A triangle pillow for back support can make a big difference in your quality of sleep. Today we are going to talk about the type of triangle pillow that might work best for you.

Ideal height of a triangle pillow for back support

Back support triangle wedge pillows come in different heights. The most common heights are 7-inches, 10-inches, and 12-inches. Here is a list of reasons why you may choose one particular height over another.

7-inch wedge pillow: acid reflux, GERD, mild sleep apnea, mild difficulty breathing at night.

10-inch wedge pillow: moderate difficulty breathing, wanting to read in bed, significant snoring, heavier torso weight, sleep apnea, moderate sinus drainage, help getting into and out of bed.

12-inch wedge pillow: vertigo, post shoulder surgery, pregnant, heavier torso weight, severe difficulty breathing at night, significant sinus drainage, severe nighttime asthma, help getting into and out of bed.

For full back support, add a knee wedge pillow

After you choose the best height for your triangle pillow for back support, be sure to use it along with a knee wedge pillow. Sleeping on a triangle wedge pillow alone, without also sleeping with a knee wedge pillow, can cause back discomfort.

Sleeping with a knee wedge pillow takes pressure off your lower back by supporting the weight of your hips and legs. With the weight of your hips and legs supported, your lower back can rest! A knee wedge pillow also puts your spine in the most relaxed position.

For side sleepers, choose a triangle back support pillow designed for side sleepers

If you are a side sleeper, don’t use a triangle wedge pillow designed for back sleepers. Choose a contoured incline pillow instead. A contoured pillow will fully support your back and spine while you lie on your side and still provide the torso elevation that you need.

To maximize back support while you are sleeping on your side, combine the contoured incline pillow with a leg separator pillow. The leg separator pillow supports your hips and legs so that the muscles in your lower back and hips are not pulling on your spine while you sleep.

A triangle pillow for back support is a great tool to support your back while you sleep. By choosing the correct pillow, you are setting yourself up for a night of successful sleep!

-Hillary Blare, Doctor of Physical Therapy

Side sleeper shoulder pain is a common complaint of side sleepers. When you don't sleep in the correct position, the shoulder on the side you sleep on gets compressed all night. This nightly compression is what leads to shoulder pain! Keep reading to learn the best position to sleep in to avoid side sleeper shoulder pain.

Why is body positioning important?

Think about the different structures that contact the bed when you lie on your side: your ear/head, the outside of your shoulder, your lateral rib cage, your hip bone, and the outside of your leg. If you drew a line following along the outside of these body parts, would the line be straight? Of course not! It would be very curved!

When you lie on your side without proper pillow support, your muscles and joints end up compensating for your curves. These compensations lead to joint pain and stiffness. The goal when you sleep is to support your body’s natural curves to align your muscles and joints all night.

Why do I get shoulder pain at night?

The shoulder and hip that you sleep on are under the most pressure when you side sleep. This is because these bones protrude the farthest from your body, so when you lie down, they become the structures that give you the most support when you side sleep.

Because the amount of protrusion is different between the hips and the shoulders (one is usually more than the other), when you lie down, gravity forces your spine into a side-bent angle. This not only puts strain on your spine, but also causes the shoulder you are lying on to absorb a high amount of force.

If the pressure on your shoulder and arm compresses your blood vessels and nerves, it can lead to numbness or tingling in your arm or hand. Side sleeping unsupported also puts unnecessary stress on your shoulder joint. This joint stress can lead to shoulder and/or neck pain.

The solution to side sleeper shoulder pain

To fix side sleeper shoulder pain, you’ve got to use pillows to support the natural curvatures of your body. When you use pillows to support your curves, your bones, muscles, and joints don’t have to do any unnecessary supporting. Your shoulder was designed to move your arm, not to support the weight of your body all night.

When you sleep, you should use a small lumbar wedge to fill in the contour of your waist. Supporting your lower spine with a lumbar wedge offloads your shoulder by supporting the weight of your torso, rather than leaving that job to the shoulder.

The lumbar wedge creates a “slot” where the shoulder can relax on the mattress without becoming compressed from the weight of your torso. This is a must for side sleepers with broad shoulders. This little wedge will reduce strain on the shoulder joint, improve blood flow to the arm/hand, and reduce morning shoulder discomfort.

Additionally, supporting your neck properly is essential to avoiding side sleeper shoulder pain. Failing to support your neck properly while you sleep leads to negative consequences for your shoulder. Because your shoulders are wider than your neck, when you lie down with a neck pillow that’s not giving you the right amount of support, the shoulder you are lying on takes the punishment.

The best way to support your neck while you sleep is to use a contoured neck wedge pillow. A contoured neck wedge pillow should completely fill in the curve of your neck (from the base of your jaw to the top of your shoulder). This support ensures that your neck joints and muscles are relaxed while you sleep.

At minimal, to get rid of side sleeper shoulder pain, consider adding a side sleeper wedge and contoured neck wedge pillow to your nightly routine. To get the best side sleeping position, consider a Side Sleeper System. This system includes a contoured neck wedge pillow, side sleeper wedge, AND a leg separator pillow. The leg separator pillow is long enough to rest the weight of your arm on while supporting the weight of your entire leg.

Side sleeper shoulder pain doesn’t have to be something that plagues you! Start sleeping correctly today and wake up in the morning without shoulder soreness!

-Bryan Blare, Doctor of Physical Therapy

Learning proper pillow position for sleeping will completely alter the course of your sleep journey. Correct pillow position helps you wake up revived rather than stiff or sore!

Proper head position on a pillow

The correct pillow position for your neck and head involves supporting your spine so that it is parallel to the mattress. If your pillow is too tall or too short, your neck will be bent. This can cause or contribute to neck stiffness, soreness, and pain.

Additionally, the space between your ear and shoulder should be filled in and fully supported. If there is even a small gap between your pillow and your shoulder, gravity will put strain on the joints and the discs in your spine.

For side and back sleepers, a neck wedge pillow is an easy way to ensure that proper pillow position is accomplished. The contours in the pillow maintain your spine in a position parallel to the bed. A neck wedge pillow also fills in the gap between your shoulder and neck.

Proper pillow position for sleeping on your back

If back sleepers sleep flat on their back with their legs straight, the hip flexors can pull on the spine and arch the back. This can cause compression on joints and nerves. Compressing the joints and nerves in the low back during the night makes back and hip pain worse.

The correct pillow position for back sleepers involves placing a wedge pillow under the knees. It is essential that back sleepers sleep with a slight bend in the hips and knees to allow the low back joints, muscles, and ligaments to relax. When your back can fully relax, sleep will come much easier.

Proper pillow placement for side sleepers

When sleeping on your side, it is important to support your back and hips so that your joints and muscles are resting in a neutral position. This means there shouldn’t be any major bending taking place in your spine. 

To accomplish this, use a side sleeper wedge to fill in the space between the top of your pelvis and your lower ribs. This small wedge pillow fills in the contour of your waist in between where your ribs end and your hip bone starts. The purpose of this wedge is to prevent your lower spine from sinking down unsupported while you sleep.

In addition, support your top leg so that it is as close to parallel to the bed as possible. This prevents the weight of your leg from pulling your lower back into a rotated position. A supportive leg separator pillow will help side sleepers accomplish this goal. 

The proper pillow position for sleeping takes some strategy and effort, but it can be very rewarding. Better sleep, improved pain, and decreased stiffness CAN be the end result if you can follow these simple principles.

-Bryan Blare, Doctor of Physical Therapy

Are you looking for the best way to sleep with occipital neuralgia? Occipital neuralgia is a condition that can severely affect your ability to sleep. The good news is, once you learn the best sleeping position for occipital neuralgia, you can finally get a good night’s rest.

What is occipital neuralgia?

Your occipital bone or occiput is also known as the base of your skull. You have nerves called occipital nerves that come out of your neck and into the suboccipital muscles located on the back of your head. These nerves can become injured and if they do, it can lead to occipital neuralgia. Occipital neuralgia causes symptoms such as a headache, migraine, numbness, tingling, tenderness, blurry vision, vertigo, or neck tightness.

How to sleep with occipital neuralgia

The key to sleeping with occipital neuralgia is to sleep in a relaxed posture with neutral spinal alignment. This is easy to do with the help of wedge pillows. The best news is, you can support your spine correctly whether you like to sleep on your side or on your back.

Sleeping on your back

When you sleep on your back with occipital neuralgia, you’ve got to sleep with a pillow that cradles your occiput. Remember, your occiput is the back of your head where your occipital nerves are inflamed.

You don’t want a pillow that is going to put additional pressure on the back of your head. Rather, find a contoured orthopedic neck wedge pillow that will remove pressure from the back of your skull. Not only will the contours alleviate pressure from your occiput, they will keep your neck in perfect alignment while you sleep.

Additionally, patients with occipital neuralgia need to sleep with a knee wedge pillow to ensure total alignment of their spine. When you sleep flat on your back without your legs elevated, your lower spine is arched. This can increase tension in your already inflamed occipital nerves.

Elevating your legs relaxes the middle and lower portions of your spine. Supporting your upper and middle spine with an orthopedic neck wedge pillow will relax the upper portions of your spine. With your entire spine in alignment, you are perfectly primed for a good night’s sleep.

If you are having severe migraines, blurry vision, or vertigo due to occipital neuralgia, consider sleeping at a slight incline. Sleeping inclined on a wedge pillow can improve circulation throughout your head and neck. This promotes healing and prevents gravity from allowing pressure to build up in your head overnight- which can happen when sleeping flat.

If you decide that sleeping elevated would benefit you, place your orthopedic neck pillow on top of your triangle pillow. Your legs will continue to rest on a leg wedge to ensure your spine is fully supported. This creates a position that completely supports your spine and lets your muscles rest in a relaxed state.

Sleeping on your side

What if you like to sleep on your side? Sleeping on your side with occipital neuralgia can be done in two ways: sleeping on an incline or sleeping flat.

To sleep on a slight incline, which would be a good idea if you are suffering from headaches, migraines, blurry vision, or vertigo, use a contoured incline wedge designed especially for side sleepers. The contours will support your spine in a neutral position so that your nerves and muscles are able to relax.

Use an orthopedic neck wedge pillow to support your head and neck. To support your middle and lower spine in a neutral position, use a leg separator pillow that can hold your hip, leg and ankle parallel to the bed. This position ensures that any tight leg muscles won’t be pulling on your spine which could cause tension on your spinal nerves.

If you would be more comfortable sleeping flat and on your side, use an orthopedic neck wedge pillow, a side sleeper wedge, and a leg separator pillow to support your spine. A side sleeper wedge is a small wedge that fills in the contour of your waist. This small wedge makes a big difference by supporting your lower spine and spinal nerves. This is important so that they are not experiencing any tension while you sleep. The leg separator pillow will ensure that your lower body muscles are relaxed and not pulling on your spine.

The best way to sleep with occipital neuralgia is to fully support your spine. This allows your nerves to heal and rejuvenate overnight and happens when you strategically use wedge pillows to align your body.

-Bryan Blare, Doctor of Physical Therapy