Why are you still sleeping on that lumpy pancake of a headrest you’ve been using since Napster was a thing? If you tend to sleep on your back, you need the Liam Neeson of pillows: That is to say, one with a very particular skill set. It shouldn’t be too plush or it will thrust your head too far forward, giving you a crick in the neck. The gold standard, according to the National Sleep Foundation, is a thin one with a slightly thicker lower third. (Experts call that having extra “loft” at the bottom, FYI.)
That design can be hard to come by. And it’s not so useful if you tend to toss and turn, spending some parts of the night on your side and stomach, so we’ve rounded up a few of the best pillows for back sleepers, according to the criteria above and the sleep-obsessed reviewers who’ve raved about them.