What pillow loft is
Pillow loft is the vertical height of the pillow as it sits on the bed, no weight on it. It's the easiest number to measure and the one most product pages use. The catch: very few sleepers experience their pillow at uncompressed loft. The moment your head touches it, the foam compresses, and the felt height is whatever's left.
Loft vs. height-under-load
Maple specs every pillow at both uncompressed loft (typically 150 mm across our lineup) and loft under specific loads — 20 N, 40 N, 50 N, and 80 N — at both 60 seconds and 300 seconds of compression. Why those four loads? They span light pressure (a tilted head, no full weight) through full head weight (~50 N for an average adult head) and beyond (heavier frames, side-sleeping with shoulder pressure). The 60-second number is what your head feels when you first lie down. The 300-second number is what it feels by minute five — and that's a better predictor of overnight comfort than the first-touch feel.
Loft by sleep position
Loft requirements change by sleep position because the head-to-mattress gap changes. Stomach sleepers have almost no gap, so they need almost no loft. Back sleepers have a small gap (mostly the curve of the cervical spine), so they need medium loft. Side sleepers have the largest gap (head + half a shoulder width), so they need the most loft.
- Stomach70–85 mm
- Back85–105 mm
- Side (average shoulders)100–115 mm
- Side (broad shoulders)115–130 mm
How mattress firmness changes the right loft
On a soft mattress, your shoulder sinks more than your head, which raises the head relative to the spine. You need less pillow loft to keep the head in line. On a firm mattress, the shoulder doesn't sink — the gap stays wide and you need more pillow loft. Maple's fit logic moves the target by ±8 mm depending on whether your mattress is soft, medium, or firm.
How to tell if your pillow is the wrong loft
Two diagnostic tests. (1) Lie on your side in your normal position. If your head tilts down toward the mattress, the pillow is too low. If your head tilts up away from your spine, it's too tall. (2) Wake-up signals: arm under the pillow = too low. Chin pushed toward chest after a back-sleeping night = too tall. Constant pillow-folding = wrong height.
Why "loft" alone isn't enough
Two pillows can share the same uncompressed loft and feel completely different. The variables that matter alongside loft are firmness (IFD25 — how hard the pillow pushes back at 25% compression) and creep (how much the pillow settles between minute one and minute five). A pillow with 150 mm uncompressed loft and high creep can drop to 70 mm by morning. Maple's spec sheet publishes both numbers because both matter.