Best Pillow for Hot Sleepers: How to Choose One That Stays Cool

If you wake up and flip your pillow to find the cool side, you're a hot sleeper. Lots of people are. Your bedroom, your duvet and your pyjamas all play a part, but the pillow is the one thing pressed against your face and neck for eight hours. When it holds heat, you notice.

So what's the best pillow for hot sleepers? It comes down to three things: what the cover is made of, what's inside, and whether you can adjust it. Here's how to choose.

Why some pillows feel hot

A pillow feels warm when it holds the heat your body gives off instead of letting it move away. Two things cause most of that:

• Dense, solid fill. A solid block of memory foam has very little room for air to move. It softens with body heat, which is what makes it comfortable, but it also means warmth builds up where your head rests.
• Tightly woven, synthetic covers. Some polyester covers feel smooth but don't breathe well, so the surface warms up and stays that way.

The fix isn't one magic material. It's a pillow built so air can move through the fill and the cover.

1. Start with the cover

The cover is what your skin actually touches, so it's the first thing to check. Look for:

• Rayon made from bamboo. It's one of the most popular choices for warm sleepers because it feels cool to the touch, smooth and soft. Most bamboo covers are a blend of rayon made from bamboo and polyester, so check the fabric label for the percentages.
• Cotton percale. A crisp, breathable weave that many people like in summer.
• Linen. Breathable and textured, though some find it rougher on the face.

Whatever you choose, make sure the cover zips off and goes in the washing machine. Hot sleepers wash their pillow covers more often, so this matters more than you'd think.

2. Choose a fill that lets air move

Here's a quick comparison of the most common fills:

• Solid memory foam: supportive and holds its shape, but it's the fill most people describe as warm.
• Shredded memory foam: the same contouring feel, but broken into small pieces with air gaps between them. It moves with you when you change position and doesn't trap warmth the way a solid block can.
• Down and feather: light and squishy, but it flattens and needs regular fluffing.
• Polyester fibre: cheap and light, but it clumps over time and tends to go flat.
• Latex: springy and naturally airy, but often expensive and heavy.

For most hot sleepers, shredded memory foam is the sweet spot: the comfort of foam with more airflow.

3. Make sure you can adjust the height

A pillow that's too tall or too flat makes you shift around more during the night, and every time you move you end up pressing into a warmer patch. An adjustable pillow lets you add or remove fill until the height feels right.

• Side sleepers usually want a fuller pillow to fill the gap between the shoulder and the head.
• Back sleepers often prefer a medium height.
• Stomach sleepers generally want the flattest setting, or close to it.

Give a new adjustable pillow two or three nights before you take fill out. Memory foam softens a little with use, so a pillow that feels tall on the first night often settles.

4. Pick the right size

Pillow size changes how much room you have to move to a fresh, cooler spot:

• Standard (20" x 26"): compact, good for single beds, kids' rooms and guest rooms.
• Queen (20" x 30"): the most popular size for double and queen beds.
• King (20" x 36"): extra length if you move around a lot or have a king bed.

If you sleep on your side and like to hug something, a full body pillow gives your arms and knees something to rest on, so you aren't bunching up the duvet (another common source of trapped heat).

Other small changes that help hot sleepers

A better pillow works best alongside a few simple habits:

• Keep the bedroom cool and air it out before bed.
• Choose a lighter duvet or switch to layered blankets you can kick off.
• Pick breathable sheets in cotton or a bamboo blend.
• Wash pillow covers every week or two so the fabric stays fresh and breathable.
• Air out new memory foam pillows for a day or two after unboxing. They arrive vacuum-packed and need 24 to 48 hours to reach full height.

Our pick for hot sleepers

We designed the OMEO 2 Pack Blue Bamboo Pillow for exactly this. The cover is 60% rayon made from bamboo and 40% polyester, so it feels cool to the touch and stays soft all night. Inside is shredded memory foam that you can add or remove through an inner zip, so you can set the height for side, back or stomach sleeping. The cover unzips and is machine washable, and you get two pillows in every box in Standard, Queen or King.

Prefer something to hug? The OMEO Bamboo Body Pillow is a 20" x 54" body pillow with the same breathable bamboo cover and shredded memory foam fill.

And if you're the opposite, always cold and reaching for another blanket, take a look at our Winter Fluffy Full Body Pillow with its plush faux fur cover. Run warm? Bamboo. Love cozy? Winter Fluffy.

Common questions

Why does my new memory foam pillow smell?

New shredded memory foam carries a manufacturing odour, sometimes described as chemical or plastic-like. It is the foam off-gassing after being sealed in vacuum packaging, and it is the single most common complaint about any new foam pillow, ours included. Unzip the cover, leave the pillow uncovered in a ventilated room, and it fades over roughly a week. Washing the cover before first use helps. If the smell is still strong after that, the pillow is covered by our 30-day return policy.

Why did my pillow arrive flat?

Pillows ship compressed so the box stays small and shipping stays free. Unzip the outer cover, break the foam up with your hands, and give them 24 to 48 hours to reach full loft. They will look noticeably thin until they do. That is not a fault.

Are bamboo pillows actually cooler?

The cover is the part that feels cool. Rayon made from bamboo moves heat away from the skin more readily than a dense cotton-poly case, which is why the surface stays cool to the touch. The bigger factor is the fill: shredded foam has air gaps that a solid block does not. A bamboo cover over solid memory foam will still sleep warm.

Can I adjust how high the pillow sits?

Yes. There is an inner zip beneath the outer cover. Take a handful of fill out to lower it, put it back to raise it. Keep any fill you remove, since most people adjust twice before settling. Sleep on it two or three nights before deciding, because foam compresses under body heat.

Can I wash the pillow?

Wash the cover, not the foam. The outer cover unzips and goes in the machine. Do not put shredded memory foam in a washing machine or dryer; spot-clean it if needed and let it air dry fully.

Quick checklist

• A breathable cover that feels cool to the touch, such as rayon made from bamboo
• Shredded rather than solid memory foam
• Adjustable fill so you can set the height
• A cover that zips off and is machine washable
• The right size for your bed and how much you move

Get those five right and you'll spend a lot less time hunting for the cool side of the pillow.

OMEO. All About ME.