In-depth Comparison (2024): Saybrook Adjustable Pillow vs. Pacific Coast Double DownAround Pillow

Shredded Memory Foam and Polyfiber Mix

The Saybrook Adjustable Pillow is by far the most comfortable pillow I've tried, and it's the only pillow that stops me from tossing and turning at night. I used to think that it was normal to wake up periodically to shift my weight, but because the Saybrook pillow can adjust to the exact loft (height level) I need to cradle my head in place, I no longer wake up in the middle of the night to move my pillow around. I'm amazed by how much deeper my sleep is with the Saybrook pillow, and I wake up more well-rested in the morning. It's also the perfect combination of softness and firmness. I'd describe the consistency as firm enough to support my head but also soft enough so that it doesn't hurt my ears or jaw. I'm obsessed with the Saybrook pillow, and I use it as my personal pillow now.

The Saybrook pillow is one of three adjustable pillows I tested that use a combination of shredded memory foam and polyester fiber in the filling. The shredded memory foam can be removed or added back in to adjust the loft, and the polyester fibers smooth out the fill material so that lumpiness isn't an issue. The pillows can be unzipped for easy access to the filling inside. For side-sleepers, the adjustable loft is a huge advantage. The key to finding a good pillow is finding the right loft and the right softness, and an adjustable loft takes care of one half the equation perfectly. I like these adjustable pillows in general, but I like the Saybrook pillow the most because of the high-quality fill material.

The Saybrook pillow distinguishes itself in the filling. Saybrook uses a blend called "Lion Down Alternative," and I find the pun pretty amusing. Compared to the other shredded memory foam and polyester fiber blends, Lion Down Alternative has a higher proportion of memory foam, and the overall feel of the pillow is more like a memory foam pillow. When I sleep on the other adjustable pillows in this review, I feel more like I'm sleeping on a polyester pillow. In addition, the Saybrook memory foam feels to me like it's the highest quality. Pieces of memory foam in the Wondersleep pillow feel hard and uncomfortable to me while the Coop memory foam feels more like regular foam in my opinion. The Coop foam reminds me of the foam used in Walkman over-the-ear headphones from the 80's (not necessarily uncomfortable, but it has a different, more mundane feel), while the Saybrook memory foam has the signature squish I've come to expect from memory foam. The high proportion of memory foam pieces combined with the slight amount of polyester fiber results in a medium softness / firmness. It cradles my head with ample support when I sleep on my side, and I don't find myself tossing and turning at night when I use it. At the same time, the pillow still feels soft enough to be comfortable when I squish it, and it isn't so firm that I feel pressure against my ears or jaw. I can still turn my head without feeling pushback while lying down if I want to, which isn't true for some of the firmer pillows.

In the past, I had tried low-cost shredded memory foam pillows off of Amazon that were in the $20 - $50 price range, and they almost made me give up on shredded memory foam pillows. The pieces of memory foam were hard and stiff, causing the pillows to feel lumpy. Many of them didn't have the polyester fibers mixed in, unlike the Saybrook, Coop, and Wondersleep pillows, and the lack of polyester fibers exacerbated the lumpiness. Some of the pieces of foam in these low-cost pillows were sticky or had a rind on them that made me suspect the foam was a byproduct of mattress production. The Saybrook pillow (and the Coop pillow) use all new foam, and these pillows don't feel lumpy. If you've tried $20 - $50 shredded memory foam pillows in the past and have been disappointed, I would give the Saybrook Adjustable Pillow a try. You'll probably be surprised how different the Saybrook pillow feels. If you haven't tried a shredded memory foam pillow before, I recommend avoiding the $20 - $50 pillows. These types of pillows are noticeably better in the luxury pillow price range.

The Saybrook pillow comes in a zippered tube that acts as a measuring cup for removing filling. The tube instructs sleepers to take out enough to fill the tube in order to have a thinner pillow. I appreciate the rough guidance on how much filling to remove for people who want a lower loft, though obviously everyone should make their own micro-adjustments to get the right loft for them. I personally took out enough to fill the entire tube for side-sleeping. I also appreciate that there is a place for me to store the extra filling in case I need it later. The downside for the Saybrook is that it doesn't come with an additional bag of filling, while Coop provides an extra bag. However, this isn't a deal-breaker because I'd guess most people won't use all the filling. In addition, I measure 3.6 lbs of filling inside the standard-sized Saybrook pillow and 3.2 lbs of filling inside the standard-sized Coop pillow. The extra bag of Coop filling brings its overall weight to 3.7 lbs, so the total amount of filling for both pillows turns out to be very similar based on my measurements.

For back-sleeping, I use the same amount of fill as side-sleeping with the Saybrook pillow. When I sleep on my back, I don't need the thickness to match my shoulder size, and instead, I care about giving my neck support while making sure my head doesn't get pushed too forward. The tolerance range for the loft is higher when I sleep on my back. The loft I use for side-sleeping works for back-sleeping on the Saybrook pillow as well.

The Saybrook pillow uses a removable cover made of bamboo fabric. The fabric has a slight sheen, and the texture sits halfway between silk and knit wool. Out of all the pillow covers, I enjoy the Saybrook and Tempur-Pedic covers the most.

Overall, the Saybrook pillow has really impressed me, and I've been obsessively recommending it to all my friends and anyone who will listen. I like the adjustability and the quality of the filling. I like the way the bamboo cover feels against my cheeks. Sleeping on this pillow, I feel refreshed in the morning without any jaw pain or neck pain. It's been a long journey, but I've finally found the perfect pillow.

Update (8 months later): I've been sleeping on the Saybrook Adjustable Pillow for a while now, and it still sleeps like new! I'm very happy with the quality and durability of this pillow. I fluff this pillow in the dryer on a no-heat, gentle setting once every 2 months like the instructions say, and the pillow stays at the loft I want. I attribute this to the high-quality memory foam material.

Down and Feather

The Pacific Coast Double DownAround Pillow is a down and feather pillow that uses a double-chamber design like the Chamberlain Down Dual-Chamber Pillow. However, I see a huge difference in quality.

Most notably, even though the Pacific Coast pillow uses a dual-chamber design that keeps feathers in the inner chamber and down in the outer layer, I can still feel the quills from the feathers when I lie down. In contrast, the Chamberlain Down pillow feels like sleeping on air because the down layer feels more robust. I suspect this is because of a difference in the size of down clusters used by each pillow. The Pacific Coast website lists the down fill power, which measures the size of the down clusters, at 550 in the Double DownAround Pillow. The Chamberlain website lists the fill power at 600+, which means that the down clusters are larger in the Chamberlan Down Dual-Chamber Pillow. Larger clusters tend to be better at trapping air and providing loft.

In the Pacific Coast pillow I have, feathers are sticking out of the stitching along the seams, as shown in the picture below. This gives me low confidence in the construction quality of the pillow.

Another consideration is that I can hear a rustling noise inside the Pacific Coast pillow I have when I push down on it. The noise is relatively loud, and I'd compare it to the crinkling of a plastic grocery bag in terms of loudness and nature. The sound appears to originate from the inner chamber. Since a pillow is something I put my ear against when I sleep, the last adjective I'd want to use to describe it is "noisy." I can hear a crinkling in the Puredown pillow and Chamberlain Down pillow fabrics if I rustle them and concentrate on listening, but I wouldn't consider noise to be an issue for those two pillows. The Pacific Coast pillow I have is much louder to my ears and in a completely different league of noise.

The Pacific Coast Double DownAround Pillow comes in a Soft, Medium, and Firm version on their website as of my time of purchase. I ordered the pillow from Amazon, and I didn't see the firmness specified in the listing when I purchased. I ended up receiving the Soft version, which I prefer to use for stomach-sleeping. It's possible that the Medium and Firm versions can work for back-sleeping and side-sleeping, but based on my experience with the perceived construction quality of the Soft pillow, I don't intend to try the other options.

Finally, it's worth noting that the Pacific Coast pillow, like all down and feather pillows, would require regular fluffing to restore the loft. Because down and feather pillows work by trapping air, which escapes after an extended period of sleeping, down and feather pillows benefit from a fluff that pumps air back in.