Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Choosing the right neck pillow to help relieve neck pain

Almost one third of our life is spent sleeping. Sleep is an essential biological need. In addition to rest and relaxation, proper sleep is necessary in order to maintain good physical and mental health. In recent years, changes in lifestyle because of too many activities, sleep time is compressed to lesser and lesser amount. Neck pain can affect the time and quality of sleep. How to improve the quality of sleep by reducing the level of neck pain or discomfort and in such a limited duration of sleep is a very important issue which leads many people to seek a new pillow.

Many experts have suggested that poor neck posture and support during the night may be responsible for waking with neck pain and stiffness, headache and shoulder blade or arm pain. Headaches originating from the neck are called cervicogenic headaches. They are referred from the upper levels of the neck. Shoulder blade and arm pain can be referred from the lower levels of the neck. It is suggested that individuals who wake in the morning with symptoms that were not present the night before, or patients whose symptoms are worse in the morning than when they retired the preceding night, are probably either using an unsuitable pillow or adopting poor neck posture overnight.