These days, sleep monitors come in all shapes and sizes, from wearables to bedside pods. None of them are more interesting than those that rest below your head, however. Today’s smart pillows are designed to give you better sleep, track your sleeping habits, help you avoid snoring problems, and lull you to sleep with a range of sounds without disturbing those around you. Opting for a smart pillow is a no-brainer — it’s choosing the right model that’s tricky.
Thankfully, through continual testing and ample research, we’ve rounded up some of the best smart pillows on the market. It begins with the iSense Sleep pillow, which has an excellent app for monitoring the nuances of your sleep cycle, but there are other models from Goodnite, Dreampad, Zeeq, and Moona to choose from if you’re in the market for something different.
At a glance:
- Best overall: iSense Sleep Smart Pillow
- Best cooling pillow: Moona Active Cooling Pillow Pad
- Best versatile: Zeeq Smart Pillow
- Best snore control: Goodnite Smart Anti-Snore Pillow
- Best audio: Dreampad Slim
Best overall: iSense Sleep Smart Pillow
The iSense Sleep Smart Pillow might be one of the least-intrusive options available, yet it still provides a slew of useful info regarding your sleeping habits. The tracker pairs with an app that shows you how well you slept and provides data pertaining to your breathing, heart rate, and overall quality of sleep. The app does a good job of displaying this info in the form of numbers and charts, too, and the pillow itself use cross-cut memory foam cube filling that can accommodate a range of sleeping positions. It even gives you a simplified sleep score, just in case you’re looking for the abridged metrics.
Best cooling pillow: Moona Active Cooling Pillow Pad
Moona is a crowdfunded pillow pad that combines a pad, bedside pod, and an app to give you the most accurate sleep data possible. Working together, they monitor your sleep habits, provide gentle wake-up notifications, and generally learn your sleep habits to help you create the healthiest schedule for your cycle. You can even delve into things like temperature profiles, and the pad includes a small water pump that can help cool you down by cycling water through the pad when things get too hot. It’s an ambitious project that’s certainly worth a look as long as you don’t mind replacing your alarm clock.
Best versatile: Zeeq Smart Pillow
The Zeeq pillow does a little bit of everything. First off, there’s a snoring function that detects snoring and prompts vibrations, which encourage you to change your position without waking up. There’s also a wireless speaker you can use to play music or sleep tracks, as well as tracking features that are designed to measure your restlessness and pinpoint any disturbances in your sleep cycle. There is even an in-pillow alarm clock and an array of memory foam clusters, the latter of which help accommodate various sleeping positions.
The problem with being a jack-of-all-trades is that it can be difficult to do any of them especially well, which is why the Zeeq isn’t higher up on our list. Other pillows do a better job with audio, snore control, and sleep tracking. That said, Zeeq’s offering is a solid choice for those who want a little bit of everything, or want to experiment with various sleeping aids.
Best snore control: Goodnite Smart Anti-Snore Pillow
If you snore, you likely know how difficult it can be to alleviate the issue. Thankfully, this Goodnite pillow uses sensors to detect your head position and any signs of snoring. If the device thinks you’re snoring, the pillow will gently inflate, pushing your head to the side and helping open airways that will reduce snoring. The pillow also works in tandem with a mobile app, which tracks your snoring so you can see if you are actually getting better. If you find that changing your head position helps prevent you from snoring, then Goodnite’s aptly named Anti-Snore Pillow is likely right for you.
Best audio: Dreampad Slim
The Dreampad is a pillow built with audio in mind. The pad’s speakers are designed to provide quiet, clear audio that only you can hear, even with someone else resting beside you. The embedded speakers connect to the accompanying Dreampad app via Bluetooth — though, cable connections are possible — and you can choose from 10 different audio tracks that are specifically designed to help you fall asleep. You can also adjust their volume and playtime until you’ve created the perfect program to help you drift away. It’s a unique approach to sleep that could be exactly what you need.
