- The Original pillow ($59.99) from Coop Home Goods can be customized and adjusted based on your natural sleep position – back, side, or stomach.
- It also comes with a bamboo-derived pillowcase that helps promote temperature regulation throughout the night.
- I slept on The Original Coop Home Goods pillow for almost a year and found it soft enough to ease my throbbing headaches while firm enough to keep my neck from aching.
- See more: The best pillows
Bedding accessory startup Coop Home Goods claims it’s the world’s most adjustable pillow as you can remove or add foam according to your unique sleep position and preferences. It also makes the best overall pillow in our buying guide, and sleeping on something other than a flattened pancake is ideal for a better night’s sleep, so I just had to see for myself.
I'd previously tested the Layla Pillow, a plush yet firm memory foam pillow, that made me realize it was criminal to sleep on my old pancake pillows ever again, so I was game to test The Original Coop Home Goods pillow ($59.99) for several reasons.
The pillow comes pre-filled with memory foam and is rolled up and wrapped tightly for easier shipping, so when you first open it, you'll need to fluff it up. I used my hands, but Coop Home Goods also suggests putting the pillow in the dryer for approximately 10 minutes as an alternative.
Once your pillow is fluffed and ready to be slept on, you can follow the instructional pamphlet to customize the firmness.
Each pillow comes with an additional bag of hypoallergenic, CertiPUR-US and GreenGuard Gold-certified memory foam that you can use to firm up the pillow. Depending on how you sleep - on your side, back, or stomach - Coop Home Goods suggests these general guidelines:
- Side sleeper: try the pillow as is.
- Back sleeper: remove about 1/4 of the foam.
- Stomach sleeper: remove about 1/3 of the foam.
- Note: Everyone's body is a different shape and size, so foam can be added or removed.
I generally sleep on my side but decided to add all of the additional memory foam to create a more supportive pillow that cradles my head. After my initial 30-day testing, I felt that The Original pillow's foam felt much more spongy, allowing my head to sink into it more than with the Layla Pillow. Sometimes, I would even wake up in the middle of the night and move from my Layla Pillow to my Coop Home Goods pillow to alleviate the strain in my neck from the firmer Layla Pillow.
After almost a year of testing, I'd say Coop's absorptive memory foam is better for a side sleeper.
Read more: The best pillows you can buy for your bed
What I also really like about this pillow is that the memory foam is encased within a pillow liner, and the entire pillow itself (liner and memory foam) is secured within a soft pillowcase. Since the memory foam has been shredded in bits and pieces as opposed to being a solid pillow shape, it was smart to design a liner to hold everything together and makes it easier to remove the filling when you need to wash your pillowcase. Can you imagine how messy it'd be if you needed to wash the pillow without the liner?
The outer Coop Home Goods pillowcase is derived from sustainable bamboo which helps promote breathability throughout the night so you don't wake up sweating. This also means that there's no need to use your own pillowcase which would diminish the breathability of the overall design in the end.
I find that when I'm so tired and my head is pounding as I'm trying to fall asleep, I prefer my Coop Home Goods pillow over my Layla Pillow (which I do still love). The Coop pillow is less firm and plusher, but it still keeps my neck and spine aligned as I sleep. I actually tend to favor a more plush mattress over firm ones so it makes sense that my pillow preferences would be the same. The one thing I'd note about the plush foam is that after almost a year of sleeping on it, it definitely lost some of its sponge-like characteristics. I tend to fluff the pillow every now and then to bring some life back into it, and I plan to pop it into the dryer soon for some TLC. By no means would I classify this as a pancake pillow.
Although I tend to fall asleep on my side, I often wake up on my back or stomach. With the Coop pillow, I still didn't feel any neck strain even though I technically have way more than the recommended amount of foam inserted for the back and stomach sleeper. With this being said, although recommendations regarding the amount of foam are provided, you know your body best and what feels comfortable to you, so the amount of foam you add or remove is totally up to you.
My goal every night is to lay down and feel comfortable enough that I can fall asleep instantly, and the Coop Home Goods pillow helps me achieve that. If in the end, you don't fancy The Original pillow as much as I do, know that it's backed by a 100-night trial and refund so you won't lose out on any money. And if you're looking for other types of filling besides memory foam, you can also check out our best pillow guide for gel-foam hybrid, goose down, standard polyester, and shredded latex.
Considering some pillows can cost upwards of $150 - which I think is kind of absurd - The Original pillow's price of $59.99 is a total steal. Think of it as three pillows for the price of one.
Plus, it maintains a soft, cloud-like feel while providing ample support for your neck and spine specific to your sleep position. It's no wonder that The Original Coop Home Goods pillow is highly rated across the Internet, and I, for one, am jumping head first onto this bandwagon.