Side sleepers, we need to talk. If you’ve been waking up with a lot of neck aches, hip pain, back pain, and general soreness, it probably has to do with your favorite sleeping position.
Unfortunately, side sleepers tend to doze in ways that twist their hips and back during the night. This leads to knee, hip, and back soreness. But don’t despair at the thought of having to give up your favorite sleep position—there’s a simple fix, and it comes in the form of the body pillow.
Though it’s usually not anyone’s first thought when looking for pillows, a body pillow can often be the best pillow type for your setup because it’s useful and versatile. You sleep with one by putting it on your bed and cuddling your body around it. Then, the bed pillow provides you with proper support and alignment throughout the night.
This comprehensive guide on how to use a body pillow will cover everything you need to know about them, so read on and discover the sleep you deserve.
Traditionally, to sleep with a body pillow, you first put it on your bed lengthwise. Then, once you’re on your side, cradle the comfort pillow between your legs, laying your top leg on it such that your legs are stacked parallel to each other.
This ensures a healthy position for your sacrum, hips, and spinal alignment. You have to be careful with this one though—if you put your top leg too far over, you’ll end up in a twist, throwing off your lower spinal alignment.
So, what do you do with your hands? Don’t worry about putting them in that awkward T-Rex position sleepers hate. Instead, hug the pillow or just place your top hand astride it. This will keep your arms from feeling scrunched or curled up and has the added bonus of keeping you from rolling away from the pillow.
While it’s all fairly intuitive, making minor adjustments to find the right position is important since properly sleeping with your body pillow can provide several potential benefits.
Body pillows are incredibly beneficial and can help you achieve the sleep success you’ve been looking for on your mattress. These are some of the benefits of body pillows:
And recent studies have also shown that using a body pillow can help you relax better. This extra benefit comes from cuddling with them since hugging releases hormones like oxytocin that lower stress.
Body pillows also provide the benefits you usually get from a great regular pillow, such as proper spinal and neck support, so you don’t pinch anything or wake up with aches and pains.
Though we’ve already covered the typical way to sleep with a body pillow, there are a couple of other main ways you can use one at night. They include:
These sleeping positions can provide some variation if you’re not a side-sleeper or if you just don’t like resting the weight of the pillow on your leg at night.
Of course, your body pillow also comes approved for off-label use. If you’re working or watching Netflix in bed, your extra-large pillow can serve as the perfect prop. Likewise, it’ll come in handy the next time the wee ones in your life are in the mood for building a pillow fort. The possibilities are endless.
But to get the best use out of your body pillow, make sure you make your choice with your sleep goals in mind.
Which body pillow is right for you?
Body pillows come in many different shapes beyond the default rectangle and have a variety of fill options to suit your needs. Peruse options like the following:
Fill is also something important to consider when you’re looking for the right pillow since it can impact your sleep. The most popular fill options for pillows are:
So don’t neglect the body pillow fill when you’re shopping. What’s inside your pillow can be just as important as its external shape.
It’s never a bad time to start using a body pillow. If you’re a side-sleeper who’s sick of waking up with aches and pains or someone who just wants to stop tossing and turning, a body pillow can help. But you might be especially interested in using one if:
Body pillows can help relieve all of these conditions, especially sleep apnea. Back sleeping positions can aggravate your condition and make it worse, but using a body pillow can help you stay on your side through the night.
Your sleep is important, and you shouldn’t compromise it by waking up with body aches or stiffness.
And the side-sleepers out there don’t need to give up on your favorite sleep position. Our body pillow can help you improve your moonlight slumber.
At Casper, our priority is to help you sleep well and sleep how you want. That’s why we designed our body pillow ergonomically to promote the best alignment possible, leaving you refreshed and restored when you wake up. So instead of waking up to neck pain and soreness, wake up from a good night’s sleep with Casper’s huggable bed pillow.
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