Who writes Better Nights
I started paying attention to any of this for an unremarkable reason: I spent about a year waking up unable to turn my head properly to the left, and it took me embarrassingly long to connect that with the flat, folded-over pillow I had been sleeping on since university.
When I went looking for advice, everything I found was one of two things. Either a sales page dressed up as an article, or a wall of clinical language that never got round to telling me what height my pillow should be.
Better Nights is the site I wanted to find. Short, specific, willing to say "this will not help you" when that is the answer.
What I am not
I am not a doctor, a physiotherapist, a chiropractor or a sleep scientist. I have no medical training and I am not going to imply otherwise, because the internet has enough of that already.
What that means in practice: everything on this site is general information. It is not a diagnosis, not a treatment plan, and not a substitute for a conversation with someone qualified. Every article that touches on pain or breathing includes a list of signs that mean you should stop reading and call a professional. Those lists are there because I mean them.
How we research a product
Plainly, so there is no confusion about what our ratings are worth:
- We read the manufacturer's published specifications. Materials, dimensions, certifications, care instructions, return terms.
- We read publicly available customer feedback across retail listings and forums, looking for patterns rather than individual dramatic reviews.
- We check the claims against published sleep-health information from sources such as the Sleep Foundation and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and we name those sources in the text.
- We rate the product as editorial opinion. Our scores reflect how well a product matches the problem it claims to solve, and how much risk you take buying it.
What we do not do
We do not run laboratory tests. We do not measure foam density with instruments, and we do not conduct sleep studies. Any site claiming clinical testing of a consumer pillow should be asked to publish the protocol. Our ratings are informed opinion, and we would rather say that than dress it up.
Five rules we hold ourselves to
- We say who should not buy it. Every product piece includes a "skip it if" list. If we cannot write one honestly, we do not publish the piece.
- We do not claim cures. A pillow is a support device. It is not a treatment for sleep apnea, arthritis, disc problems or anything else with a medical name.
- We name our sources in the text, not in a vague "studies show" gesture.
- We do not print prices. They change constantly and a stale number is worse than no number. We send you to the current one instead.
- We label every affiliate link. Every one, at the top of every page and next to every button.
How the site makes money
Affiliate commissions, and nothing else.
When you click a link marked as an affiliate link and go on to buy something, the retailer pays us a commission. You pay exactly the same price you would have paid without us. Nobody pays us to write a review, nobody sees an article before it goes live, and no manufacturer has any input into what we publish or how we rate anything.
Being honest about the obvious tension: a site funded by commissions has an incentive to recommend buying things. Our defence against that is procedural rather than sentimental — the "skip it if" list, the refusal to claim cures, and the fact that we tell readers to see a doctor in the same articles where we link to a product. Judge us on whether we keep doing that.
Corrections
If something on this site is wrong, we want to know, and we will fix it and say that we fixed it. Articles carry an "updated" date so you can see when they last changed.
Reach us through the contact page.
What we cover, and what we do not
We cover: pillows and pillow height, sleeping positions, morning neck and shoulder stiffness, position-related snoring, and sleeping temperature.
We do not cover: supplements, prescription sleep medication, diagnosis of any condition, or anything requiring clinical judgement. Those belong to professionals, and we stay out of them.
Where to start
- Cervical pillow for neck pain — the main guide, with heights by sleeping position
- Why you wake up with a stiff neck — if you want the causes first
- Pillow height for side sleepers — if you already know you are a side sleeper
- Can a pillow stop snoring? — the honest answer
- Our full Derila Ergo review — the product we cover in depth