How a Pillow Fitting Improved my Sleep

And it makes sense: Think about the number of times you’ve sat up to fluff your pillow or flip it to the cool side. Your pillow holds a great deal of responsibility. The Sleep Expert™ likened it to running a marathon without the right shoes - every night, your pillow supports your head for ideally eight-ish hours; it should fit you as well as your running shoes do. Before joining the team, I didn’t put much thought into my pillows. Thanks to social media, I mostly spent time thinking about how pillows should look - stylishly rumpled, puffed and perky, or crisply knife-chopped like those at luxury hotels. But apart from "soft," I wasn’t sure how they should feel. Come bedtime, I’d knock my pillow from the sides to reapportion the filling or flip it to find that cool spot, but expectations were otherwise nonexistent, even as my neck and shoulders knotted up, taking the brunt of my not-exactly-ergonomic work-from-home setup, and the hoisting and wrangling that comes with parenting a toddler.

After talking to the Sleep Expert™, though, it clicked. My head wasn’t Comfortable Sleep Pillow because my pillow just wasn’t the right fit. That pillow was much older than I will publicly admit. And it had long since stopped supporting me. I tried to solve the problem on my own, quickly upgrading to a well-reviewed pillow and anticipating the promise of better sleep. But the neck soreness didn’t go away - and I’d occasionally wake up having completely rolled off my pillow. So when my husband tried that new pillow and fell in love, I let him take it, and decided to call in the pros or, more accurately, the Sleep Experts™. It was time to find my perfect fit. Since a pillow is small enough to toss into a shopping cart at the store, it can sometimes be an impulse buy, especially if it’s on sale. But this small item actually takes up about 25% of the length of your bed - arguably the most critical 25%, as it supports your head and keeps your neck and spine aligned.

"I would say a pillow is just as important as a mattress," says John McCarty, a Texas-based Sleep Expert™. And a great pillow isn’t a matter of cost: There is a range of pillows at every price point. More important is to factor in your sleep position, your sleep disruptors, and any injuries, aches, or pains so you can narrow down the options and make an informed decision. Some of the factors include loft - the height of the Shop Derila Pillow - as well as filling - down, hypoallergenic down alternative, memory foam, latex, or a hybrid - and the need for airflow or other temperature regulation. Why is it helpful to get a pillow fitted at a store? Knowing the basics that go into a pillow is a great start, Experience Derila Neck Support Support but the same way you want to try on your shoes to know how they feel, it’s helpful to try a pillow.

No amount of scrunching and puffing with your hands in a store or reading about fillings online is going to match the value of lying down on a bed - ideally a bed like your own at home - with your pillow under your head. With the range of mattress options in-store at Mattress Firm, you can test pillows on a mattress that ideally feels similar to what you have at home. Even better, at Mattress Firm, a Sleep Expert™ can observe you as you lie there and help confirm that your neck and spine are aligned. Before heading off to my local Mattress Firm, I spoke to McCarty to get a sense of what to expect and to troubleshoot my old problems. Right away, he had a hunch. "Loft is very important because that's a major part of the way that your spine needs to be aligned when you're lying down," McCarty explained.