Pillow advice, painful neck and shoulders

[El Cid]

I suffered with lower back pain for most of last year and the beginning of this.

Thought it was my matress that was causing it.

However, in many cases it turns out to be lifestyle. Been too sidentery was effecting me. Ever since I took a sport up much of the lower back pain has now gone. Only notice it, if I've been sat down for more than 15 mins at work.

 

I seem to get more muscle problems if I stop exercising. How many people get too much exercise, not many.

[Strix]

It is more than likely that the pillows aren't the cause of the problem, but such activities as hunching over keyboards all day, slouching on the sofa to watch telly (or worse, lying on the sofa and twisting the neck to watch the telly), restraining a pulling dog on walks, carrying small children...

 

Moonbird, my mum is finding a daily dose of applejuice is helping her arthritis no end. Have any of you tried massage to alleviate these problems? I'm finding tai chi is helping loads with my neck problems (and spending too much time internetting on my phone makes it worse!)

 

Btw, I have a good quality feather pillow, which gets a good revival occasionally by machine washing, double spinning, and tumble drying

[El Cid]

I have a couple of them, my mum bought them to try cos she has same problem, they are useless, too hard or too bouncy, can't win, might just hang upside down like a bat see if that works lol!

 

You may well get some exercise in your job, but a good workout using all the different parts of your body will help.

[medusa]

I sleep with a buckwheat pillow, which is basically like a very heavy and solid bean bag which you just arrange to be the right shape for your head and neck and it's as soft as putting your head on a brick.

 

Personally I find soft pillows really hard to deal with and get way too hot around my head and neck.

 

Can I suggest you try out one of the orthopaedic pillows that comes with a solid core to support your neck and a fluffy bit to put your head on?

[pattricia]

I suffer with my neck and used to have a marvellous pillow created by a chiropractor. It was called The Pyramid and was shaped just like a pyramid with a hollowed out middle part on which you placed your head. Your neck was supported by a raised part at the front of the pillow. Ive seen one in a magazine today, and am sending up for it. Its also online as The Pyramid Pillow by Easylife.

[PeteMorris]

I used to have neck and shoulder problems, and tried just about every sort of pillow combination there is, from the memory foam 'kerbstone' type to soft and fluffy. My eventual solution was a standard shaped memory foam pillow with a cheap and cheerful ordinary pillow (microfibre?) on top. Not had any problems since!

[Dark Moomin]

I have had problems with pillows and sleeping position causing lower back pain.

 

I went to a shop in town, called We Love Sleep. They have loads of different pillows and yopu can try different types and they will find the right one for you.

 

What you need will depend on what position you sleep in and your build. Front sleeping was causing me lower back pain, so I trained my self to sleep on my side, and got a new pillow that was the right size for that, and its been brilliant!

 

They were ever so helpful too.

[anywebsite]

I had a similar problem. Fixed when I started sleeping on one pillow instead of two.

[Jillybabes]

I decided to give one of the orthopaedic ones another go, it's latex and a bit like sleeping on a marshmallow, a bit springy but it seems ok at the moment, fingers crossed thanks guys!