Why Your Pillow Matters

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of life. Sleeping allows your body to recharge and heal from whatever the day had in store. This could be a stressful day at work, a long drawn out commute, or an anxiety riddled work meeting. Being able to go home and know that you are getting the best night sleep is a worry you shouldn’t have. But are you sleeping right? How could you not be sleeping right? Well it can come down to a number of factors. First, how old is your mattress? The older your mattress is the worse it will be for your sleep. As your mattress ages it develops grooves, divots, and lumps from use. If you notice any of these, that means it is time to get a new mattress. The mattress could be adding unneeded stress to your back and causing you to have a restless and unfulfilling night of sleep. Mattresses are good for about 10 years, after that point it is important to change them out. Little tips and tricks to keep your mattress lasting as long as possible are to make sure you rotate it every time you change your sheets. This means taking the bottom end where your feet lie and putting it where your head would be. If the mattress happens to have a bottom, which seems to be increasingly rare, you can flip the mattress over!

Another issue with the mattress is how soft should my mattress be? Well that depends on how you sleep, are you more of a side or back sleeper? If you are a side sleeper you would need a softer mattress. If you are a back sleeper then the mattress should be firmer. Your sleeping position dictates how firm your mattress should be and what type of pillow you use! What we sleep on and how we sleep should and is about body positioning. Sleeping on your stomach is the worst way to sleep. It puts you in an undesirable position that puts more pressure on your low back. Think of the shape of our spine as a connection of C curve shapes. There’s a reverse C in our cervical spine, a giant C in our thoracic spine, and then another reverse C in our lumbar spine. When we sleep on our stomachs we exaggerate this reverse C in our lumbar putting increased strain in our low back. This increased strain can cause QL and SI joint dysfunctions making our low back ache in pain. The best sleeping positions are either on your back or on your side.

When sleeping on your back or side we recommend you use one of these two pillows. Either the Pillow Cube or Therapeutica Pillow. The Pillow Cube is more designed for side sleepers, the reason being is that it is designed to perfectly fit into the opening between the side of your head and your shoulder. This keeps a straight line in your head positioning so you don’t put increased strain on your cervical spine. The Pillow Cube gives your neck the support it needs, keeping your spine in alignment by supporting your head and neck. Now if you are a back sleeper the Therapeutica Pillow will be your best choice. It does offer the ability to transfer between sleeping on your side and back. The pillow itself helps you maintain the curvature in your neck, giving your head a cavity to nestle in. It also has a wedge at the bottom of the pillow to help support the thoracic spine while laying on it. To find out which size is for you measure from neck to your shoulder with a ruler. This will give you the measurement you need for your pillow.  If you are purely a back sleeper and never sleep on your side a cheaper option is the D-Core Pillow.

Since sleep is so important, everyone at Scordilis Chiropractic is always looking out for you. We would only recommend things if they first met our seal of approval. There is a lot of misinformation out there, we’re here to clean some of it up. We want you to be able to maximize your sleep and take care of yourself when you are not in the office. Since we can’t be with you all the time, we want you to be able to bring a piece of us with you.