Pillow Height Calculator
Most morning neck pain is a pillow-height problem. This works out the loft your neck actually needs — including how much your mattress changes the answer, which is the part most guides leave out.
Your result
Side sleeping needs the most loft, because your shoulder creates the biggest gap to fill. Too low and your head drops toward the mattress; too high and it is pushed up toward the other shoulder. Buying memory foam? Add about half an inch — it compresses under the weight of your head, so the loft on the box is not the loft you sleep on.
Look for a pillow that measures 4.5–5.5 in under load. The number on the packaging is the uncompressed loft — memory foam in particular sits roughly half an inch lower once your head is on it, so buy slightly tall rather than slightly short.
How this is calculated
The goal is a straight line from ear through shoulder — the pillow fills the gap so the neck is neither propped up nor sagging down.
Support height = your ear-to-mattress gap − how far your shoulder sinks into the mattress.
Starting gap, when you haven’t measured:
| Build | Side sleeping | Back sleeping |
|---|---|---|
| Narrow | 5.0 in | 3.5 in |
| Average | 5.75 in | 4.0 in |
| Broad | 6.5 in | 4.5 in |
Mattress sink subtracted (halved for back sleeping, since less shoulder is involved):
| Mattress | Sink |
|---|---|
| Soft | 1.5 in |
| Medium | 0.75 in |
| Firm | 0.25 in |
The result is shown as a ±0.5 in range, because loft tolerance is real — being half an inch out is not the same as being two inches out.
Stomach sleeping is treated as a fixed 1–2 in, because no loft figure makes the position good for your neck.
These figures are a practical model built from pillow-loft conventions and cervical-alignment principles, not a clinical measurement. Treat the output as a starting range to test, not a prescription.
General information, not medical advice. If you have persistent neck pain, numbness, tingling, or pain radiating into an arm, see a doctor or physiotherapist — a pillow will not fix nerve compression or a structural problem.
Calculator by Sleep Align. Free to use and embed with attribution.