I used to have neck pain on a very frequent basis. I bought a memory foam pillow from Costco (sorry, don’t know the actual brand) and I’ve not had a recurrence since (3 years). The pillow is shaped with and groove horizontally across the top surface presumably to allow the back of the head to rest properly in the pillow with the raised part supporting the neck.
I found it took a couple of days to get used to. Since then, I find it odd sleeping with a regular pillow. I’ve not used a termpedic, so I have no comparison for use. But I only paid about $30 for my non-tempurpedic.
Ikea actually has a surprisingly huge selection of pillows. I picked up two relatively thin pillows and shift them around depending on if I’m sleeping on my back or my side.
My wife went with the premium down filling. It’s definitely the way to go.
My main problem with all pillows is heat retention. No matter how comfortable the pillow is, if my head is warm, I will not be getting to sleep any time soon. I’ve made a habit out of flipping my pillow when I wake up at night, and that seems to do the trick, but everything I’ve found that automatically dissipates heat at night sacrifices comfort at the same time.
If you haven’t done so, go see a chiropractor or your doctor and have them MRI your neck. Not to be alarmist, but I had the same symptoms as you and found out that I had a severely compressed disc, maybe for year. Then it blew and I had to have surgery.
Hey, OP, my suggestion is that you either go to a licensed medical physician about your back pains, or go to a Haitian houngan and get a gris-gris made to protect your spine from angry petro guede and maybe get an ouanga made with Ougou Feraille’s veve, just avoid any shady bokor or else you may end up a zombi in service to Kalfu, the Midnight King.
Holy crap, really?!
All these years, people making fun of me for flipping my pillow over every 5 minutes when I’m trying to fall asleep, I thought I was alone.
Take a look into the sobakawa buckwheat hull ones, my head is never too warm on mine, it has the best air-flow because of the air between the hulls. They are pretty cheap too. Here’s some info.
Attributes of Buckwheat Hulls:
Grips together under body weight, providing cozy, stable, passive support.
Distributes weight evenly. Cool with constant ventilation, hulls allow for fresh air to circulate throughout the pillow.
Traditional pillow filling used for centuries in Asia.
Used to relieve headaches, neck pain, lower back pain, muscle tension, stress, sleeplessness and snoring.
I used to occasionally get kinks in my neck so I stopped using a pillow at all and they went away. Is not propping your head up at night bad for your neck or something?
Hey, OP, my suggestion is that you either go to a licensed medical physician about your back pains, or go to a Haitian houngan and get a gris-gris made to protect your spine from angry petro guede and maybe get an ouanga made with Ougou Feraille’s veve, just avoid any shady bokor or else you may end up a zombi in service to Kalfu, the Midnight King.
All of my bed pains (neck aches and restless sleep, etc) went away when I went back to regular exercise. Do those getting neck soreness after sleep exercise regularly? Two factors significantly helped my health, drinking lots of water daily and exercising regularly.
I can now sleep on my kitchen floor, without a pillow, and not wake up sore.
