Everyone knows that playing with mobile phones for a long time will lead to various neck and shoulder pains, but many people still cannot change their habit of playing with mobile phones.
If you think about it again, people can only play with their mobile phones when they are awake, and there are many times during the day when they don’t use their mobile phones, such as taking a bath (when I didn’t say it), driving and sleeping.
About one-third of a person’s life is spent in sleep, and most people cannot sleep without pillows. Pillows are pillows for the head, but actually support the neck. Therefore, the choice of pillows, the impact on the neck is not negligible.
Today, Dr. Clove will elaborate on the choice of pillows.
How do you judge whether the pillow fits properly?
The same is true of pillows. The evaluation standard of pillow fit is: wake up comfortable all over.
Proper pillows can not only help sleep (not hypnotic effect, but comfortable sleep), but also relax neck and back muscles and relieve muscle fatigue.
However, inappropriate pillows may aggravate the original symptoms, such as headache, neck pain, shoulder pain, upper limb numbness, etc. Even the snoring intensity of some special groups is related to pillows to some extent.
And pillows such as shoes and toothbrushes also have a long life. With the accumulation of use time, pillows will leave a large amount of dandruff, storage of fungi, mites, dust, etc., the most important thing is that the mechanical properties of pillow fillers will change and become no longer suitable for support.
Generally speaking, ordinary pillows will die in 12 ~ 18 months. Please remember to replace them with new pillows, so it is not necessary for most people to buy pillows with thousands of dollars.
Improper pillow selection also has a huge impact on the neck.
When people are lying down, the spine is no longer affected by gravity, but is mainly affected by sleeping posture, pillows, mattresses, etc. Therefore, inappropriate pillows will cause changes in cervical curvature, resulting in uneven pressure in cervical intervertebral disc, abnormal tension of muscle ligaments, etc. One night down, there will be stiff neck and pain in the morning, which is commonly known as “stiff neck”.
Knowing the principle of pillows, let’s talk about the factors that need to be considered in choosing pillows.
Select pillow by sleeping position
1. If you are used to sleeping on your back
For those who are used to sleeping flat, it is best to choose a pillow with the middle thin and the upper and lower sides raised. The pillow is of moderate height (usually the edge height is one punch high) and medium hardness. Such pillow can well support your cervical spine and ensure that the cervical spine is in a normal bending shape, instead of excessive flexion or extension of the cervical spine caused by too high or too low.
2. If you are used to sleeping on your side
If you like to lie on your side, you need a slightly harder pillow. Such pillows can ensure that the gap between ears and shoulders is well filled. At this time, the height of the pillow is the width of one shoulder. Different people have different shoulder widths, so they need to choose different sizes. The purpose of doing this is also to ensure that the head does not deviate from the midline of the human body when lying on your side.
3. If you are used to sleeping on your stomach
First of all, it is strongly recommended that everyone should not sleep on their stomach! However, if you are used to sleeping on your stomach and cannot change it for a while, you must pay special attention to the choice of pillows.
On the one hand, it is to choose a breathable thin pillow; On the other hand, don’t forget to put another pillow under your stomach, which can prevent lower back pain caused by sleeping on your stomach.
Some people have said that I am not honest when I sleep, lying on my back and on my side, arranging herringbone and herringbone … What should I do? It can also be selected according to the filler.
Choose pillows based on fillers
1. Memory sponge/latex pillow
This kind of pillow can be shaped to ensure that it fits the body all night long, can support cervical vertebrae without increasing local pressure, and is a better choice for pillows.
However, this kind of pillow also has a common disadvantage that the price is too high, and the quality may be uneven, so we must pay attention to identify the quality when purchasing.
Most memory sponges with poor quality are soft, while latex pillows are hard, which may not achieve the purpose of plasticity.
2. Buckwheat/Hayseed Pillow
This kind of pillow can be squeezed by hand to form various shapes suitable for oneself, with adjustable thickness and good quality and low price.
The disadvantage is that a slight movement will rustle, and some people with poor sleep quality may not like it very much.
In addition, since most of these pillows are made by hand, if the fillers are not dried properly in the early stage, they sweat during use and cannot be dried in time, which is easy to mold.
3. Down pillow
This kind of pillow has the advantages of buckwheat pillow above, and it will not make an annoying rustle. However, in terms of shaping effect, it is worse than memory sponge or latex pillow.
However, many stills show young people’s pillow fights. The props are down pillows. The special effects are very good.
However, it should be noted that people who are allergic to down pillows had better not use them, especially asthmatic people.
Beer Bottle and Cervical Spine Small Round Pillow
Many people with cervical vertebra discomfort like to pad a beer bottle under their neck or use a small round pillow of cervical vertebra.
Placing a beer bottle or a small round pillow under the cervical spine can increase the curvature of the cervical spine, which can play a certain role in back exercise for people who use mobile phones with their heads bowed for a long time.
However, because beer bottles or small round pillows have small contact area and high hardness with the neck, long-term application is very easy to fatigue, and it is easy to cause excessive cervical spine tilt back, so it is not recommended to use.
This kind of people use special pillows.
The spine of infants is different from that of adults, and the skull of infants within 3 months develops rapidly, the fontanelle is not closed, and the head circumference grows rapidly. Therefore, infants should choose special pillows or follow the advice of pediatric health care doctors.
Even if the baby grows up and the skull basically develops, as the spine is still developing, the curvature and shoulder width of the spine are different from those of adults, and pillows of appropriate size need to be specially selected.