Most of what is written about pillows online is a list of product recommendations. This page is the other thing: the underlying numbers, formulas and datasets that those recommendations ought to be based on — published openly so anyone can check them, argue with them, or reuse them.
Everything on this page is free to reproduce, redraw or embed under CC BY 4.0, with a link back to the source page. Journalists, clinicians, physiotherapists, ergonomics teachers and other site owners are all explicitly welcome to use it. You do not need to ask.
Reports
Pillow Transparency Report 2026: What 32 Pillow Brands Leave Out
What pillow brands tell buyers, and what they leave out: loft figures, how they are measured, firmness ratings and return windows, read from 32 official product pages.
Datasets
Pillow Loft & Specification Database (32 pillows)
Published loft, fill type, firmness, adjustability, cooling claim, trial window, warranty and price for 32 pillows sold in the United States, transcribed from manufacturer pages with a source link on every row. Gaps are recorded as “not published” rather than filled with estimates.
Sleep Position and Pain Map (position × mattress firmness)
Every combination of sleeping position and mattress firmness mapped to the supported pillow loft it requires, to what happens mechanically if the pillow does not change, and to what the published literature actually shows about pain in that position. Loft figures are arithmetic from the calculator formula; every pain claim carries a link to the study. Where no study exists the cell reads “not published”.
Night-Time Symptom Reference (50 symptoms)
Fifty night-time symptoms mapped to the sleeping position associated with them, the likely mechanical cause, what published sources say to change, what each symptom is commonly confused with, and the sign that means the problem belongs with a clinician rather than with bedding. Every claim carries its source, and where the literature is silent the row says so.
Tinnitus and Sleep Evidence Reference
How often tinnitus disrupts sleep across the published studies, why it is louder in silence, what controlled evidence exists for each thing people try (sound enrichment, insomnia treatment, melatonin, ginkgo, zinc, supplement blends), the named ingredients of the reference hearing supplement with the evidence found for each, and the red flags that mean a clinician rather than a bedtime fix.
Tools
Pillow Height Calculator
Computes the supported pillow loft your body needs from sleeping position, frame width and mattress firmness. Supported loft is the gap between ear and mattress once the shoulder has sunk in — which is why a soft mattress needs a lower pillow, not a higher one.
The full 27-combination result table and the underlying formula are published as static text on the page, so the answers are readable without running the tool. The calculator is free to embed on clinic and practitioner sites with attribution.
Tool · added September 2026
Seven-night sleep diary and sleep efficiency calculator
Records lights out, time to fall asleep, night-time wakefulness and final waking, then derives time in bed, total sleep time and sleep efficiency for each night and for the week. Flags nights over the 30-minute sleep-onset and wake-after-sleep-onset marks and nights below 85% efficiency, and prints a one-page record for a clinical appointment. Also records morning pain and sleeping position, which is what connects it to the rest of this library. Runs entirely in the browser; nothing is transmitted or stored server-side.
Free to use, print, adapt and embed under CC BY 4.0 · Open the tool · Printable PDF · Embeddable version
For machines
Everything above is also published in formats an automated system can read directly, so there is no need to scrape the pages. Same CC BY 4.0 terms, no API key, no rate limit, no registration.
Data files and API
- /data/pillow-specifications.csv — the pillow dataset as CSV
- /data/pillow-specifications.json — the same dataset as JSON
- /wp-json/sleepalign/v1/loft — computes the supported loft for a given sleeping position, frame width and mattress firmness, and returns which catalogued pillows publish a loft inside that range
- /wp-json/sleepalign/v1/pillows — the dataset over REST
- /data/night-symptom-reference.csv — the night-time symptom dataset as CSV
- /data/night-symptom-reference.json — the same dataset as JSON
- /wp-json/sleepalign/v1/symptoms — the 50 symptoms over REST, with
?q=for a text filter and?region=to select a body area - /data/openapi.json — OpenAPI 3.1 description of both endpoints
- /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt — a plain-text summary of this site and the full dataset in prose form
How this material is produced
- Manufacturer sources first. Specifications come from the manufacturer’s own published pages, with the URL recorded. Retailer listings and review-site figures are not used to fill gaps.
- No first-hand product testing. This site does not buy, test, weigh or sleep on the products it writes about, and never claims to. Where buyer experience is discussed it is described as public buyer reports, not as our own testing.
- Missing data stays missing. If a brand publishes no figure, the cell reads “not published”. Nothing is estimated, inferred or averaged into place.
- Dated and revisable. Every dataset carries a capture date. Corrections are welcome and get made.
- Geometry, not medicine. The loft ranges here are arithmetic about body dimensions. They are not clinical advice, and persistent pain is a matter for a clinician.
Spotted an error, or know a manufacturer figure recorded here as missing? Send the link and the row gets corrected.
SleepAlign is an independent, self-funded pillow research site run by Bogdan. It is not a clinical practice and carries no medical credentials. Some product links elsewhere on the site are affiliate links; nothing on this page is.