Picture a Sunday around 7:40 a.m. The coffee is hot, the book you've been ignoring all week is on the nightstand, and the bed is the only warm spot in the house. You stack two regular pillows against the wall, lean back, and about four minutes later you're sliding down like a sad snowman.
Pretty much everyone who has tried to sit up in bed with ordinary pillows knows that slow slump. The usual fix is one of two things: a headboard pillow or a reading pillow. They look related, both end up behind your back, and plenty of listings use the names like they're the same product. They aren't, and picking the wrong one is how you get a pillow that looks great online and quietly annoys you every night.
So let's split them up by what you actually do in bed, not by foam density or fabric names. We make both at Rulaer, so I'll be upfront about where each one wins and where it doesn't.
The 30-second answer
- Headboard pillow if you share the bed, lean on a wall or headboard, and want one wide, soft backrest along the mattress.
- Reading pillow if sitting up is a one-person thing, or you want something you can carry to the sofa, the floor or the guest room.
- Both if you do a lot of sitting up. That's not a cop-out, they do different jobs.
What a headboard pillow really is
A headboard pillow (some shops say headboard cushion, others call it a backrest pillow for bed) is a long, thick cushion that sits between your back and the wall or bed frame. Think of it as a soft stand-in for a headboard that you can actually lean on. Apartment Therapy's home editor described them in a June 2026 piece as oversized, headboard-shaped cushions that are cheaper than upholstered headboards, comfy for reading or binge-watching, easy to shove aside at bedtime, and fine to use on top of a headboard you already own.
The part that matters for sitting up is width. A queen mattress is about 60 inches across, and a headboard pillow is meant to cover a good chunk of that so you're not leaning on a bare wall the moment you shift left or right. Our headboard pillows follow that idea: the Bedroom Headboard Pillow comes in 28 × 22 × 6 in pieces with a zippered, removable corduroy cover, and two pieces side by side cover roughly 56 inches of a queen bed. It comes in light blue, deep gray, red and deep brown.
The whole point: a soft, wide surface where the wall used to be.
And a reading pillow? Different animal
A reading pillow is built around one person. Sleep Foundation, which tests these in-house (page updated April 2026), explains that a reading pillow is made to hold your upper body up when you sit upright, and that regular sleeping pillows tend to flatten out under your back, which is exactly why they make poor backrests. Wedges are the popular shape, and some models add head or arm support. You can read more in their reading pillow guide.
Our reading pillows have cylindrical shapes on both sides, so they hug you a bit instead of letting you drift sideways. We suggest around 4 inches of thickness for a seat-back like this, because much thicker starts to feel bulky and much thinner collapses. The Bed Rest Reading Pillow comes in two sizes (17.7 × 29.5 in and 27.5 × 39.3 in) in light gray or black.
AI image prompt (delete this box before publishing): iPhone photo of an unmade bed seen from a slight angle, showing the mattress, fitted sheet and a rumpled duvet. A light gray upright reading pillow with a high back sits on the bed near the head, leaning against two ordinary sleeping pillows. Beside the bed: a wooden nightstand with a small lamp and a paperback, and the wooden bed frame and floor are visible. Afternoon window light, ordinary home bedroom, natural framing, no people, no text. Negative: sofa, couch, armchair, loveseat.
A reading pillow is a seat you set down wherever you want one.
Side by side, without the fluff
| Headboard pillow | Reading pillow | |
|---|---|---|
| Width | Wider, runs along the bed | Individual, one person's width |
| Best use | Bed-wide support | Personal seating |
| Portability | Low, it lives by the wall | High, carry it to the sofa or floor |
| Reading | Good | Excellent |
| Couples | Better, one backrest for two | Usually one each |
| Feels like | Part of the bed | A seat you put on the bed |
Pick by scene, not by material
Nobody lies in bed thinking "I wish I had higher-density foam." They think "I want to finish this chapter" or "I want to watch one more episode." So here's how the two stack up for the things people really do while sitting up in bed.
SCENE 1Reading before lights-out
This is the reading pillow's home turf. It keeps the angle you set, it doesn't shift when you turn a page, and the side shapes stop you from tipping over after twenty minutes of a good paperback. A headboard pillow works fine for reading too, especially if you like to change position a lot, but you'll have to lean back into the wall rather than being held in place.
SCENE 2Watching TV together
Headboard pillow, no contest. Two people, one screen, a bowl of something crunchy in the middle. A single wide cushion beats two separate seats that keep sliding apart, and nobody has to fight over the "good" pillow.
SCENE 3A laptop in bed
Slight edge to the reading pillow, because it gives you a defined seat-back and a fixed spot. If you do work from the corner of your bed, put the laptop on a lap tray, keep the cord out of the way, and pick a firmer cushion. Soft, sinky pillows are lovely for reading and kind of terrible for typing.
Bed-office, the unofficial kind.
SCENE 4Morning coffee, slow start
Headboard pillow again. It covers the whole side of the bed, so you can lean back, balance a tray, and not worry about what's behind you. And let's be honest, a coffee spill will happen sooner or later. A cover that unzips is worth more than any feature on the spec sheet, and our Bedroom Headboard Back Cushion is machine washable for exactly that reason.
Nothing fancy, just a slow start.
SCENE 5Sitting up before sleep
Phone down, lamp on low, ten quiet minutes. Either one works. The reading pillow is easier to pull out and toss on the chair when the light goes off, while a headboard pillow can just stay where it is. If you hate rearranging things in the dark, that's a point for the headboard pillow.
Two people, one bed
This is where a lot of reading pillows quietly lose. Two individual pillows on one mattress means two separate islands and a gap somewhere in the middle. A headboard pillow gives you one continuous backrest, and ours is made in pieces, so each person gets their own side of it and you can still nudge them closer together or further apart. If one of you reads and the other watches a show on a tablet, it just works without negotiation.
Two readers, one backrest.
Cold mornings, holiday guests, and a gift-season shortcut
It's mid-November as I write this, which means two things: it's cold enough that everybody wants to stay in bed longer, and the guest room is about to get used for the first time since summer. Both of these are good arguments for owning one of each.
For guests, a headboard pillow is the quick way to make a plain metal frame look finished, and a reading pillow in a basket by the bed is the sort of small thing people notice and appreciate. If there's a bench at the foot of the bed (a lot of guest rooms have one), a matching indoor bench cushion ties the whole corner together. And if you're shopping for a gift, the reading pillow is the safer pick. It's one person's thing, it doesn't depend on bed size, and it travels well in the car.
Same pillow, different room. That's the portability part.
Fit details people forget to check
- Measure the mattress and the gap. For a headboard pillow, you want the width of the bed and the space between mattress and wall. Our Bedroom Headboard Pillow is 6 inches deep, so a very tight gap matters.
- Check the firmness. Our cushions are built around firm 90D high-density foam. That's good for sitting up, less good if what you want is a squishy cloud.
- Look at the cover. Removable and washable beats "spot clean only" every time, particularly anywhere near coffee.
- Don't oversize the thickness. Thicker is not always better. About 4 inches is where we land for a reading pillow.
Three to look at first
If you want a short list instead of scrolling through a catalog, these are the three I'd start with.
FOR TWO READERS OR TV NIGHTS
Bedroom Headboard Pillow
$108.60. Corduroy, zippered cover, four colors. The wide one.
See the details →FOR A CHUNKY, WASHABLE BACKREST
Bedroom Headboard Back Cushion
$95.90. Tufted white corduroy, 23.6 × 23.6 × 9.8 in, machine washable.
See the details →FOR ONE-PERSON SEATING
Bed Rest Reading Pillow
From $78. Two sizes, light gray or black. Moves wherever you do.
See the details →There's also a Bedroom Body Roll Pillow ($55.20) if you want something extra to tuck into the setup. It's a nice add-on, not a starting point.
Building a whole bedside setup?
Spend $300 and take $60 off. Spend $500 and take $125 off. A headboard pillow, a back cushion, a reading pillow and a body roll comes to about $338 before the offer. Shipping is free across the US. Offers change, so check the banner at checkout.
A few quick questions
Can I use a headboard pillow and a reading pillow together?
Yes, and plenty of people do. The wide one goes against the wall, the personal one goes in front of it when you want a more defined seat.
Will a headboard pillow fit my queen bed?
It depends on the pillow, so check the product dimensions against your mattress width. A queen is about 60 inches across, and two of our 28-inch pieces side by side cover roughly 56 of that.
Does it replace a headboard?
It stands in for one visually and gives you something soft to lean on, but it's a cushion, not furniture. Plenty of people use one on top of an existing headboard too.
If you're still torn, count the people
One person who sits up on the bed to read, work or scroll: go for the reading pillow. Two people, or one person who just wants the bed itself to feel like a comfortable place to sit: go for the headboard pillow. And if you picture both situations in the same week, you already know the answer.
Whichever way you go, pick the cover you can wash, measure the bed before you order, and keep the coffee on the tray.
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