Best Pillows For Neck Pain
Snoozing with a supportive pillow is a great way to maintain healthy posture and guard against neck pain. No one wants to start the morning with an ache, or a stiff neck, that can last all day! Of course, with so many options on the market, it can be tough to determine which pillow will bring you sweet dreams and which will leave you feeling sore and stiff. But dont worry our best pillows for neck pain review is here!
In this guide, were presenting thetop ten pillows designed to alleviate neck pain and unlock your best sleep potential. Plus, well impart some tips and tricks for finding the pillows that match each sleeping position, so youre better equipped to find the one that meets your unique needs. Lets get started!
Disclaimer: The content on Sleepopolis is meant to be informative, but shouldnt replace advice or treatment from a medical professional. If you experience chronic pain or discomfort while sleeping, its best to consult a healthcare professional.
Best Contoured: Epabo Memory Orthopedic Pillow
- Price: $39.99-49.99
- Sizes: standard , queen , king
The EPABO Memory Orthopedic Pillow features an ergonomic contour that may suit back and side sleepers. The contoured design cradles the head, helping keep the spine aligned and relaxed.
The manufacturer writes that this pillow uses breathable memory foam to keep people cool while they sleep.
A person can also adjust the pillow to suit them. It features a removable piece of foam at the back, which can lower the resting position of the head for people who find the pillow too high.
The company describes this pillow as firm. The pillow has a rayon-polyester case and a memory foam fill.
Pros:
Best Pillows For Stomach Sleepers
Sleeping on your stomach can alleviate certain problems like sleep apnea and snoring, but the position can put more strain on your back and neck. This is because sleeping with your stomach down often leads to your head and neck being tilted back and out of alignment during the night.
People need their neck to be neutral when they sleep otherwise it can impinge the nerves, limit your range of motion, and lead to poor posture, says Shoshany.
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Comfilife Orthopedic Knee Pillow
This orthopedic knee pillow from ComfiLife is designed to give support and comfort to your knees at night. It claims to relieve sciatica pain and alleviate the pressure caused on the lower back. However, this may not work for all conditions or completely eliminate all symptoms. When you start using the pillow, it might take some days for your body to adjust and get used to using the knee pillow at night.
Made from 100%premium-grade high-density memory foam, this orthopedic pillow provideslong-lasting comfort. It is superior quality and durable enough to not go flatover time. The ergonomic design also keeps your legs, hip, and spinewell-aligned to improve sleep and blood circulation. The zippered cover isbreathable and it ensures that the pillow does not get warm. It can be machinewashed with ease.
What Is An Orthopedic Pillow
A lot of different pillows are stamped orthopedic but there is no one set definition of what that means. However, you can be safe assuming that some sort of thought process went into designing a construction that can help you maintain proper alignment while sleeping.
Some of these choices incorporated clinical data and input from spine specialists to create a pillow that can support your head, neck and shoulders so that your sleeping posture remains straight, helping to keep your spine aligned and alleviate chronic neck pain.
It’s likely a safe bet that the best pillows for neck pain will fall into this category.
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Practice Good Posture Throughout The Day
Good posture is very important at curbing chronic neck pain. If you’re working an office job, this means not stooping over your laptop for hours at a time. If you’re using your phone, this means not craning your neck to scroll through social media.
Research has shown a relationship between forward head posture and the presence of neck pain. Forward head posture is the unfortunate result of too much time spent driving, looking at the computer, looking at our phones, or ever walking with a backpack.
Weekender Ventilated Gel Memory Foam Pillow
Although sleeping hot isnt posture-specific, it can still lead to poor sleep quality, especially during the warmer months. The WEEKENDER Ventilated Gel Memory Foam Pillow is great not just for its price point, but also because its temperature-regulating gel and ventilated memory foam work to keep you cool during the night, while still offering all of the supportive benefits of a memory foam pillow. Although it has a 5-inch loft, and reviewers say it is not overly firm, so it can still work for people with smaller frames.
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The 8 Best Pillows For Neck Pain Of 2022
When it comes to certain areas of our lives, it pays to invest a little more time, energy and potentially money â and this is especially true when it comes to anything having to do with sleep.
After all, we spend about a third of our lives in dreamland. That’s a lot of time with your head on a pillow â and if you have neck pain, choosing the right pillow is especially important.
Video of the Day
Here are the best pillows for neck pain, according to sleep and neck pain experts, along with what to look for when you’re shopping.
- âBest Adjustable:â Coop Home Goods Eden Adjustable Pillow
How To Choose The Right Pillow For Neck Pain
While neck pain is a common problem that has plagued millions of Canadians at some point in their life, the causes are not entirely clear. Perhaps, you may have woken up in the morning with a sore or stiff neckchances are, your pillow may be to blame for the pain.
A pillow is designed to provide support by holding your head and neck at the right height to prevent strain. When the pillow is too high or too low, the pressure in your neck starts to increase as it compensated for the lack of support. Without proper support, it stresses the intricate structures in the neck, aggravating existing neck conditions, as well as pain and stiffness.
However, using the right pillow ensures neutral alignment by holding your neck in a supported position.
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What Is The Best Pillow For Military Neck
As we noted, a military neck may or may not involve pain, therefore the best pillow depends on 2 factors 1) Are you in significant pain or 2) Is there no or some pain.
1) If you are in pain, you should use a pillow that has support for the cervical spine, but is comforting for sore muscles and sensitive nerves. In this case, the Pillo-Pedic makes a great line of pillows that would be a good choice as it will support the curve of the cervical spine. With the Ultra using memory foam, in a gentle way. With pain, the neck may react to a pillow that is too firm by producing more spasm.
This is a special pillow that is made in the US and has been used by Chiropractors for many years with great clinical results. By combining quality foam with fiber, it offers and offers four different options for pain and is very good at maintaining and/or correcting the neck curve.
2) If there is no major issue with pain or inflammation, or you have recovered from the initial stages of a cervical spine injury it may be that your posture is a concern or you just feel some stiffness after a long day at the office or on the job. In these circumstances, the best pillow for military neck would be a functional pillow like the Therapeutic Pillow or the gentler latex functional pillow.
The dual version permits control of the shape of the pillow allowing a custom cervical spine support. This can be minimal at first and gradually inflated to provide greater correction as your condition changes.
Best Sleeping Positions For Neck Pain
Generally, if youre experiencing neck pain, its best to sleep on your back or side.
Sleeping on your stomach, especially if youre sleeping with a pillow thats too thick, can put excess pressure on your cervical spine and cause neck pain.
Keep your neck aligned with your body. You may want to place a pillow under your knees to keep your spine in proper alignment.
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Make Your Budget Range
Before selecting the perfect pillow for forward neck posture, you need to make your budget first. It is the first thing you need to consider because once you choose a product that you cant afford, it will make you unhappy, and you can not buy other item as they wont seem to suit you anymore. So it will be wise to make a flexible budget range than search for the item which belongs to the range.
The Best Pillow For Side Sleepers
Side sleepers need a pillow with a higher loft than back or stomach sleepers. There’s a wider gap between your head and your mattress when you sleep on your side.
This could mean you need a pillow like the Tempur-Pedic Adapt Mid Profile Pillow. It’s 6 inches tall.
But depending on your body type, you many need a thicker or slimmer pillow. If you need a thicker profile, you can get the Tempur-Pedic High Profile Pillow, which is 6.5″ thick.
A quick note about lofts: It may not seem like there’s a big height difference between 6″ and 5.5″, but if you tilt your head a little to the left right now, you can feel the difference that even a quarter of an inch makes. That half inch could make the difference between a peaceful night asleep or waking up with a cramped and uncomfortable neck.
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Our Neck Pain Pillow Testing Methodology
We put each of the pillows in this guide through several tests, including sleeping on each for at least three nights. When shopping for a pillow, the most important factors to consider are comfort, return policy, and adjustability.
Here are the main attributes we look for and how we test them:
Comfort: I tested each of the pillows for at least three nights. For reference, I’m 6 feet tall and 215 pounds. I mainly sleep on my side but can find comfort in any position. Each morning, I would record how comfortable I felt on the pillow, if I experienced any neck pain, and how well I slept. Since several factors play into pillow comfort, including your body type and sleeping style, the firmness of your bed, personal preferences and more, I also enlisted the help of six neck-pain sufferers on the Insider Reviews team to help me test.
Return policy: The only way to find out if a pillow is truly right for you is to sleep on it for several nights. We gave preference to pillows that had a trial period of at least 60 days and a return policy free of loopholes, like requiring the customer pay return shipping.
Cleaning: I cleaned all of the pillows according to the manufacturers’ directions. Many had removable machine-washable covers. A few, including the MyPillow pillows, were entirely machine-washable. However, it was hard to gauge when they were completely dry. I rated each pillow on how easy it was to clean and how cleaning impacted the feel.
What Is Neck Pain
The neck is responsible for bearing the entire weight of your head, and its not surprising that this delicate part of the body is highly susceptible to injury. The 2018 US Burden of Disease study found that neck pain is rising in importance as a leading cause of disability among the American population. Most sources estimate that between 25 and 30 percent of people suffer from neck pain every year. While many episodes of neck pain resolve naturally, for some it can become a chronic condition with adverse consequences for their quality of life.
Neck pain can be caused by a number of factors. It may stem from an injury or a chronic condition such as arthritis, or it may arise from daily habits such as poor posture or too many hours of sitting at a computer. While symptoms vary, people with neck pain often experience:
- Neck pain, especially during repetitive activities or long periods of sitting upright
- Limited range of motion
- Poor sleep quality
If you have severe pain or additional symptoms, or if youre not sure whats causing your neck pain, its a good idea to visit a doctor to rule out underlying conditions.
Regular exercise and a healthy body weight are thought to have a positive impact on chronic neck pain. The American Chiropractic Association notes that neck pain often goes hand-in-hand with high stress levels and obesity.
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Best Pillows For Neck Pain Video
Watch our video below to learn more about our labs top pillow picks for sleepers with neck pain.
Read our top picks to learn more about each ones materials and unique qualities. In the buyers guide section, well break down the reasons you could be experiencing neck pain and how your pillow can help. Well take a deeper look at how body position and pillow construction can enhance comfort, and well teach you what to look for when shopping for a pillow for neck pain.
Black Friday is a great time to buy a pillow, with many companies offering some of their biggest discounts of the year. Head to our complete list of Black Friday discounts to learn about the most up-to-date deals. You can also check out our list of Cyber Monday mattress and bedding sales to learn about deals happening after Black Friday ends.
What To Look For In A Supportive Pillow
According to Dr. Winter, latex and memory foam pillows are best for achieving the proper sleeping alignment, and experts say that those who slept with latex or memory foam pillows woke up less and had better sleep quality.
Dr. Winter recommends choosing a pillow that’s designed for your sleeping position of choice, as well as one that is specific to the size of your body and your sleep position. And aside from the medical considerations, the choice of a proper pillow is about comfort, which can be highly personal.
Keep reading to learn why shoppers say these soft-yet-supportive options are the best pillows for neck pain.
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Best Pillow For Neck Pain Overall: Coop Home Goods The Original Pillow
Why We Like It: The Original pillow uses hypoallergenic, memory-foam-and-microfiber fill, which you can take out or add in for a thicker or thinner pillow, depending on your needs.
Its Worth Noting: It may be too soft for those who prefer a firm pillow.
Our best overall choice for a pillow that relieves neck pain is Coop, The Original from Coop Home Goods because of its versatility. One thing that all three of our experts made clear: There isnt a one-size-fits-all best pillow for people with neck pain. Your body shape, sleep position, and personal pain points all come into play for what will be comfortable for youwhich is why the adjustability of this pillow from Coop Home Goods is your universal best bet.
The Original Pillow comes standard with a healthy loft but then, it has a zipper opening so you can take out some of the fill to make a flatter pillow, or add more in from the included extra half-pound of fill for an even higher loft. So, if your sleep position or pain points change, you can adjust the same pillow instead of having to buy a new one.
What makes it stand out from other adjustable pillows is that the Coop Original is filled with medium-firm fill made from memory foam and microfiber. Not only do you get the natural body-conforming features of memory foam, but it’s also hypoallergenic and GREENGUARD Gold and CertiPUR-US® certified, so it won’t cause irritation.
Price at time of publication: $72
Product details:
Which Pillow Is Best For Neck Pain
There isnt one single pillow out there thats perfect for everyone, but the best pillow for neck pain has two main characteristics: its firm enough to keep your head at a neutral angle so your spine stays aligned while you sleep, but yet somehow soft enough to allow some give to help alleviate pressure points. Thats why we like the Tempur-Pedic Tempur Neck Pillowit checks all the boxes.
Memory foam and feather pillows are excellent options because they provide support, but also cradle your head to keep your spine neutral. Cervical pillowsthe ones that have a depression in the center and raised edgesare also top picks. Keep in mind that the best pillow for neck pain may not feel totally comfortable at first. It can take some getting used to, so give it a little time.
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