What is the Best Pillow to Use for Your Neck Pain?
One of the most common questions asked of Dr. Matt is “Is there a good pillow I should use?” Fortunately, the same company that produces the Denneroll spinal orthotics that we use in our office has created a pillow. This pillow, just like the spinal orthotics, are perfectly constructed to serve as a proper mold for your spine. We spend roughly 8 hours a day sleeping and it only takes 20 minutes of poor posture to make permanent changes. So, imagine the sheer amount of damage we can do to our spines as we sleep each and every night.
The Denneroll pillow is designed both for back and side-sleeping (we never recommend stomach-sleeping, as this puts unwanted strain on your lower back). Most importantly, the pillow is structured in such a way to give your cervical spine it’s proper “C-shape” when lying on your back. Prior to its market debut, the Denneroll pillow was studied extensively in clinical trials using both X-ray and MRI imaging. So, when sleeping on your back, your neck will be able to fall into its intended position. This also allows your airways to open up—we’ve even had patients that use CPAP machines say that they’ve been able to sleep on lower settings when using their pillow. When side-sleeping, the Denneroll pillow helps keep your neck level with your head and body, keeping your neck from the typical crooked posture that normal pillows provide.
Poor head posture gives way to unnecessary strain on the muscles that run from the back of our skulls down to the base of our necks. When these muscles become tired, headaches are most likely the next step. Not to mention, every inch of forward head posture elicits an extra 10 pounds of head weight onto our necks. This is a further consequence to the integrity of the entire spine and spinal cord.
Neck pain is always quite literally just that—a pain in the neck. There’s certainly no sense in letting it get out of hand and begin to take a toll on your well-being. Regular adjustments and traction are great tools to stay on top of spine health. But, patients are at home or work much longer than they are here in the office. So, what you do outside of your appointment time is extremely important for your posture, health and pain management. Those 8 hours out of the day that we are unable to consciously pay attention to our posture are some of the most vital. We all deserve a great night’s sleep!
Resources: https://www.idealspine.biz/products/the-denneroll-pillow
