Is it better to sleep with hard pillow or soft pillow? Summary of pillow purchase skills
4hw.com.cn: many people sleep on pillows. Some don't like pillows, some like soft pillows, some like hard pillows, some like higher pillows, and some like lower pillows. So what kind of pillows are good for sleeping? Or should I not pillow? Let's uncover the problem that has plagued people for hundreds of years!
Do you need a pillow to sleep?
The cervical spine is located at the uppermost end of the human spine and is composed of 7 vertebrae. The so-called physiological radian is a smooth forward arc formed by these seven vertebrae. This physiological curvature not only ensures the balance of the external muscles of the cervical spine, but also is very important to maintain the physiological state in the spinal canal. The main function of the pillow is to maintain this normal physiological curvature.
If you sleep without a pillow, it will easily cause the normal physiological curvature of the cervical spine to become a shape, straighten the bent cervical spine, and then cause damage to the cervical spine. If you lie on your side without a pillow, one side of the neck muscle will also cause spasm and pain due to excessive stretching and fatigue, resulting in 'pillow falling'. Moreover, when lying on your back, your head is too backward, which is easy to open your mouth and breathe, resulting in dry mouth, dry tongue, sore throat and snoring. It will also make the head congested, which is easy to cause eyelid and facial edema.
So the pillow still needs to sleep.
Is it better to sleep with a hard pillow or a soft pillow?
Those who have seen ancient costume dramas know that the pillows inside are long and look as hard as wood. But in life, few people sleep on such a hard pillow. Because an excellent pillow will reduce the contact area between the neck and the pillow, increase the pressure of the cervical spine, cause neck muscle fatigue, and the scalp will be uncomfortable and feel pain.
Of course, the softer the pillow, the better. If the pillow is too soft, it is difficult to maintain a certain height of the cervical spine, which will also cause neck muscle fatigue and injury. Moreover, the pillow is too soft, which will enlarge the compression area of the scalp and is not conducive to blood circulation. At the same time, if the pillow is too soft, it will also have the problem of poor air permeability.
Therefore, it is better not to use soft materials such as cotton and vacuum cotton for the filler in the pillow. Plant materials such as buckwheat skin, grain husk and kapok should be selected, so as to ensure that the pillow has air permeability and retain a certain elasticity.
High pillow or low pillow?
Speaking of this, it's easy to think of 'rest easy'. But in fact, the higher the pillow, the better. Too high pillow will cause cervical vertebra to tilt forward, destroy the normal physiological anterior curvature angle of cervical vertebra, and then compress the cervical nerve and vertebral artery, causing symptoms of cerebral neurasthenia such as neck pain, head hypoxia, headache, dizziness, tinnitus and insomnia, and prone to hyperosteogeny.
Similarly, low pillow does great harm to cervical spine. Although it is not as serious as not sleeping pillow, it will easily cause or aggravate cervical spondylosis over time. In addition, low pillow will also affect the balance of blood supply to the brain, cause dizziness and affect sleep.
Therefore, the height of the pillow is very important for cervical spine and sleep. Generally speaking, when lying on your back, the height of the pillow should be your fist; When lying on the side, the pillow height is the height of a fist plus the thickness of a palm. Only such a height can make the cervical spine in a more appropriate physiological curvature.
Of course, there are exceptions. For example, people with high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma should try to make the pillow higher; People with hypotension and anemia need to sleep on low pillows.
In addition, many people only sleep their heads on the pillow, but the cervical spine is suspended. In the long run, it will easily cause pillow falling and cervical spondylosis. Remember, the main function of the pillow is to pillow the cervical spine, not the pillow.