Sleeping makes me crazy. Slumber and I don’t really get along-I think about it too much and never get enough of it.
My shoulders hate it, waking up each morning in a state of distress.
My fingers often go numb if I sleep on my left side and I have become so habituated to sleeping with a pillow between my thighs that it is hard to fall asleep if one isn’t available..
I am a side sleeper even though I have long counseled that sleeping on the back is the optimal way to go.
But a study from Stony Brook University reports that side sleeping might in fact be the best option as a sleeping position.
There is so much about sleep that we don’t understand and in the last few years numerous discoveries have opened our eyes to the purpose and benefits of good sleep.
The study above posits that side sleeping is the best option for cleansing the brain and body while we sleep.
But that has nothing to do with the title of this post which concerns pillows.
Housing a pillow between my thighs has been a game changer for me. It allows me to keep my legs together and slightly bent.
If not for this pillow my femur bones press against each other just above the knee in the most uncomfortable way.
And I specifically want both of my legs to be aligned in the same way (which is slightly bent).
The title though refers to pillows under our head.
If you sleep on your back you don’t want to use a pillow because it would only be shoving your head forward of the spine.
An exception could be made for someone with tight sub occipital muscles but someone with tight sub occipital muscles should probably be sleeping on their side.
If you do sleep on your side you want to use a pillow that allows both sides of the neck to be equally long which means the pillow shouldn’t be too thin or too thick.
And you should never ever sleep on your stomach.
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