5 Hidden Ways Your Pillow is Hurting You

A bad pillow not only makes you uncomfortable but also messes up your neck, head, spine, and overall body alignment. Over time, this leads to developing pain in different body parts such as the neck, head, shoulder, hip, and joints. These bad pillows fail to keep your neck, head, and spine aligned in a natural pattern. In this blog, we will discuss the 5 major side effects that a bad pillow causes.

Painful neck, painful nights!

Are you waking up with a sore or stiff neck every morning? 

If yes, the pillow you are using can be the biggest culprit. Our head weighs around 10-12 pounds and thus it needs proper and balanced support to rest while we are sleeping. A low-quality pillow forces our neck muscles to work even when sleeping. When sleeping, muscles are supposed to rest and recover from all the movements and contractions caused by daily activities. If you are sleeping on a hard pillow it will cause an upward shift by forcing your neck to curve. On the other hand, if you are using a very soft pillow your head sinks in it increasing the risk of shoulder engagement. 

This leads to spine problems

Regular pillows don't support your spine at all. In the long run, you may face spinal issues such as bad posture and pain in the spine. During the day we put so much pressure on our spine by bending, jumping, running, and doing other movements that involve the spine. Sleeping comfortably is the best thing we can do for our body to heal itself. Our spine contains 33 vertebrae which are affected by misalignment caused by a bad pillow. Most of us fail to replace our pillows regularly which leads to shape deformation. So, replacing your pillows from time to time or investing in a high-quality pillow can be very helpful in improving your spinal health. 

Causes allergies and other infections

Regular pillows are made with low-quality materials that often don’t allow air to pass through them. This leads to the absorption of oil, dirt, and bacteria inside them. Your pillows are absorbing the oil in your hair, your sweat, dead skin, and other chemicals that can lead to allergies such as acne. Try replacing your pillows before buying acne removal creams or any kind of chemicals for your face and hair. Our facial skin is more sensitive than any other part of our body and you will agree with me on this, that our facial skin touches our pillows several times during sleeping. The bacteria inside your pillows can cause allergies which sometimes lead to hair fall as well. 

Causes headache

Have regular headaches? We advise you to consult a doctor. Whereas, in many cases, headaches are caused by discomfort in the neck and mental pressure. Many nerves go through our neck into the skull. A bad pillow leads to stiffness in the neck which disrupts the proper functionality of such nerves. Due to the poor alignment caused by such pillows, these nerves transmit pain to the brain through the neck. This may lead to mild or sometimes severe headaches. If you are waking up with a headache or get a headache once you come out of bed, a bad neck and head alignment can be the biggest reason. 

Causes breathing issues

Besides the side effects of a bad pillow, there's another major issue you might be facing that you don't know of!  Are you having breathing problems such as interruptions in breathing while sleeping or waking up multiple times during the night? This is because your pillows are disrupting or even blocking your breathing. When your neck, head, and spine are not perfectly aligned, the muscles around them get compressed abnormally. This hinders the proper airflow resulting in snoring or disturbed breathing patterns. Changing sleeping positions during the night without affecting the quality of your sleep is a good thing. But changing positions due to discomfort caused by pillows is a very bad thing. This is a clear indication that you should get a better pillow for yourself. 

Conclusion

Are you facing any of the issues mentioned above? Why compromise with sleep when you can have the best sleeping experience by simply buying a better pillow? A high-quality pillow not only eliminates these side effects but also provides support to your neck, head, and spine. It also provides comfort and allows your body to recover. Always choose pillows made with high-quality material such as natural rubber. These pillows last forever and save you from frequent replacements.