March 20, 2012
Fluffy pillows. Foam pillows. Feather pillows. Ahhh. The rest…or not. Is your pillow a pain in the neck?
Have you ever gotten up with neck pain and thought that your pillow might be responsible, creating or adding to your neck pain? Certainly, your chiropractor at Old Mill Chiropractic is informed of this potential and is ready to discuss this important issue with you. And if you have neck pain due to pillow-related or other originator of neck pain, your St Peters chiropractor at Old Mill Chiropractic is here to help!
Now, your St Peters chiropractor knows that a bad pillow choice affects poor sleep quality, low pillow comfort, and waking symptoms like neck pain. In one pillow-pain study, 106 volunteers compared their own pillows to five trial pillows. For one week on each pillow, the pillow study participants recorded...
- any painful areas before going to sleep and any waking symptoms
- sleep-quality
- pillow-comfort ratings
The pillow-pain study results are that
- Using their own pillows, 42.5% reported no symptoms when waking.
- With their own pillows, 50% reported regular waking symptoms, failure to relieve pre-sleeping symptoms, uncomfortable pillows, and/or poor-quality sleep.
- All pillow participants who reported poor sleep quality also reported poor pillow comfort.
- Pillow-comfort reports were not related to any waking symptom report.
- Poor sleep quality was significantly related to waking neck stiffness and shoulder pain.
- Feather pillow users provided consistently low reports of pillow comfort and sleep quality.
So, this study concludes that many participants seem to have made poor pillow choices for themselves as poor sleep quality, low pillow comfort, and waking symptoms were common. (1)
Don’t let your pillow hurt you anymore! Talk with your St Peters chiropractic partner about St Peters pillow choices that may give you a better night’s rest, leading to better mornings without neck pain.
Check out the details of the pillow-pain study, then contact Old Mill Chiropractic for neck pain relief and a pillow consultation.