Body Pillows Can Help With Pain Relief And Improve Alignment
Body pillows increase total sleeping comfort and improve spinal alignment while you sleep. Regardless of your preference of sleeping on your side or back, you can provide warmth, comfort and better posture while at sleep, resting, and a must for pregnancy.
To help prevent sleeping on your stomach, which can cause twisting or torque of the neck and lower back, these pillows are a great solution. The worse sleeping position for the body is on your stomach, placing abnormal amounts of stress on the neck, shoulders, ribs, upper back, lower back, jaw and vital organs. Even with a good supportive pillow, waking up in the morning on your stomach places rotational stress on the neck which can lead to stretching or pinching of the nerves and shortening of the muscles causing pain and spasms.
By helping to keep your legs aligned with your lower back and pelvis, body pillows can also help relieve pressure and strain on the hips, knees and ankles while you sleep. This can prove beneficial in preventing joint and muscle problems which lead to waking with back stiffness.
Can Body Pillows Help Me?
Often, we think it is the mattress that causes the problem, however, there is a simple solution to determine this. You can try using some blankets underneath you while you spend a night sleeping on the floor. If you wake up without your usual morning stiffness, it is probably because your mattress is too soft. A great way to remedy this is either to get a new mattress, which can be very expensive, or to go to a hardware store and have them cut a piece of half inch plywood the size of your mattress, and have it placed under your mattress. This should firm it up nicely and solve the problem.
If you wake up with the normal back stiffness, try taking your mattress top off the box spring and using this on the floor. This should make the mattress less stiff. If you wake up with soreness, you probably need a softer mattress.
If neither of these work, and you still have back pain, a body pillow may provide the best solution. We recommend the teardrop shaped body pillow which, has the benefit of assisting you in forming a new habit of not sleeping on your stomach and can be done in stages due to the shape of the pillow. It is also great as a general body pillow providing comfort and better alignment.
Body pillows offer excellent support for side sleepers along with chronic neck pain and back pain sufferers. Additionally, body pillows are often used by women during pregnancy, even helping in the delivery room for labor positioning. After delivery, they are also a great aid to a nursing mother as she holds and feeds her baby.
Body Pillows For Pregnancy
According a March 2014 study in the journal of Early Human Development, most pregnant women sleep on their back. This is known to decrease circulation to the baby as the uterus weight pressures the blood vessels, intestines, spine and back muscles, which also causes back pain during pregnancy, swelling and hemorrhoids.
The best sleeping position for pregnancy is on the left side. This helps pregnant women stay healthier and reduce aches and pains, as well as being better for the baby. Body pillows can help make side sleeping more comfortable and healthy during pregnancy.
In fact, a June 2013 study in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics indicates that pregnant women who sleep on their back are at increased risk for stillbirth and low birth weight. The authors indicate in their study that 17 percent of low birth weight, and 26 percent of stillbirths, may be prevented by changing sleep position when pregnant.
In general, switching from side to side is best, placing an emphasis on the left side. For those women who cannot sleep on their side, sleeping with a pillow under the knees and propping up the upper body, with pillows, or a specially designed wedge pillow system. There are also ergonomic leg pillows and knee pillows that may provide some alternatives that can help.
According to the American Pregnancy Association, back sleeping can cause issues with decreased blood circulation to your baby and you, hemorrhoids and digestive problems, breathing and back pain. When you lay on your back, the weight of the baby can cause pressure on the intestines and large blood vessels like the aorta.
They recommend sleeping on your side, preferably, the left side to improve blood and nutrient flow to the placenta. You should keep your knees bent and use a body pillow between your legs. Switching from left to right sides and back is fine. Having a good body pillow can also help with propping yourself up to help with heartburn or difficulty breathing.
Body pillows are an important addition to anyone looking for increased comfort and pain relief. To maintain proper alignment of the spine, they can be used under the legs for back sleepers and between the legs for side sleepers.