How to Choose the Right Pillow & Mattress

We spend on an average of 6-8 hours sleeping every day.  

However, quite often, people undervalue the importance of getting the right pillow and mattress. This leads to sore shoulders, neck, back or other issues.

Sleeping posture should be as neutral as you would standing upright:

The spine should not be curved sideways due to too high or too low of a pillow, and the spine should maintain its lordotic and kyphotic curve with good support from the mattress. 

Our major rule for sleeping:

• Do not sleep on your belly!!! (common causes of neck pain, headaches or migraine from the long duration of twist in your neck)

Choosing pillow

• Make sure your pillow supports your neck and allow your spine to be aligned when you lie on your side.
• General trend for trying out new pillows:

1. Females: Try the low side of a contour pillow first
2. Males: Try the high side of a contour pillow

• It takes 5 to 7 days to get used to a new pillow
• On average, change your pillow every 2 to 3 years

Choosing Mattresses 

• A resource we often recommend our patients is bedbuyer.com, they have reviews on different mattresses done by chiropractors
• Find a good balance between comfort and support (every person might be different for this!)
• Spring mattress can help distribute the force better if you have a partner
• Latex mattresses are not the best for people who are hot when they sleep
• It takes 3 weeks to 3 months to get used to a new mattress, so be patient
  Author

  Dr. Travis McKay