Pillow Face-Off: MyPillow Classic vs. MyPillow Premium

MyPillow Classic: The Classic comes in standard size and king size. Its exterior is made of cotton and its interior is filled with chunks of polyurethane foam. MyPillow says it’s machine-washable and can go in a dryer.

Support: To get a good night’s rest, you need a pillow that keeps your head and neck in a neutral position, whether you sleep on your side or your back. In our pillow testing lab, we use a pressure mat to analyze 1,600 pressure points and note areas where the pillow doesn’t offer adequate support.

Both the Classic and the Premium earn top ratings for supporting side sleepers, but the Classic has better-than-average support for back sleepers while the Premium receives only a middling rating. The Classic takes the lead in this round because it’s better for more types of sleepers.

Resilience: It’s essential that a pillow hold its shape if it’s going to do its job. That’s why we evaluate how well pillows maintain their loft over time. We place an evenly distributed 225-pound weight on each pillow in a room set to 98.6° F (to mimic the human body) and 80 percent humidity for 96 hours. Then we measure the height and firmness of each pillow before we fluff it and after. The closer a pillow’s height and firmness is to what it was before the test, the higher its score for resilience.

This is where the Classic fails: It rates below average in our resilience tests because it doesn’t regain its full height. The Premium bounces back more than the Classic does and earns a slightly higher rating. The Premium edges out the Classic here.

Use and preference: In addition to using machines to evaluate pillows in our tests, we ask a panel of human testers to use the pillows and rate them on how they look and feel.

Our testers found that the Classic and the Premium have a good height but said that the cotton covering and stitching on both looked downmarket, and that they had to adjust the pillows when sleeping on them because the foam chunks sometimes gathered in one spot. Still, our testers rated the Premium higher than the Classic overall in this test; it received a Good rating compared with just a Fair for the Classic. The Premium wins out here.

Breathability: Feeling sweaty at night doesn’t make for good sleep. To see whether a pillow “sleeps warm,” we use a humidity sensor to gauge how breathable it is. Some pillows trap moisture, making it uncomfortably hot. The more moisture the humidity sensor measures, the worse the pillow’s breathability rating.

It’s probably not a surprise that because these pillows are made of foam chunks that allow air to pass between them, both earn an Excellent rating in this test. The airflow allows moisture to dissipate in both pillows. Tie.

Although these MyPillows have many similarities, the Premium is the better bet for a good night’s sleep. Even though it costs about $20 more (you may find a better deal at online retailers), it holds up better than the Classic, and our testers found it to be more comfortable.

If you’re a back sleeper, however, you may prefer the Classic because it will offer better support than the Premium.