What is a cervical pillow?
Often associated with pain relief, a cervical pillow is designed to assist neck positioning and posture. Ultimately, good posture helps to keep your neck in a neutral position, preventing any agitation of your muscles, nerves or discs.
A quick internet search of “cervical pillow” will reveal that products of this category come in many shapes and sizes.
This type of cervical pillow is typically called a “contour pillow”
Contour vs Cylindrical Cervical Pillows
Some of the most popular types of cervical pillows are called “contour pillows.” These are typically made with molded foam filling and have a curved design that adapts to your head, neck and shoulders. Unfortunately contour pillows’ predefined geometric shape can be a disadvantage. Their foam filling will collapse and conform to you head somewhat, but it cannot be shaped, fluffed or molded to support a wide variety of sleeping positions.
A traditional cylindrical cervical pillow
A more traditional approach to cervical pillows is the simple cylindrical design (most are approximately 5×15″). These types of cervical pillows excel at aiding neck positioning and posture while being more versatile than a contour pillow. They’re called many different things: neck roll pillows, bolster pillows, yoga bolsters… All are similar in shape/size and can provide the same benefits.
Cylindrical cervical pillows are versatile and functional.
This design can provide comfort and support in many contexts beyond neck pain relief:
- Bed Pillow — The cylindrical shape is favored by many for use as a bed pillow. Its smaller dimensions relative to traditional bed pillows make it well-suited for back sleepers and those smaller in stature.
- Extra Support — A cervical pillow can be placed under or on top your existing bed pillow to provide more loft. Reading in bed and watching movies is more enjoyable with a thicker, more substantial pillow under your head.
- Under Arm Support for Side Sleepers – Similar to a body pillow, they can help to support the top side of your body and prevent it from rolling forward to your stomach.
- Orthopedic Pillow — Cervical pillows are often used in conjunction with other pillow types to correct uncomfortable or pain-causing body postures. They work well for head and neck support, but are also commonly used to elevate knees, ankles or other parts of the body.
- Travel Pillow — A cervical pillow is considerably smaller than traditional bed pillow. Therefore, they work well in both a car and an airplane (or even boat!). Wrap it around your neck and it will help to support your resting head.
- Yoga Bolster — Under your neck, knees or back, a cervical pillow is great for use at the yoga studio.
- Arm Rest — Support your arm while seated as you read or use your laptop.
Pillow filling: what works best?
Polyester fiberfill, sometimes referred to by the trademarked name, Poly-fil™ has a compressible and elastic nature makes it well-suited for use inside a pillow. It’s also very cheap. Unfortunately polyester fiberfill clumps and flattens out easily. For this reason, they require frequent readjustment or “fluffing.”
What’s more, it is manufactured using questionable chemicals that are a potential hazard to both the environment and our health.
There are many other types of pillow fillings to chose from, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately, we believe that buckwheat hulls are far superior to all other types of pillow filling. We’ve been selling traditionally sized buckwheat bed pillows for years. Thousands of happy customers can attest to the comfort that buckwheat hulls can provide.
Magical buckwheat hull filling conforms to your head and neck.
What are buckwheat hulls?
Popular throughout Asia for centuries, buckwheat hulls are a proven pillow filling that provides better, more comfortable rest. Filled with thousands of tiny all-natural buckwheat hulls, a buckwheat pillow will provide luxurious support for your body that simply can’t be matched by traditional pillows. Its unique malleable characteristics enable it to conform perfectly to the shape of your body, providing consistent, cool and comfortable support.
Typical pillows filled with soft, compressible filling types like polyester fiberfill or down can collapse under the weight of your body. As a result, these types of pillow filling lose their loft and become too thin. To make matters worse, traditional pillows can build up and retain your body heat. This will make them them uncomfortably warm. Fiddling with your pillow to find the “sweet spot” is inconvenient and uncomfortable.
Buckwheat hulls move and shift, but do not compress under pressure like soft pillow fillings. Each individual hull’s irregular edges allow it to grip its neighbors. All the hulls work together, enabling your pillow to hold a consistent shape that mimics the contour of your body. As a result, stress and pressure points are eliminated.
