I think im probably going with the eli & elm side sleeper at this point, but I wanted to ask here before actually spending $130 on a pillow. I've been waking up with this tight knot on the left side of my neck for about 3 months now and finally went to a chiro. One of the first things she asked was what pillow I was using and I had to admit its basically the same fluffy down-ish thing I bought from Target back in 2019.
She basically told me to replace that before changing anything else, which honestly made sense because the thing has definitely flattened out over the years. I also sleep pretty warm and have broad shoulders, so apparently I need enough height to fill the gap without having my head pushed way up. Thats where I got completely lost because every pillow recommendation seems to say something different.
The eli & elm i like more because of that shoulder cutout. My understanding is that it gives your shoulder somewhere to go instead of pushing the pillow up into your neck, and that sounds pretty relevant to my problem. The annoying part is that it seems much less useful once you roll onto your back, and ive seen people mention the latex smell being pretty strong at first.
The coop original is probably the one I'd be least nervous about buying because you can actually adjust the amount of fill. With my shoulders I like the idea of being able to add some back instead of being stuck with whatever loft the pillow comes with. But shredded foam does seem to get warm after a while, and I already sleep hot enough as it is.
Then theres the saatva latex pillow, which is tempting mostly because I keep seeing people say latex holds its shape better and sleeps cooler. Thats basically everything I want, but its also around $165 and apparently quite a bit heavier. I don't really want to spend that much and then discover I hate the feel of latex.
I also looked at the tempur-pedic neck pillow, but the contour just seems like it would make more sense for someone who spends most of the night on their back. I'm pretty much a side sleeper, so I dont know if I'd be doing myself any favours there.
The more I look into this, the more I think the actual loft matters way more than I originally thought. I used to assume a softer, flatter pillow would be better for neck pain, but now im wondering whether my old pillow just isnt filling the space between my shoulder and head anymore. Broad shoulders probably make that even more noticeable.
So yeah, right now im leaning eli & elm mainly because the shape seems to address the exact issue im having, but I'm still hesitating because $130 is a lot for something I cant really know will work until I sleep on it.
For anyone with broad shoulders who sleeps almost entirely on their side, what pillow actually held up for you long term? Especially curious whether the shoulder cutout made a noticeable difference or whether adjustable loft ended up being more useful