How to Choose a Suitable Pillow? Shape, Height and Material

The pillow has an effect on whether our neck can be properly rested, and how the shoulder and neck both take pressure during your sleep. If everything fits well, a good night's sleep will reward you with a good mood the next day. Choosing the right pillow is crucial.

How do you pick the right one out of the many types, latex, inflatable, buckwheat, or memory foam?

Let’s dive into analysis, mainly from three aspects, namely shape, height, and material.

The shape of the pillow

When sleeping, if the cervical spine can properly maintain a straight line, the muscles, ligaments and the neck can be well-rested. You need to choose pillows that can fit the curve of the head and neck.

The traditional shape of the pillow is high in the middle and low in the surroundings. When we lie down, the neck is in a suspended state, the cervical spine is easily twisted, and we cannot rest and relax well, so it is easy to wake up with stiff neck or muscle soreness.

This is how memory foam pillows stand out. The way it adapts to your neck shape and properly supports your head can make sure that your cervical spine won’t be twisted, especially the case for back sleepers. 

The height of the pillow

The height of the pillow is related to age, gender and habits.

Age analysis shows that with the increase of age, people are more and more hunched. When older people lie down, the distance between the neck and the bed surface is higher. Therefore, the height of the pillow for older people should be higher.

Men and women have different requirements for pillow height. In most cases, men's shoulders are wider and thicker, and physiologically, men have more muscles near the shoulders and neck than women, so when men lie on their backs or sides, their pillows should be relatively higher.

Finally, when it comes to sleeping habits, some people like to sleep on their sides, while others like to sleep on their fronts. When sleeping on your side, you should consider the width of your shoulders, so you need to choose a higher pillow; people who sleep on your back can choose a lower pillow. 

In terms of height, we recommend 9-11 cm for women, 11-13 cm for men, and lower for children, 7-9 cm. Of course, it varies from person to person.

The material of the pillow

At present, the commonly used materials include buckwheat hulls, down, rayon or acrylic cotton, as well as latex and polyester fibers.

Buckwheat husk is the most traditional material. Its advantage is that it has plasticity. By pressing it in the middle, it can make the wave shape that suits the physiological lordosis of the back of our head and cervical spine. Also, the height can be adjusted as needed. 

It’s suited for the majority but with the disadvantage that it is relatively hard to deform, and it is easy to make noise when turning over. It may not be suitable for some people with neurasthenia, sleep disorders, and insomnia. After a long time of use, the supportability is prone to decline.

Down pillows, or man-made fiber pillows, man-made fibers are also called acrylic cotton. Its shape is the traditional shape with a high middle and a low circumference, and it is used more in hotels. The advantages are good elasticity, softness, lightness, beautiful appearance, and luxurious atmosphere. The disadvantage is: the shape is highly fixed, it is not suitable for the shape of the back of the neck and the back of the head, and it is not very healthy.

When Latex or polyester fiber is used as the pillow core, which makes the pillow moderately soft and in a fixed shape. The pillow can be processed into a wave shape that meets the physiological requirements of our cervical spine. The advantage is that it can well fit the shape of the neck and the back of the head, with good elasticity and softness. The disadvantage is that the shape is highly fixed, unlike the buckwheat hull pillow, which can be shaped on demand at any time, and it is expensive, especially the case with latex pillows.

Last but not least is the recommended pillow from us, the memory foam pillow, the slow rebound memory foam pillows. 

Memory foam pillow gives no pressure on the head, while it can also fix the headache and reduce the possibility of a stiff neck.

Good air permeability of the memory foam can inhibit mold and prevent bacteria and mites. It is conducive to blood circulation in the head and promotes people's deep sleep.

Memory foam is particularly important for the treatment and prevention of cervical spondylosis, which cannot be cured by drugs. What is needed instead is to let the body slowly adjust and return to the original position of the cervical spine.

Memory pillow conforms to our ergonomic needs and can relieve pain to improve cervical spine strain. 

However, because of the high-profit margin, some unscrupulous merchants use inferior materials which do not meet standards. Before buying any memory foam pillows, it is necessary to tell the good from the bad. 

Here we teach you some tricks to easily identify the quality of memory pillows.

1. Look at the density of the memory pillow:

The higher the density of the memory pillow, the better the quality. Density can be judged by the weight of the pillow. That is to say, the heavier the weight of the memory pillow of the same volume, the better the quality.

2. Look at the slow rebound characteristics of the memory pillow

After the memory pillow is stressed, it does not restore its original shape immediately, but slowly restores its shape. 

People might think that the longer the rebound time, the better. This is not completely correct. Generally, the rebound time of the memory pillow is between 3~5 seconds, and not necessarily the longer the better.

3. Smell the memory pillow

Memory foam has an inherent natural smell. You should put it in a ventilated place after purchase. However, If the smell persists for a long time, it is possible it's made of low-quality material. 

4. Look at the warmth effect of the memory pillow

Generally speaking, memory pillows have a temperature-sensing effect. It gets softer when the temperature is higher. You can observe the change of the pillow in different hotness and see how sensitive it is to the temperatures. The more sensitive it is, the better quality it is.