Sleeping begins with comfort

Who can really fall sleep with their knees touching and their legs stuck together? Who is ready to dream with their head sinking lower into a lumpy pillow? The first ingredient of any successful sleep strategy is comfort- comfort leads to calm, and calm leads to relaxation. This is an important transition: calmness is a working state of perfect harmony between your mental, physical and emotional states; relaxation, on the other hand, allows your body to reduce its expenditure of energy and focus on getting to sleep.One of the best ways you can get comfortable tonight is by using your pillows to better effect. Paying attention to your pillow(s) can make a big difference when it comes to falling and staying asleep; strategically positioning pillows can help you support healthy sleeping posture, promote better circulation, and prevent back pain. 

Implementing a better pillow strategy

The first thing to remember is that the bigger, fluffier, goose-down pillow does not translate to the best pillow for your sleep health. You may find that, all things considered, it isn’t even the most comfortable option! Spending the time and money on a supportive pillow that fits the contours of your particular body is one of the best ways to start finding a better night’s sleep. But you don’t have to spend money to improve your pillow strategy; indeed, you can use your favorite, flea-bitten friend that you refuse to get rid of in a more imaginative way beginning tonight.

• Back-sleepers can use a pillow under the legs to gently elevate the knees and relax the lower back. 
• Side-sleepers can put a pillow in between the knees for comfort and to maintain spinal alignment
• Stomach sleepers can put a pillow lengthwise under the stomach to shoulder region in order to prevent arching of the back.
• People prone to rolling onto their stomach while sleeping should try hugging a longer pillow to keep them on their sides

There is a place where comfort and supportive sleep habits cohabitate: the pillow is the primary prop

Whether you sleep on your back, side or stomach, you should always place a premium on maintaining spinal alignment, with your neck in the correct midline position.The truth is, the majority of pillows on the marketplace, including the ones you know and love, do not fit you; many of them will actually support the improper alignment of your neck, eventually contributing to spinal dysfunction and pain. At our office in Houston, we can show you what proper alignment of the neck looks like in all sleeping positions and how to maintain it using the pillows that are already kicking around in your house. If it is a financial possibility, shifting that perfectly fluffy pillow to an auxiliary role between or below the knees and investing in a pillow that properly fits both your body and preferred sleeping position is one of the best ways you can start sleeping better and protecting your spine simultaneously. From our perspective, that is a deeper and more sensible definition of comfort!