I tested the adjustable, cooling pillow and it checks all the boxes

It’s been years since I’ve had a good night’s sleep. I could blame my one-year-old daughter, or my husband who snores — they’ve both led to blurry, slow-moving mornings lately — but really, I’m just a high-maintenance sleeper. To fall and stay asleep, I require complete and total darkness, dead silence and a cool room, which probably makes me sound like a vampire. (I can neither confirm or deny.)

Not surprisingly, I’m just as particular when it comes to my pillow. I’m a bit of a Goldilocks in this respect: Light, fluffy pillows don’t offer the support I need for my neck, whereas I’ve found memory-foam pillows to be way too firm under my head. I love a firm-ish, supportive pillow with some density, and for the past two years, I’ve been pretty content with the Nest Bedding Easy Breather Pillow; it’s adjustable, so I removed about half of the shredded-foam filling to get it to a level of firmness that I like.

It worked for me, but it wasn’t perfect. I occasionally woke up with a crick in my neck, and it didn’t seem to have any cooling effects — which became especially clear during the summer. That’s when I tried the Marlow pillow, a cooling memory foam pillow that offered me something different from any option I’ve tried before: it lets you calibrate its firmness to your liking so I was hoping it would help me get some shut-eye through an especially hot summer. The brand sent me a sample to test out back in July and I’ve been using it ever since. Below, I’ll share more about my experience testing Marlow’s pillow and why I think it’s great for both back and side sleepers alike. 

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The Marlow pillow ($64+) is a memory-foam pillow that offers adjustable firmness and a cooling effect, courtesy of a gel-infused fill (which is made of a blend of 80-percent memory foam and 20 percent polyester fiber). 

Created by the team at Brooklinen — the brand behind some of the best bed sheets — the Marlow pillow has two zippers on either lengths of the pillow, allowing you to adjust the firmness level. The fabric within the zipper gussets is ventilated to allow for better airflow, too, according to Marlow. It also has a sateen cotton shell that’s soft and antimicrobial, according to the brand, and it comes in standard and king sizes.

As nice as the cooling gel sounds, it’s these zippers that really set the design apart, in my experience. You can unzip both for a cushiony feel with more lift, keep them both zipped to boost the firmness, or just unzip one side for a happy medium between the two. The bonus is that this all works via the zippers; you’re never left cleaning down feathers or, like me, storing a little bag of shredded memory foam in a linen closet (“just in case” my preferences change).

I slept on my Marlow pillow for three weeks alongside my usual, type-A bedtime set-up (eye mask, room-temperature glass of water, library book). I sleep either on my back or on my side; whatever my starting position, though, I always wake up on my back.

Helpfully, the Marlow pillow has different recommendations for these positions: Keep both sides zipped for side sleeping — which merits more support, according to the brand — and unzip just one side for medium support for sleeping on your back. (Stomach sleepers, you get to unzip both sides.) I decided to keep both sides zipped for the firmest feel for side-sleeping, only unzipping one side in the name of science for a few days at the end of the testing period.

A pillow can be a risky investment, especially if you don’t have the chance to test it out before you buy. Here’s what to keep in mind if you’re scoping out the Marlow pillow.

I loved Marlow’s pillow from night one, finding that its density with both zippers closed was perfect for me (as someone who prefers to sleep on my back or side). There was little to no loftiness (like the kind you may find in a fluffy hotel pillow), but there was still enough suppleness that I felt like my head and neck were being cradled instead of resting on a brick, which is how most memory-foam pillows feel.

Not once in the three weeks of testing did I wake up with a sore or achy neck, which I can’t say for other pillows I’ve tried. In the past when I’ve woken up to a cramped feeling in my neck, I’ve been forced to climb out of bed very gingerly and do stretches before I can get on with my day. Sleeping with the Marlow pillow never put me in that position and consistently gave me a decent night’s sleep, if not a perfect eight hours.

I loved that I could adjust the pillow’s firmness with a quick pull of a zipper. I was content with keeping the zippers closed (which means the fill was compressed for a firmer feel) since I tend to fall asleep on my side.

After a week, I opened up one of the two zippers on either side of the pillow; this allows air to come in via a mesh panel, otherwise hidden when it’s zipped, to give the pillow a loftier, less firm feel. (You don’t ever have to deal with taking in, storing or putting back any of the actual fill.) I did it just to see if there was any difference for sleeping on my back, but I didn’t notice a huge shift; it did feel slightly less firm, but not so much that it kept me up at night.

As for the cooling effect, I found the temperature comfortable, but it didn’t actively bring down my body temperature. I didn’t have any issues with sweating or overheating in any way when using it, even when I was tossing and turning (it’s inevitable), but I was hoping for more noticeable coolness, especially throughout the night.

I tested the brand’s standard size pillow, but I have a king-sized bed, so it was comically small — and I would sometimes roll off the pillow depending on how I adjusted throughout the night. I’d recommend thinking through how much you toss and turn throughout the note and how big your bed is before purchasing a pillow. (The brand does make a king-sized pillow, for reference, and I’d opt for that next time.) 

The Marlow pillow, to me, strikes the right balance between comfort and support. When I’ve spent the night at hotels and friends’ homes, I’ve had to stack multiple pillows (all loft, no support) to get comfortable, or simply deal with a rough night’s sleep, and the Marlow doesn’t require me to do any other negotiating, which is pretty impressive. If and when I want to adjust it, knowing that all it takes is a quick zip is a huge selling point, too. 

 At $64, the pillow isn’t cheap, though it’s less than competitors who also make cooling pillows, like the Pluto Pillow ($125). It’s also more affordable than other pillows that let you adjust their firmness like my Nest Easy Breather pillow ($119), which took me some trial-and-error to figure out the right fill level (I also don’t find it to be especially cooling).

For better cooling without adjustability, you can try a Tuft & Needle pillow ($120), though it’s also more expensive than Marlow pillows.

The Marlow also comes with some great protections if you’re not sold, or sure what kind of firmness you want or need. The brand has a 365-day free return policy, which is one of the most generous return policies I’ve ever encountered. Competitors like Pluto Pillow and Nest, offer a 125-day and 30-day windows, respectively. It also has a two-year warranty on the product in the event a zipper breaks — so you can rest easy, literally and figuratively.

I’m a freelance writer and editor, who frequently covers beauty, gaming and sales and deals for NBC Select. As both a new mom and a person who takes sleep very seriously, I’ve tried multiple pillows in my effort to get my recommended eight hours of sleep at night.