Which Pillow for Neck Pain? How to Find the Right Height

There is no pillow that treats neck pain. What matters is a pillow that keeps your neck at the right height during the night: head and cervical spine in one line, with enough room for your shoulder. The right height depends on your body measurements, your sleeping position and your mattress.

What can a pillow do for neck pain, and what can't it do?

A pillow is a support, not a cure. It can help your neck stay in a suitable position all night. It cannot resolve symptoms.

That goes for every pillow, ours included. Neck pain and neck tension can have very different causes. If your symptoms persist, get worse or new symptoms appear, please have them assessed by a doctor. We don't give treatment advice here.

What we can explain: a pillow at the wrong height can leave your neck in an unfavourable position all night. That can be avoided.

Why isn't there one pillow for neck tension?

Because bodies are built differently. If you want to know which pillow might suit you for neck tension, start by looking at three things:

• Body measurements: Shoulder width, neck circumference and neck length are different for everyone. A broad shoulder needs more height than a narrow one to fill the gap between your head and the mattress.
• Sleeping position: When you sleep on your side, the distance between your ear and the mattress is greatest. When you sleep on your back or your front, your head sits differently. You can read more in our guides for side sleepers, back sleepers and front sleepers.
• Mattress: On a soft mattress, your shoulder and body sink in deeper than on a firm one. That changes how much height the pillow needs to make up.

The right height comes from all three factors together, not from a label like “soft” or “firm”.

And what about neck and shoulder pain?

If you wake up at night with neck and shoulder pain, you may wonder whether your pillow is to blame. There's no blanket answer. A pillow that's too low lets your head sag downwards when you sleep on your side. A pillow that's too high pushes it upwards. In both cases, your neck isn't in line with your spine.

With the shoulder, there's a second point: it needs room. If the pillow is too short or sits in the wrong place, your shoulder gets in the way. If you mostly sleep on your side, you'll find more tips in the article Pillow for shoulder pain: what side sleepers should look for. If you feel your symptoms more around your shoulder blades, the article Shoulder blade pain: can your pillow play a role? may help. If it's more your hand that goes numb at night, read Hand going numb at night: can your pillow play a role? to see what can matter for sleeping posture and pillow. Whether your symptoms come from your pillow is something a doctor or physiotherapist can tell you better than a guide can.

How do you find the right pillow height?

You can work your way towards the right height in three steps:

1. Observe your posture. Have someone take a photo of you in your usual sleeping position, from the front or from behind. Check whether your head tilts up or down.
2. Check the signs. You'll find how to tell whether a pillow is too high or too low in our article Pillow too high or too low?. For the background to the calculation, see Calculating pillow height.
3. Measure your body. Choosing by feel is still guessing; if you measure, you don't have to guess.

How does Pillowise choose your size?

Pillowise is a made-to-measure memory foam pillow. We don't choose the pillow size by feel, but from three measurements:

On top of that come your sleeping position (back, side, front) and your mattress (soft, medium, firm). An algorithm uses this information to choose the best-fitting pillow. There are six sizes, each with its own colour: pink, orange, green, blue, red and purple. The pillow measures 55 x 35 cm. The core is made of 100 per cent memory foam and is manufactured in the Netherlands. You can wash the cover in the washing machine at 40 °C. The materials are certified to STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX.

You can read more about the construction on the page The Pillowise pillow.

Pillowise is not a substitute for a medical assessment. It is only meant to answer the question of pillow height, so you don't have to guess.

Why do we measure this way?

The method comes from practice. Thijs van der Hilst trained as a physiotherapist in Breda and specialised in neck and shoulder complaints. He couldn't recommend a suitable pillow to his patients with neck complaints. So he developed a measuring method himself: three measurements that point to the right pillow. Pillowise grew out of this, together with United Comfort Industries. The company has been making ergonomic sleep products since 1990 in its own factory in the Netherlands.

Where can you get measured?

There are two ways:

• At a stockist: There, we measure you with the Pillowise tape measure. Stockists include chiropractors, physiotherapists, sleep specialists, wellness practices and specialist retailers. You can find a stockist near you under Stockists. At a stockist, you can try lying on your size and a second one for comparison at a display with all six pillows.
• At home with PillowScan: You work out your size yourself at scan.pillowise.com, on your mobile phone or via QR code. The instructions are on the page Taking your measurements.

There is no online store for consumers on pillowise.com. You get the pillow through the stockists.

What about neck pillows and orthopaedic pillows?

Neither term describes a fixed type of pillow. “Neck pillow” can mean a pillow with a hollow, a travel pillow or a pillow with a neck roll. “Orthopaedic” is not a consistently defined feature. So pay less attention to the label and more to whether the height suits your measurements. You'll find an overview in our guides to the neck pillow and the orthopaedic pillow. For further guidance, see the guide to choosing the right pillow.

So: which pillow for neck pain?

One whose height suits your body, your sleeping position and your mattress. A pillow can't do more than that, and that's already quite a lot. It doesn't treat pain. If your symptoms persist, have them assessed by a doctor.

If you wake up in the morning without symptoms and your pillow feels good, you don't need to change anything. A new pillow is mainly worth it if you've been unsure for a while whether the height is right.

Find your size

Work out your size yourself or find a stockist.

Thijs van der Hilst, physiotherapist (non-practising)
Inventor of Pillowise