For something you use every night, pillows are surprisingly easy to forget to refresh. If you notice it feels a little lumpy at bedtime, by morning you’re probably more focused on your coffee than last night’s sleep. But when exactly should you replace your pillows? The sleep specialists we reached out to had varied opinions. Dr. Joshua Tal, a psychologist who specializes in sleep disorders, told us he has heard that anywhere between two and seven years is a good time frame for pillow life expectancy. Dr. Janet Kennedy, a clinical psychologist and founder of NYC Sleep Doctor, said you can expect a basic poly or down-alternative pillow (also known as fiber pillows) to last only six months to a year. And Dr. Michael Gelb, a TMJ and sleep specialist, told us fiber pillows usually last one to two years. If the varied time frames are a bit confusing, you can always try what Tal calls the "shoe test," coined by sleep specialist Michael Breus.

"What you do is you fold your pillow in half, put a shoe on the back side of the pillow, and then let go of the pillow," says Tal. "If the pillow folds back into shape and flings the shoe off of it, you’re good. If it doesn’t, it’s kind of lost its ability to hold your head up properly." (Just be sure to use a substantial shoe and not, say, a flip-flop.) Tal also told us about a test he uses with his patients: "I advise clients to stand up against the wall, as if you were sleeping - so a back sleeper would stand with their back to the wall, a side sleeper would stand with their side - and then rest your head on the wall and notice how far it has to go to do that