled the six best pillows for stomach sleepers, factoring in common concerns people have when choosing a pillow, like whether you also sleep hot or struggle with neck pain. In addition to my own experience as a predominantly stomach sleeper, I also connected with Kelly Murray, a certified pediatric and adult sleep consultant and owner of Kelly Murray Sleep, for her advice.

Our best pillow of all time, the Coop Sleep Goods Original Pillow, is also our top choice for stomach sleepers because it's filled with shredded memory foam that can be added or removed to customize to your ideal thickness and comfort preferences. If you like the cushy, moldable feel of a down or down alternative pillow, we love the Parachute Down Alternative pillow in soft, which emerged as our runner-up. Both pillows are great. It just comes down to your preferred feel and fill.

Our top picks for the best stomach sleeper pillows

Best overall: Coop Sleep Goods Original Pillow - See at Amazon

Runner-up: Parachute Down Alternative Pillow (Soft) - See at Parachute

Best budget: Belly Sleep Gel-Infused Pillow - See at Amazon

Best cooling: Helix GlacioTex Memory Foam Pillow (Low loft) - See at Helix

Best for neck pain: Brooklyn Bedding Talalay Latex Pillow (Low loft) - See at Brooklyn Bedding

Best down: Brooklinen Down Pillow (Plush) - See at Brooklinen

Best overall

The Coop Sleep Goods Original Pillow is our favorite of all time. It's a well-rounded pillow that can really suit any body, and I can attest after trying it myself that it's the best pillow for stomach sleepers, too. It's the only pillow to get a perfect score across all of our tests, which examine comfort, cooling, adjustability, and value.

The Coop Sleep Goods Original Pillow is adjustable, enabling you to add or remove its cross-cut memory foam and microfiber fill as you see fit. Each pillow comes with a bag of extra stuffing to customize to your needs. The memory foam blend feels softer than latex or a block of memory foam, but it's not quite as soft as a down pillow. It's breathable, too, so you won't have to worry about overheating at night.

It's also perfect for combination sleepers, since you can fully customize your loft. Since I'm a stomach and side combination sleeper, I struggle to find a pillow that has a low loft for stomach sleeping, but is still supportive when I shift over to my side. I added a little bit of extra fill for a comfortable feel, whether I'm sleeping on my stomach or side. If you sleep solely on your stomach, you might need to remove a bit of fill to get the loft that works best for you.

The Coop Original Pillow also excels in value: each pillow comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 5-year warranty for a little extra peace of mind with your purchase. And if you're a hot sleeper on the hunt for the best cooling pillow, the Cool+ Adjustable Pillow, a variation of the Original pillow with gel-infused memory foam filling and a cool-to-the-touch cover.

Read our Coop Sleep Goods Original Pillow review.

Runner up

If the memory foam feel of the Coop pillow isn't for you, I recommend the soft, moldable feeling of down and down alternative pillows for stomach sleepers. These pillows are super soft and fluffy, the ultimate sleeping luxury. The soft feel lets your head sink into the pillow, keeping your spine aligned and pain-free.

The Parachute Down Alternative pillow emerged as our runner-up. It's not adjustable at home like the Coop Sleep Goods, which is where it lost a few points, but it is available in three densities.

I'm picky about my pillows — I expect the signature softness to be balanced with proper support — and the Parachute pillow delivers, which is why it is the best down alternative pillow for stomach sleepers. I recommend the soft density for a cushy, enveloping feel. The soft pillows are also excellent for stacking if you're a combination sleeper in need of a little extra support. The filling is airy and breathable, and I never overheated when using this pillow.

Unlike other down alternative pillows, which are easily compressed and require daily fluffing, I only needed to fluff the Parachute pillow once every three nights. It fluffed back into place, good as new. My head and neck always felt supported, and I never awoke with any pain.

One of the main benefits of down alternative pillows is that they're hypoallergenic. Unlike real down, which can aggravate allergies, down alternative pillows are a mix of microfiber. Parachute uses recycled polyester with a cotton shell for a plush feel. For stomach sleepers with allergies, I especially recommend down alternative pillows because you'll get all of the benefits of down without prompting any flare-ups.

Best budget

With a mere two-and-a-half-inch loft, the Belly Sleep Pillow is the thinnest pillow we've tried. It's stomach sleepers who have been tempted to sleep without a pillow and simply lie flat on the mattress. It's cooling, supportive, and uniquely designed for those of us who sleep on our stomachs, and it costs under $50.

The Belly Sleeper pillow is made with a layer of memory foam and cooling gel, surrounded by a removable, machine-washable cover. I was intimidated by the pillow at first — it has a low profile that's unlike any other pillow I've ever used and is only available in a queen-size. It looked certifiably strange in my king-size pillowcase.

When lying on my stomach, the low loft kept my back perfectly straight, with my spine aligned. Stomach sleepers can suffer from neck pain when a pillow has too high of a loft that pushes their neck into a strange angle. Thankfully, the Belly Sleep pillow feels natural for a stomach sleeper.

If you're a combination sleeper, I'd skip this pillow. While I was comfortable on my stomach, there was almost no support when I lay on my side. Plus, it's a medium-firm, memory foam pillow, so folding it is not an option. Some back sleepers might like the feel, but for the most part, the brand's name stays true: it's best for belly sleepers.

The Belly Sleep pillow is technically covered by a "forever warranty," but it's not clear what that really means or how to claim it. There are no warranty details, contact information, or form to claim a warranty on the brand's website. I also struggled to get in contact with the brand via the support email.

Best cooling

Helix's GlacioTex Cooling Memory Foam Pillow is my go-to cooling pillow for hot sleepers and one of the best memory foam pillows for stomach sleepers.

Helix uses GlacioTex cooling fabric for the cover of its cooling pillows and mattresses. This breathable fabric wicks heat away from your body and feels cool to the touch, providing soothing relief for hot sleepers. The cooling effect is enhanced by the small squares of cooling gel embedded along the top of the memory foam pillow.

It's a truly unique design, unlike any pillow I've ever seen before. I rarely feel a cooling effect from a pillow through my pillowcase, but I felt the breathable coolness every night. It was a wonderful reprieve from the mid-July heat.

The surface temperature only rose five degrees after lying on it for 15 minutes and then plummeted right back down to its initial temperature after two minutes, exhibiting excellent heat dissipation.

It is medium-firm for a little extra support, but since there is a low-loft version (4 inches for the standard and 4.3 inches for the king size), my spine stayed aligned while the memory foam supported my head and neck. The memory foam molded to my head and face.

Like other low-loft pillows, this pillow looks silly in a pillowcase. And, if you like a soft pillow, this might be too firm for you. For soft, cooling pillows, I'd opt for breathable down or down alternative pillows like the Parachute Down Alternative Pillow or the Brooklinen Down Pillow.

Best for neck pain

For us stomach sleepers, it's important to ensure that we're doing everything we can to keep neck pain at bay. A misaligned spine is the most common culprit for neck pain while sleeping, which happens when your body isn't supported and your neck is lying at an angle. "Your pillow plays a big role in spinal alignment," Murray said. "The wrong one can leave you with neck pain, disrupted sleep, and leave you feeling achy the next day." This is a frequent problem when stomach sleepers use a high-loft pillow, five inches or more, since your back and neck aren't in line. Stomach sleepers need a low-profile pillow to avoid neck pain.

Brooklyn Bedding's Talalay Latex Pillow is a supportive pillow with a low three-inch loft that is perfect for stomach sleepers with back and neck pain. My back was the most comfortable when I slept with this pillow. The extra support of latex is great for combination sleepers, too, since the bouncy feel molds to your head as you sleep without overly sinking into the pillow You won't have to worry about being uncomfortable as you shift to your side or back, since the three-inch thickness is well-suited for stomach sleepers, but is still supportive enough for other sleep positions.

The pillow is also breathable. Latex is a naturally cooling material, with ventilation holes throughout the pillow for enhanced breathability. As a hot sleeper, I never overheated while using this pillow. Latex is also a notoriously bouncy material — it doesn't have the give of memory foam or the softness of down. Not everyone will love this responsive feel, but if you already know you're a latex lover, though, you'll appreciate the slight give of the pillow.

Best down

No hyperbole here: the soft Brooklinen Down Pillow is my favorite pillow of all time. It's also well-loved by our team, as our top choice in best down pillow guide. This pillow single-handedly turned me from a certified down hater — before using it, I was always disappointed in down pillows' support levels — into a down pillow devotee.

I love this pillow because it's absolutely perfect for stomach sleeping. While I can certainly get behind latex and memory foam pillows from time to time, my favorite pillows offer soft, hotel-level comfort and subtle support. The Brooklinen Down pillow is the best you can buy if your comfort preferences align with mine.

The soft density of this pillow is pleasantly squishable, nicely compressing to the perfect height for a stomach sleeper. The plush option I tested is filled with down clusters to create the softest, fluffiest pillows; it's also available in mid-plush and firm densities, which combine feathers and down for additional support.

I notice my head sinks into the pillow naturally, taking away any worries of a misaligned spine and back and neck pain. It's still supportive enough for combination sleepers to enjoy, too, but you may want to stack them or try the mid-plush or firm densities.

Read our Brooklinen Down Pillow review.

What else we tested

• Sleep Number PlushComfort Ultimate Pillow: This pillow follows a pillow-in-pillow design, with essentially three mini slabs of pillow inserts hidden inside that you can remove to adjust the perfect loft. Regardless of the number of inserts I used (one or two was the recommended amount for stomach sleepers), I woke up with horrible neck pain each night I tried this pillow.
• Tempur-Symphony Pillow: The Tempur-Symphony Pillow has a reversible design: one flat side for side and stomach sleepers and a contoured side for back sleepers. However, the feel was too firm for me, and the pillow cover ripped after a night of use. Tempur-Pedic's pillows are also not returnable.
• Cozy Earth Silk Pillow: I love the Cozy Earth Silk Pillow, especially its adaptive feel: it's a luxurious pillow filled with silk fibers for a soft, breathable feel that's halfway between a down and shredded memory foam pillow. At $250, though, it's very expensive.

• Lauren Ralph Lauren Logo Pillow: I wanted to love this ultra-budget pillow, but I was disappointed. The pillow was firm but not supportive, and it didn't cradle my head. Its stock also fluctuates wildly, with certain sizes and densities frequently out of stock.

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What to look for

Stomach sleepers have specific needs. For the ultimate comfort, look for the following when buying a pillow as a stomach sleeper:

• Soft to medium firmness: Murray recommends a pillow with soft to medium firmness for your head and neck to rest naturally. Super firm pillows usually offer excellent support, but these can be uncomfortable since your head isn't sinking in, thus placing your neck at an uncomfortable angle.
• Material: Ideally, look for fillings like down, down alternative, and shredded memory foam, which compress and conform to your head. There are plenty of excellent memory foam and latex options, too, but if they are firmer, you'll want to make sure they have a low loft to help keep your neck and spine aligned.
• Low loft: In addition to soft or medium firmness, look for pillows with a low loft. "Low loft" usually describes pillows that measure under three inches in height. Generally, stomach sleepers want to be as parallel to the mattress as possible, including their head and neck. Low loft pillows help you achieve a straight back for good spinal health.

• Sleep trial and warranties: All of our recommended pillows have at least a 30-night trial, which is just a fancy way to say 30-day returns. This gives you a chance to try out the pillow, and you can usually send it back for a full refund if it's not for you. Warranties also protect you from manufacturing flaws and defects. Always check the sleep trial and warranty information before buying.

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How we tested

I'm a predominant stomach sleeper, and tested all the pillows in this guide. I also consulted with Kelly Murray, a certified pediatric and adult sleep consultant and owner of Kelly Murray Sleep, for advice on what to look for.

• Comfort and support: To test comfort and support, I slept on each pillow for at least three nights, but frequently for a week or more. I considered loft, firmness, and breathability in my tests. I also noted if I woke up with neck or back pain the next morning.
• Cooling: I observed the pillow cover's cooling factor and considered whether I woke up feeling warm.

• Value: I researched sleep trial and warranty information and considered them against the pillow's price.

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  Stomach sleeper pillow FAQs

What type of pillow is best for a stomach sleeper?

If you're a stomach sleeper, Murray recommends "something soft and low-profile so your neck isn't twisted all night." Consider soft options like down, down alternative, and shredded memory foam for optimal comfort.

Is memory foam good for stomach sleepers?

"Memory foam contours well and offers solid support," Murray said. Just be sure that your memory foam pillow is low loft for an aligned spine.

How thick should a pillow be for stomach sleepers?

Stomach sleepers should look for low-loft pillows, which are under three inches thick. This is the best height for stomach sleepers to avoid any pain. "The right pillow supports deep, restorative sleep and allows you to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day," Murray said.

Should stomach sleepers sleep without a pillow?

Murray said stomach sleepers should consider skipping the pillow altogether. This solution isn't for everyone, though, especially not combination sleepers, so be sure to try it out before tossing out your old pillow.