4 Benefits Of Firm Pillows

Everyone deserves a restful sleep after a busy and stressful day at school or work. What do you do to set your mood for a good night’s sleep? People try to promote better sleep at night through reading, aromatherapy, drinking warm milk, or mild exercise to set the eyes and mind toward mimicking a sweet lullaby and attaining deep slumber. However, not everyone is successful in achieving this even with these common bedtime routines.

It’s crucial to get to the bottom of why you couldn’t attain a good night’s sleep, such as something affecting your comfort level. You might want to consider assessing your mattress, bedding, and pillows. This is because the quality of your sleep can be influenced by the quality of these sleep must-haves. If you’re not sleeping very well like you usually do, it’s high time to consider checking the pillows you’re using.

Are you comfortable with your pillows? Do you feel neck stiffness when you awake in the morning? When did you last change them? It’s about time to consider investing in firm pillows. In this article, you’ll learn the benefits of firm pillows.

Why Bother About Your Pillows?

More than you probably imagine, your pillows play a crucial role in attaining good sleep quality. Many people can’t sleep without having it under their heads or hugging a soft pillow at night. Along with your mattress and beddings, pillows are considered bedtime essentials. Removing it in your nightly routine may result in frequent tossing and turning, sleeplessness, as well as irritability.

Furthermore, pillows keep the proper alignment of the head and neck during sleep. They may help lessen snoring episodes by elevating your head. Also, they help reduce stuffy nose if you have colds since they may drain your sinuses. You can check out sites like www.pinetales.com for more details about pillows.

Finding the perfect pillow highly relies on your preferences and sleeping position. Some people find comfort in pillows that are too soft; whereas, others prefer some degree of firmness and support.

Pillow Firmness Scale

Before tackling the benefits of firm pillows, it’s important to touch on the topic of pillow firmness. Like mattresses, pillows also have a firmness scale. Firmness pertains to how soft or firm the material is. This parameter is vital in understanding your needs when it comes to choosing the right pillows for you.

Here’s a quick guide to pillow firmness scale:

• Soft: People looking for the softest pillow in the world should choose a pillow with a 5-firmness scale rating. Soft pillows are highly recommended if you’re a stomach sleeper and those who love to snuggle and scrunch their pillows at bedtime. However, most sleepers find soft pillows uncomfortable. That’s why you have to think about your personal taste and comfort before you buy a soft pillow.
• Medium-Soft: Stomach and back sleepers will enjoy medium-soft pillows or a 4-firmness rating. But if you’re a large-bodied back sleeper, be keen when buying a medium soft pillow because you might find it unsupportive and very soft.
• Medium: Are you frequently changing positions when you sleep? You might just find medium pillows comfortable.
• Medium-Firm: A pillow with a 2-firmness rating is perfect for side and back sleepers who prefer firmer support with slight extra conformity and cushioning.
• Firm: A 1-firmness rating pillow is firm. It’s ideal for side sleepers, offering enough support to the neck, shoulders, and back. Stomach sleepers must avoid using firm pillows because these aren’t like the softer ones. Firm pillows create a favorable and long-lasting impact on some sleepers because they can adequately support the neck during sleep. While soft pillows are most sought for their smoothness and comfort, they gradually lose their thickness, causing discomfort and pain the next morning.

Most often, firm pillows feature a buckwheat fill. You can check out this link for a more visualized presentation of buckwheat pillows, their firmness, and other features.

Benefits Of Firm Pillows

Here are the benefits you can reap from using firm pillows for a good night’s sleep:

1. Consistent Support

A firm pillow provides the most consistent head and neck support even through the course of time. Have you noticed soft pillows losing their shape and size over time? Firm pillows don’t easily lose their firmness like soft ones. The head and body weight adds up to the problems with soft pillows. Frequently sleeping on them results in loss of support and firmness.

On the other hand, firm pillows remain strong and supportive, so your head stays in a natural position. This helps reduce neck strain, headache, and shoulder pain. Don’t worry about your head when using firm pillows because they have superior materials, such as buckwheat, promoting compressibility. The hulls ensure that your head won’t be sinking into the mattress.

That’s why, most often, buckwheat pillows are the highly recommended firm pillows as their hulls don’t easily collapse.

2. Conformity To Neck And Head

Firm pillows also have a great neck and head conformity, so they evenly distribute the head’s weight onto the surface to promote optimum comfort. Hence, firm pillows prevent body pains once you get up the next morning.

Proper body alignment is essential when you’re sleeping, regardless of your sleep position. Poor pillow support may cause misaligned head, neck, back, and body, causing great discomfort, body pains, and postural issues. Such sleep issues may lead to headaches, insomnia, depression, and anxiety.

Thankfully, firm pillows support your neck, back, as well as your entire spine, providing better posture and alignment throughout the night.

3. Suitable For Side Sleepers

For a side sleeper, which accounts for 70% to 80% of the people around the world, consider using firm pillows. Why is this so?

Firm pillows serve as a buffer between the neck and the shoulders, providing better body alignment. Misalignment during sleep is one of the unnoticeable reasons the body aches right after waking up in the morning. When prolonged for years, misalignment can become serious and lead to more discomfort and bad posture.

Side sleepers tend to put more stress on the neck because of the gap between the shoulders and the head, straining the neck and disrupting sleep. Prevent neck pressure by using a firm pillow since it’ll provide proper neck support at night, promoting relaxation.

4. Weight-Resistant

Are you the type of sleeper who usually folds their pillow at night? Or, you might be someone who bunches pillows to get adequate head and neck support. Sometimes, you might find yourself sleeping on your hands or arms, causing numbness of the affected extremity the morning after due to poor blood circulation caused by pressure.

If you’re having such sleep issues, consider investing in firm pillows. The heavy, firm pillows can provide adequate support to your head, neck, and back. Your head can stay lifted without sinking below at the risk of neck strains. As mentioned above, firm pillows have great conformity to the head and neck, which means they can sufficiently support any weight.

Types of Firm Pillows

Due to the plethora of advantages that you can reap from using firm pillows, like preventing lack of sleep, they became considerably in demand in the market. However, you may wonder about the kinds of firm pillows available that would suit your sleep preferences. After all, no one pillow type suits everyone.

Here are some of the common choices of firm pillows so you can decide on the right one for you.

• Buckwheat Pillows

This type of pillow is often the first option when finding a firm pillow. The buckwheat hulls don’t easily collapse or flatten during your sleep despite the weight they hold. It’s moldable, conforming to the head, neck, back, and shoulders.

Moreover, a buckwheat pillow can be adjusted. It comes with a zipper opening, so you can easily reduce or add some of the fillings for your desired firmness.

• Fiberfill Pillows

This pillow type may be the least firm, overstuffed with extra fillings, becoming less compressible. It’s recommended for people used to sleeping on soft pillows and want to transition to firm pillows.

• Latex Pillows

They’re tough and firm, supporting and protecting the head and neck, easily changing shape. If you push or squeeze latex pillows, they only bounce back to their original shape. Latex pillows have tiny holes that help increase airflow during your sleep.

• Memory Foam Pillows

They’re popular not only because of their firmness but also due to their unique texture, which others don’t have. Memory foam pillows conform to the shape of the body and offer adequate neck, shoulder, and head support.

Bottom Line

Overall, firm pillows are created to provide the specific needs of the side sleepers and even other types of sleepers who want firm pillows. These have higher loft options and adequate moldability to help keep the spine aligned and make sure the head, neck, and shoulders are supported during sleep.

If these benefits are what you’re looking for in your next pillow, go ahead and try the firm pillow. Keep in mind that the best way for you to find your “perfect pillow” is by experimenting with different types and firmness to ensure you invest in the right pillow that can give you the right feel. Investing in a good quality pillow is not only about comfortability, but it’s also making sure you get the best sleep you deserve.