How the ledger is kept

The ledger is a record of what pillow makers put in writing. We read a maker's product page and its returns page, save a copy of each, and copy each figure into a row with the words it came from and the date we read them. Every row can be checked against the page it quotes, and the pages are listed at the foot of each table.

Whose words count

In this order, for a term or a stated figure:

1. The maker's own page, because a maker can be held to what it publishes.
2. The shop's page, when the shop sets the terms, such as a retailer's returns policy or an Amazon listing's price.
3. A named outlet's review, for what that outlet found, always named with its date. It never becomes a figure in a row.

Review sites that earn from the same pillows they rank are read as leads and never as evidence. A buyer's words may describe a delivery, a refund or a checkout. A buyer's health outcome is not quoted.

The order of a table

A table is ordered by what it costs to send the pillow back, from the columns alone:

1. The maker pays the shipping and states there is no fee.
2. The maker pays the shipping and says nothing about a fee.
3. It costs you: a stated fee, or you pay the shipping.
4. The maker takes no returns on this pillow.

Inside each step, the longest trial or return window comes first, then the lowest price. Rows equal on all of that keep the order of their ids in the ledger's data. A maker whose pages do not say enough to tell what a return costs goes in a second table, labelled as such. A blank is never read as a pass, and never as a flaw.

The code that computes the order sees only a row's status, price and stated figures. It cannot see a link, a program or a commission. That is the point of doing it in code: an order that could see the money could be bought.

What a pick is

A pick is a rule run on the rows of a page, and on a page that holds every kind of pillow it runs on the pillows for the head. When a term or a price moves, the rule can pick another pillow, and the build fails until the pick's written case is rewritten. These are the rules, run in the order a page lists them, each skipping a pillow an earlier one took:

Cheapest to send back

The first row of the table: the lowest return cost, then the longest window, then the lowest price.

Longest to decide

The longest stated trial or return window among rows that cost nothing to ship back, then the lowest price.

Adjustable height

The first row of the table whose maker states how the height changes.

Lowest price with its terms stated

The lowest price among rows whose maker says enough to tell what a return costs, then the lowest return cost.

Lowest price on any terms

The lowest price among every row on the page, including rows whose terms say too little to place.

Highest stated loft

The highest height a maker states among every row on the page, then the lowest price.

Lowest stated loft

The lowest height a maker states among every row on the page, then the lowest price.

How a page gets its rows

A position page shows the head pillows whose maker or seller names that position, in their own words. If a maker does not say a pillow suits side sleepers, it is not on the side-sleeper page, however often other sites say so. Knee, body, CPAP and wedge pillows stay off the position pages, because they do a different job. The neck page shows contour pillows and describes their shape and height.

The cooling page shows the pillows their makers sell on keeping cool. The pillows hub shows every row the ledger lists, one table per kind of pillow.

What the record holds

• A loft is the height the maker states, labelled as stated.
• A finding belongs to the outlet that made it, named with its date.
• There are no scores, because written terms give no number to compute one from. A review gives its verdict in words.
• A maker's health claim is recorded by its subject only, beside what is on file for it. This site says nothing of its own about what a pillow does for pain.

The limits of this record

A maker can change its terms the day after we read them, so the date beside a term is the date it was true, and the maker's own page wins at checkout. Written terms are not the same as a return that goes smoothly. We can show what a maker promises, and we cannot show how it behaves.

A price is read from one page on one day, and it may differ by size, by sale and by shop.

Many pillow makers' sites refuse a plain automated read. Where the owner of this site allowed a named site for a run, the saved copy says so. A pillow we could not read is left out, with the reason. A 30-day window on a pillow sold through Amazon is Amazon's general policy, which asks for an item in original or unused condition, so it may not cover a pillow you have slept on.

If a row is wrong, write to hello@sleepclerk.com with the page and the row. A correction is dated in the changelog.