The best cooling pillows in 2023, tried and tested

Mar 09, 2024

Hot sleepers know how frustrating it is flipping your pillow over and over while trying to fall asleep in hopes of finding a cool side that just isn’t there. Waking up hot and sweaty in the middle of the night prevents you from getting your best sleep, so if you sleep too warm with your current pillow, it’s time to upgrade to a cooling pillow. These pillows are designed with fill materials and fabrics meant to promote airflow, release heat and even actively draw heat away from your body, thanks to modern materials.

Over our rounds of testing to find the best pillows, we’ve tested dozens of pillows, including several great cooling pillows. Here are the best ones we’ve found, sure to provide relief whether you’re a side sleeper, back sleeper or combination sleeper.

Pluto builds a customized pillow based on your height, weight, sleep position, preferred firmness and more — meaning the pillow we tested was exactly the right thickness and firmness, and was built with cooling materials that ensured we didn’t overheat.

The crescent shape makes room for your shoulders, helping your head stay aligned; you can adjust the fill level to taste; and the cool-to-the-touch cover and ventilated foam prevent overheating.

Casper’s hybrid pillow is malleable and supportive. The synthetic fill core wrapped by ventilated memory foam helps to keep you cool. Our stomach-sleeper tester loved sleeping with this pillow since it keeps your head slightly elevated.

With a cover that felt noticeably cooler to the touch than the other fabrics we tested and had a more feathery feel, the UltraCool is the only cooling pillow we tested and loved that’s filled with a synthetic down alternative.

Foam pillows are not usually recommended for hot sleepers, but the mix of Snow Technology with ventilating Heat Delete Bands and Casper’s phase-change material means this is the rare foam pillow that didn’t make us overheat.

Pluto’s pillow stands out because unlike other “customizable” pillows it comes to you bespoke: You order exactly what you want rather than adding or removing fill. Rather than choosing from a variety of models, shopping with Pluto involves filling out a questionnaire about your sleep preferences, from which the company builds your custom pillow. I was very skeptical that the brand could build my perfect cooling pillow in one shot, but to my surprise, it quickly became one of my favorite pillows, likely due to the level of customization the brand uses from the detailed questionnaire.

The questionnaire considers your age and body size (weight and height). It also takes into account your bed firmness, usual sleep positions as well as the position you tend to wake up in. They further go into detail asking about your current pillow, firmness level and height and if it’s living up to your sleep needs. Lastly, it covers whether or not you feel that your head overheats while sleeping, which is where the cooling part comes in.

The pillow really felt custom tailored to me with the plush materials that are also supportive without having to make any adjustments. It also did not overheat while I slept, and the cover felt cool immediately when I laid my head on it. I was so amazed by how much Pluto nailed my pillow on the first try that I did some investigating on the details.

To my surprise, it was more than adjusting the amount of fill and cooling choices. The core is made up of fiberfill, and Pluto personalizes the volume and the type of fill material. Each foam layer has different density, thickness, firmness and cooling materials, which are chosen based on your questionnaire responses. Finally, the cover fabric is either for hot sleepers or not. Pluto takes a lot of details into account to build its pillows. With this level of customization, it was our top cooling pillow pick. The pillows aren’t standard sizes, but the original size measures 24 inches by 16 inches, which fits well in a standard size pillowcase, and its king size is 34 inches by 16 inches. Pluto has a 125-night return policy in case you’re wary of purchasing a pillow based on the questionnaire.

If you’re looking for a great pillow for side sleepers, a crescent-shaped pillow makes room for your shoulder so your head is supported without your shoulder getting in the way. One of my favorite pillows for side sleeping is the Eli and Elm Side Sleeper pillow; however, it can get a touch on the warm side, which is why I love the Eden Cool+ Crescent pillow. It’s part of Coop Sleep Goods’ new Cool+ Collection and adds the benefit of cooling materials to the company’s crescent-shaped cutout pillow.

The cover feels smooth and cool to the touch and has an inner liner that’s supposed to wick away heat. I found that it’s best to sleep directly on the machine-washable cover to get the maximum cooling benefits. I tried sleeping on it with a pillowcase and found it didn’t feel nearly as cooling, which is common with most of these types of cooling pillows.

Like all the brands’ pillows, the fill is adjustable by removing or adding shredded foam. I especially love that this pillow has one side that is a solid piece of ventilated cooling foam, a new feature that the older pillows don’t have. This helped the adjustable foam pieces not shift around, a small complaint I had about its pillows previously. It’s available in queen or king sizes, and Coop Sleep Goods has a 100-night trial policy.

Casper’s Hybrid pillow is an excellent pillow for stomach sleepers, with a rectangular shape that keeps your head slightly elevated without pushing your neck too far back, which is why our stomach sleeper loved sleeping with this pillow. While testing, we also found that it didn’t overheat like other foam pillows, thanks to the ventilated holes, so warm sleepers can slumber comfortably.

This pillow won’t fall flat or require refluffing since the outer layer is solid foam with a core of fiberfill. This unique hybrid combination makes the pillow feel squishy while still being supportive. It’s also on the softer side rather than firm, which is good for stomach sleepers since it has some give, allowing your head to sink in. The removable cover is machine-washable, so it’s easy to clean after sleeping on it. Casper offers a 30-night return policy, and the pillow comes in standard and king size.

Most pillows with cooling technology feel cool to the touch, but this Slumber Cloud pillow is aptly named because it’s one of the coolest pillows I’ve ever slept on. The fabric incorporates Outlast, a phase-change material designed to draw heat away from the body. Like most cooling pillows we tested, it’s best to use this without a pillowcase so the cooling effect won’t be hindered by the extra layer of fabric between your skin and the pillowcase.

One drawback of this pillow is that the fill clumped up after a few washes. We managed to fluff it back into shape, so it wasn’t a dealbreaker, but if you wash your pillows often, it may not hold up in the long run. We like this pillow for its cooling effects, and it was one of the few we tested that has a cool cover and is a down-alternative fill rather than foam. Two firmness options are available, either soft/medium or medium/firm, and the pillow comes in a standard or king size. Slumber Cloud offers a 60-day return policy.

Solid foam pillows are known for trapping heat and sleeping hot, which is why we love this pillow with Casper’s Snow Technology and Heat Delete Bands. Both of these are designed to combat heat using phase-change technology that draws heat away from the body. On top of that, the foam also has small holes for ventilation so heat can escape, but you can’t feel the holes. When we slept on this pillow, we found we did not overheat and slept comfortably.

We also liked the rectangular shape that kept our head supported and didn’t crush down throughout the night. Similar to all cooling pillows, you’ll get the most cooling benefit by sleeping directly on the cover, which is removable and machine-washable. This pillow is on the firm side, making it best for side and back sleepers. Stomach sleepers may find this too firm. Standard or king sizes are available with a 30-day return policy.

When looking for a cooling pillow, you’ll want to choose materials that are best for you, from slightly warm to sweaty hot sleepers. Cooling pillows rely on two main approaches, employing either ventilation or phase-change materials (or some combination of both) in their construction. Here’s what you need to know.

If you sleep very hot you’ll likely want a pillow that is both breathable and uses some sort of active cooling material. For mildly warm sleepers, you may only need to opt for a breathable pillow — typically these are cheaper.

If you are purchasing a pillow that uses a cover that incorporates a cooling material, you’ll want to sleep directly on it to get the most cooling benefits. Don’t add a pillowcase. The extra layer of fabric from a pillowcase can block some of the cooling effect. (Given this, you’ll want to make sure to look for pillow with a cover that’s machine-washable — most are.)

After narrowing down our list to the most popular pillows and brands, we slept on each for a minimum of two nights, noting factors like durability and comfort. We evaluated each using the following criteria:

We love this pillow for its comfort and adjustable fill. It was one of our favorite pillows, but it was edged out by the customizable Pluto Pillow. It’s also not quite as cool as Coop Sleep Goods’ new Cool+ pillow line, but this would still be great for someone who sleeps a touch warm.

The Nest Easy Breather is an excellent pillow in terms of comfort with a silky smooth cover that feels cool with plush yet supportive fill. Unfortunately, the construction of the pillow was not up to our standards. In our testing the pillow’s zipper broke almost immediately, which makes us question the long-term durability.

Brooklinen’s Marlow pillow stands out with its unique construction that has side zippers that open up into mesh panels. The exposed mesh helps make the pillow more breathable, and the expansion gives more room for the fill to create a softer pillow. However, when we slept on this pillow, it was too firm for side or back sleeping, even with the zippers open, and unfortunately, it only comes in one firmness level.

Purple’s products are easily recognizable with the company’s signature purple grid-like material. The Harmony pillow uses the same purple material in a honeycomb shape, which surrounds a core of latex. The molded pattern allows for high breathability since it’s an open structure, which prevents overheating. We liked the texture of this bouncy, squishy pillow, but even though we chose the lowest pillow height, it was still too tall for our tester’s petite frame. This may work for someone with a larger frame or who likes a higher pillow.