I Tried the Customizable Pillow With Hundreds of Glowing Reviews—and My Neck Has Never Felt Better

Sure, falling asleep at night only to have a nightmare can be an unpleasant experience, but I'd argue waking up to a stiff neck is even worse. And waking up to a stiff neck multiple mornings in a row? That is the stuff of real nightmares — and exactly what happened to me one week in late March. The first morning I woke up to my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stiff neck, I blamed myself, thinking I must've slept in a strange position to cause me to wake up in the worst upper back pain I've ever experienced (a fresh departure from my usual lower back pain). "Try and sleep it off" was the advice my family gave me.

So, you can imagine my frustration and utter horror when I woke up the next morning, lying on my back, in even worse neck and back pain that almost prevented me from getting out of my bed at all. After I basically rolled myself off my 18 inch-tall bed frame, I looked at my pillow with unprecedented disdain. What else could it have been? My pillow, an old, stuffy plush option, had become unsupportive after just a few years of use. Thankfully, Pluto offered to let me test out their completely customizable pillow—and it turned out to be a total game-changer.

Buy It: Starting at $95; plutopillow.com

Pluto, created by Founder and CEO Susana Saeliu, says that it's the first and only brand that allows you to custom-build a pillow tailored to your body height, weight, sleep style, and personal preferences such as firmness and sleeping position (on your side versus on your back, etc.). The company uses a quick questionnaire that takes your responses and analyzes them through a proprietary algorithm, then provides you with a pillow closest to one of its 35 variations for $95. It's a hefty price, but after trying it out for weeks, I can safely say the product—not only a heavenly pillow, but also the many nights of blissful sleep it provides—is well worth the price.

I was skeptical about trying Pluto at first. After all, pillow-shopping, like buying a mattress, is usually best done in person where you can test out all the options in a store before settling on the right one for you. Buying a pillow online without testing it out was already uncharted territory for me, but trusting someone to create a pillow simply based on my preferences and a few questions about my current pillow and how much I liked it seemed… haphazard.

All my doubts were gone, however, the second I pulled my Pluto Pillow out of the box. It was a Goldilocks moment: Perfectly proportioned with foam, the pillow is just the right height for my neck and provides ample support. Its quilted cover is incredibly cooling—in fact, the Pluto Pillow is the most cooling pillow I've tried yet, something I didn't realize was sorely needed considering the lion's mane-like amount of hair I have. Plus, the plush cover is machine-washable, so cleaning it is easier than ever.

It's no wonder Pluto currently has hundreds of five-star reviews, with those who've tried it saying it's "become super hard for them to wake up and get out of bed, because [they're] just so comfortable!" With Mother's Day just around the corner, the company's gifting option will surely come in handy, but even without the holiday, Pluto's personalizable pillow is a worthy investment to treat yourself to.

My Pluto Pillow has given me the best sleep I've had in years, and I'd happily pay to get continued nights of healthy, pain-free sleep.

Buy It: Starting at $95; plutopillow.com