Is your mattress causing lower back pain? Does your back hurt every time you bend over or even rest on your bed? If so, maybe it’s time to change your pillow and sleeping position.
The purpose of a pillow is to support the spine and provide spinal alignment, thus keeping the strain off your back. That’s why you need to find a cervical pillow or contour pillow that can alleviate your back and neck pain.
In addition to using the wrong pillow, back pain can also occur because of an incorrect posture or sleeping position. In this article, we show you what are the best sleeping positions to relieve back pain and what is the best back pain relief pillow in 2021.
Best Sleeping Position for Upper Back and Neck Pain
Are you suffering from neck and back pain? If so, your sleeping position may be to blame. The following are the best sleeping positions to relieve back pain.
- Sleeping with Pillow Under Stomach: Sleeping on your stomach isn’t usually recommended because it strains your neck. However, if you are a stomach sleeper and can’t help it, then place a pillow under your lower abdomen because it can relieve pressure off your back.
- Side Sleeping with a Pillow between your Knees: If you’re a side sleeper, then pushing a pillow between your knees will help with hip and spinal alignment.
- Fetal Position: You can sleep on your sides with your legs curled up in the fetal position. This opens up the spaces between your vertebrae, which can prevent disc herniation and back pain.
- Sleeping on your Back with a Pillow under your Knees: This facilitates even distribution of weight across your body and places less stress on your internal organs and pressure points.
Qualities of the Best Pillow for Back Pain
Sleeping position is extremely important for upper back and neck pain, but so is the type of pillow you use. The following are some of the qualities of the best pillow for back pain:
- The pillow should be soft but not so soft that your head sinks into it, thus affecting the spinal alignment.
- In terms of firmness support, you should go for pillows that are medium-firm.
- A cervical pillow or a neck support pillow is curved around the sides so you can rest your neck on it. This provides support to your neck and shoulders.
- Memory foam pillows are generally the best material for back pain because they conform to the contours of your body well.
Best Pillows for Neck and Back Pain
Now that you understand what are the best qualities of a back pain pillow, these are our picks of the best pillows for neck and back pain.
Elite Rest Contour Sleeper — Best Pillow for Neck Pain and Back Pain
Elite Rest Contour Sleeper is a memory foam pillow that comes with a cotton cover, is contoured around the sides, and is completely hypoallergenic. This is the perfect pillow for back and side sleepers because it offers therapeutic support by facilitating spinal alignment.
The higher contour of this back pain relief pillow is 4 inches and the lower contour is 2.75 inches. Furthermore, the entire pillow has a width of 12 inches, which provides plenty of space to move around. If you’re a back sleeper or stomach sleeper, you can rest your head on the lower contour. But if you’re a side sleeper, you can rest your head on the higher contour to support your neck and shoulders.
The memory foam material is extremely high quality and hypoallergenic. It conforms to the shape of your body, which further offer great support. All things considered, Elite Rest Contour Sleeper is the best pillow for back pain and neck pain.
BioPEDIC Premium SofLOFT — Best Body Pillows for Neck and Back Pain
BioPEDIC Premium SofLOFT is one of the best body pillows out there. This pillow measures 20 inches by 54 inches, which means you can rest your entire body on it and even stuff it between your knees for back and hip alignment.
This body pillow is filled with hypo-allergenic fiberfill which makes it extremely comfortable as well. The cover is made of all-natural cotton so it facilitates air circulation and keeps the pillow breathable in the hottest nights. All things considered, if you’re looking for a complete body pillow that can also alleviate your back pain, then this Soft-Tex pillow is the ideal choice.
Coop Home Goods Adjustable Loft Pillow — Best Adjustable Memory Foam Pillow for Back Pain
Memory foam pillows are brilliant, but sometimes you can get stuck with a single loft height that you may not like. Coop Home Goods Adjustable Loft Pillow is the perfect solution to that problem.
This is an adjustable memory foam pillow, which means that it’s stuffed with shredded memory foam filling. You can add or remove the memory foam shreds as and when you like, thus making it completely adjustable.
This memory foam pillow is also covered with a bamboo-derived viscose rayon and polyester pillowcase that’s highly breathable and soft. It’s also hypoallergenic and dust mite-resistant. The only issue with adjustable memory foam is that you’ll have to regularly re-fluff it to distribute the memory foam shreds evenly.
Best Pillow for Back Pain Relief
As you can see, there are several neck and back pain relief pillows you can use. While our Editor’s Pick for the best pillow is Elite Rest Contour Sleeper, you can also go for any of the other back pain pillows on this list if you want body pillows or adjustable memory foam.
