The 9 Very Best Cooling Pillows (2024)

From $109

Fill type: Shredded latex and kapok | Cover material: Organic cotton | Firmness: Adjustable | Loft: Adjustable

The Avocado Green pillow is filled with a mix of shredded latex and a natural fiber called kapok (so named because it comes from kapok trees), and you can add or remove fill to adjust the loft and firmness. Latex is one of my favorite pillow fills because it provides similar support to memory foam, but I find that it stays cooler. Even better is when the latex is shredded, as it is here, because it allows for more airflow than a single piece of latex. The kapok adds even more lightness and breathability — it’s like a natural version of fiberfill, which is commonly synthetic. Finally, in keeping with the breathability theme, the pillow also has an organic cotton cover.

While the Avocado Green pillow doesn’t feel cool to the touch, I’ve found it stays at a pleasantly neutral temperature. I like that it doesn’t use heat-trapping materials, so unlike other styles of pillow that have to counteract how hot they get with cool-to-the-touch add-ons, this one just doesn’t get too warm in the first place.

The adjustability of this pillow is another big plus. It arrives with a medium firmness and high loft; since I mainly sleep on my back, I had to unzip the pillow’s inner case and remove some filling to get the right loft, which was easy enough to do. Or, if you want a loftier and firmer pillow, you can add more filling —the pillow comes with an extra bag of fill. Additionally, because the fill isn’t solid, you can mold the pillow and shape it around your head and neck just the way you want. This adjustability, combined with high-quality breathable materials and a fair price of just over $100 per pillow, make the Avocado Green pillow my top pick for a cooling pillow.

From $111

Fill type: Memory foam with gel pads | Cover material: Cotton | Firmness: Medium-firm | Loft: High

Lots of memory-foam pillows use infusions of gel, graphite, copper, and other materials to counteract the foam’s tendency to trap body heat.I typically don’t findthese infusions to be noticeably effective, but Tempur-Pedic’s Tempur-Cloud Breeze Dual Cooling pillow is a major exception.The pillow has large gel pads on both sides that span nearly the whole surface and genuinely feel cool to the touch. And because there is a gel pad on each side, you can always flip the pillow over if you still start to feel too warm.

I also really like the feel of the memory foam in this pillow (Tempur-Pedic uses its proprietary foam, called Tempur Material), which is a nice balance between support and cushioning. The foam is deeply contouring and cradles your head to provide comfortable neck support. The pillow also has a fairly high loft, making it a great pick for side sleepers in particular. When Strategist writer Brenley Goertzen, a stomach-and-side combination sleeper, tested the Tempur-Cloud Breeze, her first impression was that it was quite tall compared to other pillows she’s slept on, especially since she often needs a lower-loft pillow. But Goertzen reports that after lying down, the pillow slowly molded around her neck and head, and it was especially comfortable when lying on her side. As someone who often goes to bed feeling a bit cold but wakes up drenched in sweat, Goertzen says this pillow does an excellent job of regulating her body temperature throughout the night.

My only major con for this pillow is the price — $200 is a lot for a single pillow. But for that price, it provides very effective cooling on memory foam, a material that easily traps heat.

From $119

Fill type: Shredded memory foam and polyester fiber | Cover material: Polyester-cooling fiber blend | Firmness: Adjustable | Loft: Adjustable

Pillows with shredded memory-foam fill allow for more airflow inside the pillow than pillows made with solid slabs of memory foam. Another plus is that shredded memory-foam pillows are often adjustable, which can be especially helpful if you know you need a new pillow, but aren’t sure exactly what you want yet. The Nest Easy Breather pillow is filled with a mix of shredded memory foam and polyester fiber, and similar to the Avocado Green pillow, above, you can unzip an inner cover to remove or add fill to match your sleep position and preferences. Nest conveniently provides a reusable bag to store the removed filling in.

The Nest Easy Breather also has a cooling “Icecore” cover made with a polyester blend. The cover provides a subtly cool-to-the-touch feeling, and the airflow-friendly fill lets heat escape so it doesn’t build up inside. This pillow also has a gusset — put simply, a strip of fabric that runs all the way around the perimeter of the pillow to help the fill stay more evenly distributed — which can further help with airflow.

From $96

Fill type: Cross-cut gel-infused memory-foam and microfiber | Cover material: Polyester-bamboo blend | Firmness: Adjustable | Loft: Adjustable

The EdenCool pillow from Coop is very similar to the Nest Easy Breather — it’s also adjustable, with breathable fill that blends crosscut memory-foam fill with microfiber. Crosscut memory foam is extremely similar to shredded; both ultimately result in a bunch of small pieces of foam, but crosscutting produces more evenly sized chunks of foam for an ever-so-slightly more consistent feel (and, realistically, most people won’t notice the difference). The EdenCool pillow is pretty similar to our top-pick bed pillow and Coop’s flagship product, the Coop Sleep Goods Original — the main differences are the gel infusion in memory foam, a layer of gel memory foam on one side that also makes the pillow feel firmer on that side, and a gusset. Compared to the Tempur-Cloud Breeze Dual Cooling pillow, I wouldn’t say the cooling effect is as noticeable when touching the gel-infused foam inside the EdenCool, but if you prefer an adjustable pillow, it’s a good bet. (It’s also worth noting that you can buy Coop’s gel-infused fill separately, if you want to try adding it to an adjustable pillow that you already have.)

The EdenCool is slightly less expensive than the Next Easy Breather, but the trade-off is that the Easy Breather’s polyester-blend cover feels more consistently cool to the touch than the EdenCool’s polyester and bamboo viscose cover.

From $199

Fill type: Talalay latex foam | Cover material: Nylon-spandex blend with moisture-wicking treatment | Firmness: Medium | Loft: Low, medium, or high

The Purple Harmony is my personal favorite pillow — I named it our best pillow for back sleepers, as I am primarily a back sleeper and this is the pillow I’ve been most happily sleeping on for over a year. In addition to comfort, one of its greatest qualities is how cool it stays, thanks to its perforated-latex core and Purple’s signature gel grid, which promotes additional airflow. Latex generally stays cooler than memory foam, and after the lengthy test period that I’ve been sleeping with this pillow, I can confidently say it doesn’t trap heat. I often get a nice initial blast of coolness when I lie down for the night, after the pillow has gone untouched all day, and even as that initial coolness dissipates, I do not overheat.

The Talalay latex fill gives the Purple Harmony a buoyant, responsive feel and a medium firmness that can work well for a variety of people. (The pillow’s gel grid still gives it some of the contouring feel of memory foam, but overall the pillow is not as sinky feeling as many memory-foam pillows.) It also comes in three lofts, so you can choose the height best suited for your primary sleeping position and body size.

From $67

Fill type: Talalay latex | Cover material: Tencel | Firmness: Medium | Loft: Low or high

As much as I love my Purple Harmony pillow, it does cost $200, so I recommend the Brooklyn Bedding Talalay Latex pillow as a less expensive alternative. For about half the price of the Purple Harmony, this pillow provides a similarly responsive feel and also sleeps cool. It also has a Tencel cover, a great material for temperature regulation, and ventilation holes in the latex core to allow for additional airflow. However, I do think the Purple Harmony’s gel grid adds a little extra cooling power, which is why I’d still choose it over the Brooklyn Bedding Latex Pillow if maximum cooling were my top priority and money were no object.

This pillow comes in two lofts, low and high. I tested the high version and found it was a good height for both back and side sleeping. I think the low version would work for stomach sleepers and many back sleepers, but may be too low for side sleepers.

From $165

Fill type: Shredded latex inner pillow and microdenier fiber outer pillow | Cover material: Organic cotton | Firmness: Medium | Loft: Medium or high

If you love the plush cushioning of hotel-style down or down-alternative pillows, but need a pillow that provides more substantial neck support, consider the Saatva Latex pillow. This pillow, from the makers of our top-pick mattress, uses a pillow-within-a-pillow design to create a fluffy feel on the outside with sturdy support inside. The inner pillow is filled with shredded latex — great for cooling. The outer pillow, which completely encases the inner one, is filled with a super airy down alternative called microdenier fiber, a type of ultrafine microfiber. When I tested this pillow, I immediately loved how the outer pillow compressed beneath me and enveloped my head and neck, while the inner pillow kept my neck supported so it didn’t completely sink through the pillow. That’s what makes this pillow great for neck pain, especially for back and side sleepers who need some extra support. (Stomach sleepers will be better off with an ultrasoft, compressive pillow, since their necks are already so close to the mattress in the stomach-sleeping position.) This pillow comes in a standard or high loft, which Saatva says are five inches and six to seven inches tall, respectively. I would typically consider five inches to be a fairly high loft already, but I did find that the fluffy outer pillow compressed under the weight of my head and neck quite a bit; once I was actually lying on the pillow, it was no longer at its full height, making it feel closer to a medium loft than high.

As I tried this pillow, it didn’t feel as cool to the touch as some other pillows on this list, but I also didn’t notice it heating up. Overall, I think the core of shredded-latex foam helps to regulate temperature within the pillow, and the microdenier fiber allows for a good amount of airflow, as does the cotton cover.

$40

Fill type: Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) fill | Cover material: Tencel | Firmness: Soft, medium, or firm | Loft: Varies

Down-alternative pillows are meant to mimic the feeling of down pillows without the actual animal product. They can be filled with a variety of different materials to conjure the fluffy feel of down, but most are some kind of synthetic fiber. The Buffy Cloud pillow puts a more ecofriendly twist on synthetic fill by using PET fill made from recycled plastic bottles. The filling is also certified by the Global Recycled Standard to verify the content and is certified to be BPA-free. Another ecofriendly addition to this pillow is the cover, made of moisture-wicking Tencel, a natural fiber derived from wood pulp. When I tested this pillow, I found that it maintained a pleasantly cool feel.

This pillow comes in three firmness levels. I tried the soft model, and it is super plush and compressive — ideal for stomach sleepers. It had a low loft, which was also great for stomach sleeping, but the medium and firm models will be slightly taller and better for back and side sleepers, respectively, as they contain more filling (26 ounces for the soft, 29 ounces for the medium, and 34 ounces for the firm).

From $203

Fill type: Mulberry silk | Cover material: Bamboo viscose | Firmness: Soft | Loft: Low

Silk is one of the most luxurious — and cooling — materials out there. The fiber, derived from the cocoons of silkworms, is breathable and often feels cool to the touch. I sleep on a silk pillowcase every night in hopes of added hair and skin benefits, but also for the pleasantly chilly feeling of the fabric. This pillow from Cozy Earth is actually filled with mulberry silk, so it is not only incredibly plush and soft, but also stays quite cool. Encasing the silk fill is a cover made of bamboo viscose — a great fabric for temperature regulation and wicking away moisture. Senior editor Simone Kitchens also sleeps with this pillow and says the silk fill is very breathable, particularly because it isn’t very dense. “You really get a sense of that when you fluff it around,” she says, and reports that the cover feels supersoft and breathable too.

After testing this pillow myself, I agree with Kitchens — the entire pillow feels cool and airy. It is extremely soft and compresses a lot beneath my head and neck, which I found makes it very comfortable for stomach sleeping. I tend to sleep on my back, so I tested it in that position too; I think it could work for some back sleepers, but I had to fold and scrunch the pillow to get the level of support that I was looking for. Kitchens, who swaps between sleeping on her back and on her side, stacks the Cozy Earth Silk pillow on top of a firmer pillow to get the optimal level of plushness and support. She also uses it like a body pillow sometimes, hugging it when sleeping on her side.