Pillow Talk

Firm, medium, soft, medium density, high loft, natural fill, microfibre, bamboo, memory foam… are you keeping up? The options for pillows are wide and varied, but the importance of choosing a pillow is second to the importance we discussed last time with selecting the right mattress. In combination with the right mattress, a pillow that appropriately supports your body will give you the ultimate goal – to have the perfect night’s sleep.

Why do we need a pillow to be supportive? The position of your head, neck and spine can be affected by the type of pillow you have. The ideal pillow will hold your head and neck up in all the right places, as well as support the natural curvature and alignment of your spine.

Pillows are designed to fill the space between your head and your mattress. The gap of course will vary as it depends on the position that you sleep- the end goal is to ensure good positioning and support to improve and maintain your sleep health and quality.

There are three main sleep positions:

• Back sleepers
• Stomach sleepers
• Side sleepers

Let’s dive into the back sleepers first. The gap between the mattress and your body is smaller when you sleep on your back, so as a guide a low to medium profile pillow will suit as you don’t want to raise your neck up too high off the mattress, this will create an unnatural curve in your spine, that could lead to a sore neck.

Avoid pillows that are too soft and will flatten too much throughout the night as they won’t provide enough support to keep your body aligned. Pillows to consider include memory foam or a medium density as they have enough support to hold your head up but are still soft and malleable enough to achieve that ‘ahhh’ moment and hit that pillow nirvana.

Tummy sleepers require a lower profile with a softer support, ideally the pillow should be flat, the aim here is to do the opposite of a back sleeper but still keep your back and spine as neutral as possible.

Again, there is minimal space between your mattress and where your head rests, using a lower profile pillow (thinner) will ensure your neck isn’t awkward or twisted. A pillow that contours your neck and can be molded, as you can move the inner around to hold your head and neck up in the right places without it being overly stiff and firm which can angle your neck upward and cause misalignment.

Now for the harder to please sleepers – the side guys. There are various combinations of pillows depending on several factors such as shoulder broadness, are you purely on your side or are you more side/front, side/back or sleep with other pillows such as between your knees?

To keep things simple, medium to firm are an ideal choice. BedsRus recommend a broader shouldered person to opt for a high profile pillow which will better fill in the gaps between your head and neck, and your mattress.

If you’re struggling to know where to even begin, because the options can be overwhelming, and numerous pillows could equally suffice, you should consider trying Sleepmap by BedsRus. It is a bed-matching system that allows you to find the idea mattress for your body, however you can also explore the different pillow types to see your pillow compatibility for your bed type.

It has over 10,000 sensors, which capture your pressure points in real time. Sleepmap provides you individualized results to help you determine your best sleeping combination according to how you sleep (side, back, stomach or combination).

For myself who is a side sleeper I personally trialed Sleepmap in my local BedsRus store and was surprised that I had been using the wrong pillow type for years, often waking feeling unrested, stiff and sore, and being a side sleeper, my shoulders would often ache.

I was profiled with Sleepyhead 24/7 Tencel® FusionGel Mid Profile Pillow. Made with a memory foam core, it’s still soft so I can adjust and mold it to suit my neck and head, but once in place I don’t feel my head dropping, so it provides me with support on my side, and fills the gap between my body and the mattress well.

Sleepmap is exclusive to BedsRus and is free to try at the following BedsRus showrooms Hamilton - Te Rapa, Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, Tauriko and Rotorua.