Selecting the right pillow for your sleep style can prevent you from experiencing painful muscle aches in your neck and shoulders and can help you achieve a high quality, restful night of sleep. But how do you choose the right pillow for your sleep style? The first step is determining your sleep style to be a stomach sleeper, back sleeper, or side sleeper. If you analyze the different sleep styles and find that you are a back sleeper, you then need to determine the best back sleeper pillow for you. Choosing the best pillow for sleeping on your back may seem daunting at first due to the immense amount of information available, but by developing a base of knowledge from which to make an educated choice, you will allow yourself to experience a night of restful sleep on the right pillow for you. Below is a guide to choosing the best pillow for back sleepers to help you get a better night of rest.
The Pros and Cons of Being a Back Sleeper
Before you can make a choice about what is the best pillow for back sleepers, it is important to understand the pros and cons of being a back sleeper and whether or not it is the right sleeping style for you. Sleeping on your back is often the recommended choice for those suffering from back and neck pain as this pose allows the spine to remain straight and avoid the contortions of side or stomach sleepers. Sleeping on your back also prevents your face from being pressed into a pillow during the night, which can lead to wrinkles over time due to the pressure on the skin of the face. This sleeping position also prevents other cosmetic mishaps, such as unwanted flattening and loss of eyelash extensions. For those sleeping with eyelash extensions, sleeping on your back can help reduce the amount of extension loss between fills and can help maintain the ideal curvature and appearance of the lashes due to the lack of extended, direct pressure on the eyelash extensions throughout the night. Back sleepers also reap the full benefits on their mattress as it is designed to fully support the spine when in the back-sleeping pose. In addition, sleeping on your back can also reduce the occurrence of acid reflux during the night as a result of the positioning of the head and neck. Despite these many benefits, being a back sleeper also carries one vital negative to consider.
Sleeping flat on your back may help reduce pressure on the head and neck, but it increases the occurrence and severity of sleep apnea and snoring. This is increased due to gravity causing the base of the tongue to fall into the airway, which can lead to an obstruction of the airway. By obstructing the airway, the sound of snoring occurs and the intake of oxygen is decreased. For those suffering from sleep apnea or snoring, it is recommended that a side sleeping position be adopted in the place of a back-sleeping position as this can help alleviate symptoms.
How to Choose the Best Pillow for Back Sleepers
When selecting the best pillow for your sleep style, it is important to keep in mind the positioning of your body as you sleep and where pressure will occur throughout the night. When you sleep on your back throughout the night, it is important that the pillow you choose is capable of supporting the small space beneath your neck. This is vital to consider as an ill-fitting or unsupportive pillow can cause strain to the muscles in your neck. In order to avoid this strain on your muscles, it is important to choose a pillow that is made of a material capable of forming to your neck and adequately supporting the small space beneath your neck. This is important for finding both the best pillow for side and back sleepers because the thickness and firmness of the pillow will keep the neck and back properly aligned. However, the best pillow for sleeping on your side may be slightly different than the best pillow for a back-sleeper due to changes in the positioning of the body. Essentia’s Classic pillow is specifically designed to support the small neck arch for back sleepers and is soft, supportive, and thin enough to mold to the unique curves of your head and neck to give you the support and comfort you need to sleep well all night.
