Best Body Pillows: Reviews and Buyer’s Guide

Body pillows are extra-long pillows made to support your entire body while you sleep. Pillows of this size are especially beneficial for side sleepers, pregnant women, and those suffering from chronic pain.

Based on the pillow shape you choose, body pillows not only support your head and neck, but can also support your knees, hips, and back. Body pillows excel at promoting a neutral spine and relieving pressure when you’re asleep.

After reviewing countless body pillows, we’ve rounded up some of the best body pillows to upgrade your bed and enhance your sleep quality.

Best Body Pillows

The Zoma Body Pillow provides lots of airflow for sleepers who tend to get hot, but still want the comfort of a body pillow while sleeping. The pillow is 6 inches thick, so it’s great for supporting side sleepers, pregnant women, and other pregnant individuals.

The Zoma Body Pillow is made from a blend of MicroCushions—shredded gel memory foam—and down-alternative. This blend allows for the pillow to be adaptive, breathable, and supportive. The fill is lightweight, making the pillow easy to move and adjust at nighttime.

The pillow’s AirCloth cover is soft and designed to help you stay cool at night time. Both the Zoma Body Pillow and breathable cover are machine-washable so care is easy as possible.

The Zoma Pillow is made in the USA and CertiPUR-US® certified. The Zoma Body Pillow ships for free within the contiguous US and comes with a 10-year warranty.

SEE ALSO: Zoma Mattress Review

The Snuggle-Pedic Body Pillow is another good option for a body pillow if you’re a hot sleeper. It features shredded memory foam and down alternative fiberfill for a fluffy, yet pressure-relieving pillow. Its Kool-Flow cover is made from a polyester and bamboo-rayon blend to promote further temperature regulation and keep you dry while you sleep.

With the Snuggle-Pedic Body Pillow, you have the option to adjust the pillow’s loft. However, you cannot do it yourself. You have to contact Snuggle-Pedic to customize the pillow’s thickness, though service is free of charge.

The pillow is entirely machine-washable and dryer safe. In fact, drying your pillow can help the pillow feel fluffier and loftier.

The Snuggle-Pedic Body Pillow is hypoallergenic and dust mite resistant. Customers who purchase the Snuggle-Pedic Bamboo Body Pillow receive a 120-night sleep trial and a 20-year warranty. The pillow comes with free shipping.

SEE ALSO: How to Wash a Memory Foam Pillow

The Leachco Snoogle Total Body Pillow is the first non-rectangular body pillow on our list. Designed as a pregnancy pillow, the pillow will help support your back, hips, head, and belly.

Its unique horseshoe shape wraps around you and holds your body’s curves regardless of which way you choose to lay. One Leachco Snoogle Total Body Pillow takes the place of multiple support pillows.

The pillow is made from a polyester fiberfill to be both fluffy and adaptable. The sham-style cover is made from a blend of polyester and cotton. While the cover is machine-washable, the pillow itself isn’t. Gently spot clean the pillow when necessary.

The Leachco Snoogle Total Body Pillow comes in a variety of colors, including ivory, gray, brown, and mauve. Leachco offers free shipping as well as a 90-day warranty.

SEE ALSO: Best Body Pillow for Pregnancy: Reviews and Buyer’s Guide

If you’re looking for a pillow with a hug-like feel, take a look at the Coop Home Goods Body Pillow. Made with a blend of microfiber and cross-cut memory foam, the Coop Home Goods Body Pillow is moldable and supportive but won’t need frequent fluffing.

The moldability allows you to adjust the pillow’s loft shape to fit your current needs. Cross-cut memory foam is more breathable and responsive compared to solid memory foam. The pillow’s cover is Lulltra™ fabric, a breathable blend of polyester and bamboo-derived viscose-rayon.

The Coop Home Goods Body Pillow contains CertiPUR-US® certified and hypoallergenic foam. It’s made in the USA and comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 5-year warranty.

The PharMeDoc U-Shape Maternity Pillow offers full-body support since it wraps around both sides of your body. The PharMeDoc U-Shape Maternity Pillow is two pillows in one.

There is a large, L-shaped pillow built to support your neck, stomach, and knees. Then, there is a small, rectangular pillow attached to the L-shaped pillow with a zipper.

You can use both pieces independently or attach them for total body support. Using the singular pieces may be best on a hot night or if you feel restricted in a U-shaped pillow.

The pillow is made from an adjustable polyester fiberfill while the cover is a stretchy jersey-knit cotton. The pillow itself isn’t machine-washable, but the cover is removable and washable.

The PharMeDoc U-Shape Maternity Pillow comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a lifetime warranty.

SEE ALSO: Best Mattress for Pregnancy

The Moonlight Comfort-U Total Body Pregnancy Support Pillow is another full body pillow designed to align your hips, neck, shoulders, and back.

The pillow contains Fusion™ Fiberfill, a hypoallergenic, odorless, and machine-washable down alternative. The pillow contains no-clump technology to help prevent the fill from going flat. The 100-percent cotton cover provides both durability and breathability.

Despite being so large, the Moonlight Comfort-U Total Body Pregnancy Support Pillow is only 10 pounds, so it won’t be difficult to adjust in the evenings. The pillow is machine-washable and dryer-safe, you just need a big washing machine to accommodate it.

The Moonlight Comfort-U Total Body Pregnancy Support Pillow is made in the USA and comes with a lifetime warranty.

Body Pillow Shapes

Answering the question of ‘what is a body pillow‘ can get a little complicated by the fact that there are different types of body pillows. Body pillows come in a variety of shapes and sizes to suit your specific needs, preferences, and body types.

Rectangular

Rectangular body pillows are the simplest and most common body pillows, thus making them generally available in a variety of price ranges. They are 20 inches wide by 54 inches long. However, like standard pillow sizes, body pillow dimensions can also vary from brand to brand.

When you place the pillow in front of your body, you can rest your knees and arms against the pillow. When you place the pillow behind you, the pillow can support your back. With a rectangular body pillow, you can turn it horizontally and use it as a long pillow for your head.

Cylindrical

Cylindrical body pillows have the same dimensions as rectangular body pillows, only they have a circular shape akin to a bolster pillow. Compared to rectangular body pillows, cylindrical body pillows are loftier, so they may work well for you if you need a very thick pillow.

L-Shaped

L-shaped (or J-shaped) body pillows resemble the letter L or a candy cane. When using an L-shaped pillow, you’ll always have an extra section to rest your head upon comfortably. Also, some L-shaped pillows feature a curve for the long arm of the pillow to better support your legs.

While L-shaped pillows differ in their exact dimensions, the long arm is usually between 36 to 60 inches long, while the short arm is between 18 to 24 inches long. Both ends of the pillow will have a width of roughly 18 inches.

U-Shaped

U-shaped pillows feature two long arms to support your back and front as well as a curve for your head and neck to rest on. The pillows are roughly 40 to 50 inches wide and 60 inches long.

U-shaped pillows have a lot to offer, but they’re huge and take up a lot of space, so they may not work on narrower beds. If you sleep alone, a full or queen bed is big enough for a U-shaped pillow. However, if you share a bed, a king bed is wide enough to fit both a U-shaped pillow and a second person.

Something to consider is that with such a large pillow, it can be difficult to shift at night or cause you to feel trapped in bed.

C-Shaped

Sometimes called horseshoe-shaped, C-shaped pillows are a smaller alternative to U-shaped pillows when you don’t have a lot of space on your bed. A C-shape pillow is roughly 24 to 30 inches wide and 60 inches long.

C-shaped pillows support your back and front halves while laying down. Mothers can wrap a C-shaped pillow around their midsection and use it as a bolster for their child when breastfeeding.

Body Pillow Fills

Your body pillow’s fill impacts the feel, fluffiness, and durability. Some of the most common fills for body pillows are memory foam, latex, down, and down alternative. Your pillow may only feature one of these fills, while others contain a blend of these different materials.

Memory Foam

Memory foam body pillows offer lots of pressure relief and cradling. Memory foam body pillows typically either feature solid memory foam or shredded memory foam.

Solid memory foam is a single block of foam. It’s durable, firm, and supportive. Conversely,  shredded memory foam is ripped up pieces of foam. These pillows are moldable and soft, but still supportive. Shredded memory foam fill tends to be a bit softer than solid memory foam because air can flow between the foam pieces.

Latex

Natural latex is a more buoyant type of foam, making it great if you tend to switch positions at night. It’s hypoallergenic and dust mite resistant so allergy sufferers can sleep peacefully.

For hot sleepers, latex is cooler compared to memory foam. When you have a large U-shaped or C-shaped body pillow, the breathability of latex can ensure you won’t overheat.

Although latex can be great, it’s quite pricey compared to memory foam.

Down

Down is a plush and luxurious fill made from the feathers of geese and ducks. It’s durable, hypoallergenic, and great for regulating the temperature of a body pillow.

Down is as supportive or pressure-relieving as foam pillows, but in a high-loft body pillow, it can still be very comfortable. Unlike foam body pillows, down needs to be fluffed to ensure the body pillow doesn’t go flat or lumpy.

Down Alternative

Since real down can get expensive—especially for a large body pillow—down alternative is a much more affordable option. Down alternative is made from polyester fibers. It’s fluffy and soft, like down is, but down alternative is safe for anyone with feather allergies to use. However, down alternative is a bit cheap, quality-wise, and won’t last as long as real down will.

Who Should Use a Body Pillow

While body pillows are great, they’re not the best for back sleepers and stomach sleepers. Instead, side sleepers, pregnant women, and individuals with back pain are best suited for sleeping with a body pillow.

Side Sleepers

Side sleepers often face hip, shoulder, and knee pain due to pressure build-up. Using a body pillow can improve side sleepers’ posture at night and relieve tension in the shoulders.

For side sleepers who never know what to do with their arms while side sleeping, hugging the body pillow is not only a comfortable solution but ensures they won’t wake up with a dead arm. When side sleeping, placing a body pillow between the knees promotes a more neutral spine and ensures knees don’t chafe.

Pregnant Women

For pregnant women, side sleeping with a supportive body pillow is incredibly comfortable, especially during their 2nd and 3rd trimesters. Body pillows for pregnancy are typically C-shaped and U-shaped as they provide both back and front support.

Best of all, pregnant women can rest their growing bellies on the pillow to relieve pressure and discomfort around their stomachs.

Back Pain Sufferers

If you struggle with chronic back pain, using a body pillow between your legs can align your spine and relieve pain. When suffering from pain, your muscles may be tense and stiff. However, the support of a body pillow can make it easier for your muscles to relax, thus helping relieve your pain and get you to sleep.

FAQs

Is it healthier to sleep with a body pillow?

Using a body pillow has a variety of benefits. For instance, it can enhance your comfort while sleeping, promote a neutral spine, and relieve muscular pain. Body pillows can improve blood circulation and help to heal sore muscles.

The high loft of a body pillow keeps your airways open, making it easier to breathe if you have sleep apnea or tend to snore as well. If you struggle with getting comfortable at night, the compact feel of a body pillow—especially C-shaped or U-shaped—can also hold you in place and reduce restlessness.

Are body pillow cases necessary?

Although body pillows can come in odd shapes and sizes—making the hunt for a pillow cover difficult—you should always use a pillow cover. Pillowcases protect your body pillow from dust, sweat, and body oils, making sure it stays clean and lasts as long as possible. Most brands that sell uniquely-shaped body pillows also sell corresponding pillow covers.

How long do body pillows last?

Most pillows last between 1 to 2 years, this is true of standard pillows and body pillows. With the proper care, your pillow can last a bit longer. Most pillows can be washed every 3 to 6 months and regularly wash its pillow cover. Also, be sure to use a pillowcase over your body pillow to keep it clean.

Why does it feel good to sleep with a pillow between your legs?

As a side sleeper, placing a pillow between your legs cushions your knees and ensures they won’t hit each other. Putting a pillow between your legs also helps maintain a neutral spine and prevents you from experiencing pain in the mornings. As a result, body pillows are useful because they support both your head and legs.

Why is it comforting to hug a body pillow?

Hugging—with a pillow or not—releases oxytocin and reduces cortisol. So when you embrace your pillow, it mimics the action of hugging a loved one, thus relieving stress and helping you feel safe and loved. For this reason, hugging a body pillow can make it easier to relax and fall asleep at night.

Conclusion

Body pillows have a lot to offer, and depending on the pillow shape and size you choose, they support different parts of your body. While body pillows are a bit pricier than a regular pillow, they’re also bigger and offer total body support, something particularly useful for pregnant women and anyone who sleeps on their side.