I feel like I used to have a satisfactory layout for years but haven’t since found a consistently comfortable arrangement. I like to have a fairly thick pillow or two under my head to accommodate my bad shoulder, a pillow between my thighs to avoid chafed skin, and a pillow for hugging - also mostly for my shoulder.
The head ones tend to get distorted really quickly and it’s really difficult to find a good hugging pillow.
I’m exclusively a very hot side-sleeper, so dialing in my pillow setup has taken decades.
I use three different types of pillows: a real down pillow for my head (this one was expensive, but seriously worth it), a faux down pillow for hugging (keeps its fluffy shape all night), and cotton-filled pillow for between my knees.
The fillings are what matter most to me, and the real down pillow for my head is the most recent and best addition imo. It has made a massive difference to my comfort over the memory foam one I had been using previously. I splurged for a Parachute down pillow because the high quality is immediately obvious, and it’s hands down the best pillow I’ve ever bought.
I sleep on my stomach; I have a low memory foam pillow under my head, and a body pillow on either one of my sides, lifting my shoulder, hip and knee.
I don’t sleep flat on my stomach, just kinda sideways. I feel so comfortable in this position that when I’m travelling and I don’t have two pillows for myself, I prefer prefer to sleep with a pillow just under my shoulder and arm and nothing under my head.
Buckwheat pillow. Nice and firm, cool, and malleable.
I punch out a divot for my head so it has kind of a neck roll when I sleep on my back, or if I’m reading on my side, I punch a divot for my ear so it’s not squished against my head.
Had it for like 15 years, I miss it whenever we visit my in-laws in another city.
I tried a buckwheat pillow but found it better for sitting on than for resting my head. Can you not take yours with you to the other city?
edit: s/that/than/
pillow under my head, pillow between my arms/elbows, and a pillow between my knees. 3 pillows total
I hate my knees touching when I sleep too! What pillow do you use for knees?
I don’t know the brand and the tags have long since worn away, but personally I’ve found good luck with a “standard” size memory foam pillow. Memory foam tends to get too warm under my head but hasn’t been an issue for a knee pillow.
i just have 3 standard pillows.
Body pillow, 3x king size pillows, 2x standard size memory foam pillows, a few square throw pillows, & a 10ft x 10ft blanket.
Pillows arranged into a U shape with my head in the curve. I essentially create a little nest/fort to keep the world away.
Dang, and my kid thinks I have a lot on my bed!
I’m glad you’ve found something that works. Those 10x10 blankets are huge - and pretty cool. I got my wife one a few Christmasses ago and she’s used it on and off since then. I hate folding it solo after washing it, though.
I keep another 10x10 in the storage ottoman to wrap up in watching movies. Best thing ever. Apparently there’s a company that has a 12x12 now, but I can’t justify it (yet, lol)
One hard pillow as I sleep on my side and need the neck support. And then one bean bag tube type thing to rest my wrist on so that my arm doesn’t have to be entirely horizontal—more comfortable that way.
I just use the duvet to go between my thighs/knees.
how do you keep the arm with that tube thing? can you give a geometry/sketch/ascii?
Please, tell me more about the bean bag tube type thing.
It’s the best way I can describe it. It’s an approximately pillow-sized tube filled with the stuff they fill bean bags with.
Gotcha, thanks.
I use a bath towel folded twice the short way. Nice and flat for back sleeping. I can make it thicker for side sleeping by folding the end under as needed when I roll over. But I use a CPAP so I don’t roll much at all.
Interesting, I don’t think I’ve encountered someone using a towel long term.
I use a CPAP, too, but toss and turn so much that I think the arm flick to adjust the air hose during the turn has become reflexive.
2 pillows stacked on each other most nights. Sometimes I just have the one. Very rarely I will have none because for some reason that is whats needed to sleep
Two thin pillows stacked and oriented vertically. Thinness is key because they’re easy to fold or roll to “make” pillows of various shapes and thicknesses, to support whatever position I feel like lying in.
I’ve heard that before and tried it myself, but I’ve always found that whatever custom shape I make unravels itself as I sleep, waking me up.
It’s not perfect, but having thin pillows that are a bit worn/broken-in can make then less likely to spring back into their flat shape. The way you place them can also help… for example, rolling downward toward the mattress instead of up, rolling the bottom one and placing the top one across it to hold the roll in place, or placing two half-rolled pillows in a, uh, “69” orientation so the pillows keep each other’s roll in place with friction. Depending on how you sleep you also might be able to train yourself to shift position/roll over without lifting your head, but that’s more of a challenge.
Shredded latex is the answer, 100%. But only if you are able to remove (or add) the latex as needed. I found I needed about half of what the pillow came with. Maybe a third?
The result is a pillow that can do it all: prop up your head for reading in bed, become mostly neck support for back sleeping (with a bit of shaping; takes seconds but isn’t automatic,) and ditto for side sleeping but at a slightly higher height.
Once you get used to a pillow that holds its shape and provides excellent support, all other pillows feel archaic.
Well, you definitely seem like an authority on the subject!
I don’t think I’ve stuck with this approach for more than a consecutive week or two, so perhaps I need to give them more time before they get comfortable.
Three pillows. One thicker one leaned up against the headboard at a very slight angle, almost vertical. Then two thinner pillows, first one at what would be a 45 degree angle overlapping the thick pillow, then the final one overlapping that one.
Only way I have been able to find comfort in pillows in the last 5 years or so
A good foam pillow under my head, a bit of my blanket between my knees. Sometimes I think about getting one of those knee pillows but so far I haven’t bothered.
I won’t go back to a down-filled pillow. Those will inevitably stop supporting my head during the night.
I’m a freefall sleeper so even no pillow works, otherwise a pilloe has to be flat and manoeuvred under my chest to stop my neck bending.
Freefall sleepers may have a slightly lower life expectancy but I’m like ‘meh’. Sleeping is nearly half my life.
I’ve never read that term before.
I am sleep on my belly but slightly to the side, I have firm memory foam pillows that isn’t too high for my head. The second pillow is between my legs with one going under and the other over to support the leg on the side I am facing. I used to hug a third pillow but currently hug plushies.
Also a weighted blanket year round with an additional blanket in the winter
1️⃣ long one of memory foam pellets . Very particular about pillow stuffing material , must hold it’s shape so can comfortably rest head on it without sinking . Gone thru some bad long pillows before
I have a similar set-up, except the pillow that goes between my knees is long enough to also hug and then I usually arrange a corner of my blanket on top for extra height.
When it comes to the pillow I rest my head on, I’ve found that the best possible filling is little memory foam cylinders for some reason. Not shredded memory foam, which I’ve also tried, but cylinders. They’re about the size of a finger except thicker, and make the pillow very adjustable - a concept that I always thought should make no sense since memory foam is supposed to keep its shape, and yet I’ve never had a better pillow.
