Is Your Pillow Good for Your Health?

Your Choice of Pillow Can Help Your Health and Your Spirit

A soft pillow, a little cloud to cradle your head when you fall asleep, is a universally treasured symbol of comfort and pampering. As simple a device as it seems, people often find it hard to come upon a pillow that really suits them properly. People assume that they can always spend more money one day and get the perfect pillow; but the search for such a creation nearly always turns out to be difficult. This is where we realize that a pillow is not just a bag stuffed with any soft material to stick under a head; there is something very deep involved in the making of a pillow. Pillows affect our health and our well-being in a way we can’t quite fathom with cursory reflection.

Any movie with a scene where there is a person going through a troubled night makes a point of showing the unhappy party involved repeatedly in fluffing up or adjusting their pillow; the connection between a bad night and an uncomfortable pillow is a movie cliché and truism. It is natural to want to doubt that the humble pillow could have that much to do with a good night’s rest; it only cradles one part of the body after all. It happens though to be under the head, where our consciousness resides; the effect on restful sleep that a comfortable head and neck have is not to be disputed.

When considering the importance that a good pillow might have on your quality of life, you must think of this issue as a part of the everyday reality of modern life. The modern lifestyle that we all have to put ourselves through brings to us an aching neck, a lower back in poor health, shoulder muscles that need massage therapy and unnaturally tired eyes. If we lived our lives in the healthy way that nature intended, we probably would not really be affected by any choice of pillow; going to bed with a variety of aches and pains around the cervical area though, we need to take special care to help our bodies heal properly through the night. A neck pillow for survival problems is a great idea; there is such a thing as a buckwheat pillow too, a pillow that uses not soft fiber filling, but filling in the form of the husks of the buckwheat grain. This kind of pillow is especially recommended for people with orthopedic cervical issues. Lumbar problems in the spine require the use of a lumbar pillow for proper form-fitting support. Pillows for very small children are to be chosen with care too. Children have very soft and pliable bones; this is not the age in which to carelessly allow unnatural postures in a way that could harm their developing bones. A pillow properly chosen is invaluable in helping a child develop the natural and healthy way. Our world is filled with strange new materials and pollutants today and allergies are rife. People who are sensitive to many materials will often find comfort in the use of a hypoallergenic latex pillow that is known for its benign properties.

Working in business these days requires regular business travel on long-haul flights. People are often surprised at how regular travelers make a point of packing a good quality pillow in their luggage even when luggage space is at a premium. A good pillow is an invaluable aid on brutal long-haul flights that run for twelve hours or more. A pillow can suit an aching back, and can help provide support any site you wish to lean.

The possessions we use to carry us through life are not merely functional equipment; they affect us deeply in many physical and psychological ways. Pillows, well-thought and well-bought and placed all around a home, lend a feeling of tranquility. A pillow almost represents good living and peace all by itself.