PILLOW & HEALTH
There was once a TV commercial for skin care cosmetics product. It showed a woman sleeping in and described the enough sleep made
Proper nightly sleep can restore your energy from the stress and tiredness and also help restore your skin health. Yes, sleeping beauty! However, a mere long hours of sleep does not make us all beautiful and revitalized, but still tired when you sleep on a pillow that does not fit you properly. It is because the wrong pillow tires you out during the sleep, instead of relaxing you, and it can deform your posture as stressing your spine.
This time we will talk about why we should use a pillow and how we can choose the right one.
It is only us who use a pillow when sleeping amongst living creatures. The reason we use one is because our spines are curved - not a single curve like other mammals, but rather S-shaped since we walk erect. So, when we lie on bed to sleep, this S-shaped curvature should be maintained to relax our body.
This picture on the left shows the primary curve of the curved backward thoracic spine, and secondary curves of curved inward cervical and lumbar spines.
This S-shaped curvature can properly absorb the shock or impact from our orthograde posture, that is, from the weight of our head and torso. For an example, the average weight of an adult is approximately 10 to 12 lbs. It corresponds to the weight of a common bowling ball. So, you can estimate how heavy your head itself is on your neck when standing or sitting. If a neck did not have a curve, the whole weight of a head would put on the neck and shoulders without any buffering, and consequently might cause disorders such as cervical spinal disc herniation, shoulder pain, headache, and so on.
It explains why we have to properly maintain the curvature of cervical spine during our sleep. In other words, it emphasizes the important role of a pillow in our sleep.
A pillow should fill the room between the nape of your neck and the bed while lying down to sleep in order to ideally support the naturally curved posture of the cervical spine. In general, standing with the face tilted down five to six degree as if reading a book is the best posture to maintain the curve of the cervical spine without pressuring it. When we apply this posture in bed, it will become the most comfortable position to sleep. That is, when using the proper pillow that fits you (your neck), the curve of your cervical spine will be well supported and you will not look straight up at the ceiling but slightly down at about five to six degrees.
Let’s look into what is a wrong pillow to us and what are side effects from using it.
There is a verb ‘高枕短命 (a tall pillow, a short life)’ in ancient classics. It means if sleeping on a tall pillow, one will not live long. As mentioned earlier, our cervical spine has to have its secondary curve. These days we spend hours on sitting at the desk and looking down at papers, or sticking out our neck and looking at the computer monitor. This kind of postures straightens out the cervical spine, and as repeating this routine, the cervical spine will lose its curvature (also known as a forward head & neck, turtle neck, text neck, etc).
To test it yourself, as standing relaxed, if the ear canal sticks forward from the shoulder line, your head is pulled forward as your cervical spine is abnormally straightened forward . In this state, the muscles of the nape of your neck (suboccipital muscles, posterior cervical muscles, etc) are always extended, and the anterior muscles (anterior scalene, sternocleidomastoid, etc) are contracted all the time. Furthermore, this tension from muscles around your neck will stiffen the shoulders from overexerting the weight of the head, and the cervical spine will lose its function to mitigate the impact. Now it creates a perfect condition for a cervical disc herniation.
So, after having been exploited all day long, the only time your neck can rest peacefully is when you lie down to sleep. However, if you use a tall pillow, those posterior muscles will stay extended and anterior ones will stay in contraction. There will be no rest for them. The problem is that, if the musculoskeletal structure of your neck has been already out of balance, you will not feel comfortable with a proper pillow and will be inclined to use the tall pillow. Therefore, choosing a proper pillow is the first step to correct this posture before this condition of the forward head/neck and curled in shoulder/chest leads to various spinal problems.
Then, is using a low pillow simply the best solution? The answer is no. If the pillow is too low, it also carries the risk of neck damage. The too low pillow may block the nerve system and/or the blood circulation, narrow down the airway and disturb your breathing. You may have experienced having a swollen puffy face in the morning after a restless sleep because you have slept without a pillow or used a tall pillow. It is because of the abnormal nerve system function and blood flow to the head from using the improper pillow (or no pillow).
HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT THE BEST PILLOW IS FOR US?
To measure the ideal height of a pillow is to measure the depth of the circular arc of the nape. The ideal and proper pillow supports this arc when lying down. We can measure the depth of the arc as standing relaxed with the head tilted about five to six degree forward; (1) draw a first line up from the protrusion at the bottom of the 7th cervical vertebra, (2) draw a second line at the right angle from the first line towards the arc, and (3) find the farthest distance from the meeting point of the first and second lines to the arc. This farthest distance is the depth of the arc and is the ideal height of the proper pillow.
Usually the thickness of your upper arm is close to the ideal height of your pillow even if we all are of different body shapes. The height of the pillow on average built males is approximately 4-6cm, and 3-4cm in female. Those who are slim built with a long neck may need about 1-2cm lower pillows than those who are average built. For more than average built with broader shoulders, 1-2cm taller pillows may be recommended. These ideal heights of pillows should be measured when you are actually lying down and the pillows are pushed down with the weight of your head and neck. It means the heights of pillows may vary themselves depending on the infill types when not used.
Another important thing about using a pillow is your sleeping posture and where to place the pillow.
The pillow should be placed under the bottom of your head as well as your neck in order to support your neck instead of putting it right under your head. So, if you line up one end of the pillow with the shoulders, it will support both your neck and head. The pillow should be about your shoulder-wide so that your head will not fall from it after tossing and turning all night. Besides the height and size of a pillow, it is important to know what your pillow is made from/with. The good material for pillows helps adjust the temperature and dampness as well as have resilience. Traditionally used materials are wood, rice husks, buckwheat hulls, feathers, straws, cotton, bamboo, stone, and so on. For instance, a wooden pillow can keep your head chill and a rice husk pillow can keep your head cool and dry as absorbing the sweat. Better than a rice husk pillow is a buckwheat hull pillow with its ability for ventilating, absorbing/preventing moisture and cooling. A feather pillow has its own benefits – good air circulation, moisture absorption and prevention, and softness. These days synthetic materials are very much used, and they last very long time and are easy to clean along with their cooling effect and resilience.
Now it’s a decision time.
