What pillow loft do I need as a side sleeper?

Your required loft is the gap between the side of your neck and the mattress when you lie on your side without a pillow. Estimated, it is your neck-to-shoulder distance minus how far your shoulder sinks into your mattress. For adults in the typical measurement range this model spans roughly 2 to 7.1 inches; a mid-range adult on a medium mattress lands at 4.5 to 5.2 inches.

Why do my ears hurt when I sleep on my side with earbuds in?

Usually because the pillow has bottomed out. Once the surface compresses to its dense base it stops behaving like foam, and the load spread across the side of your head concentrates on the ear. The earbud does not create that; it exposes how little room the surface had left to give.

Do I need a pillow with a hole in it?

There are two families of answer. A hole removes ear contact outright, which is the right approach when the tissue itself is sore, such as a healing piercing. Otherwise, correct loft plus a top layer soft enough to displace around the ear solves it without giving up the support the hole removes.

What pillow loft do you actually need?

Required loft is a property of your shoulders and your mattress, not of a pillow. Measure it once and most of the pillow question answers itself.

Neck-to-shoulder distance Standing, measure horizontally from the side of your neck to the outer point of your shoulder. Typical adults measure 5–7.5 inches. Your mattress How far your shoulder sinks in. A firm mattress barely gives; a soft one lets your shoulder drop noticeably. Anything in your ear or on your face at night? This does not change the loft. It changes what the pillow's surface has to do.

More accurate, and it takes a minute: This is the only method that needs no assumptions about your body or your mattress, because it measures both at once, under your actual weight.

Lie on your side on your own mattress, no pillow, head resting on the mattress.
Have someone measure the vertical distance from the mattress surface up to the side of your neck, just below your ear.
That distance, in inches, is the loft you need. Write it down.

Do this on the mattress you actually sleep on. A firm mattress and a soft one produce different answers for the same body, and the difference is not small.

Why the ear is where it shows up first

Ear pain when side sleeping is normally a bottoming-out symptom. Your ear is the smallest contact patch carrying the largest share of your head's weight. Whether that hurts depends less on what is in your ear than on whether the pillow surface can still move underneath it.

The ear-pressure index Earbuds, piercings, hearing aids, earplugs — what each one actually demands of a pillow. Every spec, side by side Loft, adjustability, trial length and price, read from each manufacturer's own page. How this is calculated The whole model, its arithmetic, and the check that keeps it honest.