The ABC™ pillow advice on this page is extensive because, along with sleeping advice, this is an essential topic for you to understand and take action on.
ABC™ Pillow and Sleeping Advice: Choosing The Right Pillow
Just as with the mattress, the goal is to get the right pillow that provides sufficient support so that you sleep well without harming your alignment.
There are two parts to getting this right:
1. Your sleeping position
2. Your pillow (type of material and size)
If you feel like you are falling forward, then the pillow is too low. If you feel like you are falling backward, then the pillow is too high.
Pillow Advice & Sleep Positions
The advice that follows is critical even for people who are not undergoing an ABC™ care program because if your mattress and pillow is incorrect, you stress your body structure as you sleep, and problems will accumulate and worsen over time.
It’s worth remembering the golden rule for sleeping support:
If you wake up feeling worse than when you went to sleep then either your mattress or your pillow, or both are not optimal for your body.
You should wake up feeling good. If you don’t, it means that your alignment was challenged during the night and your body has had to stiffen up in compensation to stay stable.
Pillow Advice: The best position to sleep in is side-lying in the foetal position.
Some people do OK sleeping on their backs, but they are few. Most people are not well aligned enough in their spine to be able to sleep on their back and not have their bones forced into bad positions throughout the night. If you sleep on your back you must have a spine in good shape (which usually means you need to have gone through structural correction care for at least a few months), a firm mattress, and a minimal pillow as described below.
The worst position to sleep in is on your front. This should be avoided, and the best way out of that habit is to set your ABC Pillow up correctly for side sleeping.
Improved Health & Wellbeing Begins Here
Pillow Advice: Get The Best Pillow
The best pillow is made of a supportive material (like reflex foam, which the ABC Pillow is made from). In a recent article, written about the best kind of pillows you will learn that the size (height) of the pillow is very important.
The difference between a perfectly set up pillow and one that is not set up well enough to provide the right amount of support can be as little as 1-2 mm in height.
Pillow Advice: How to Set Your Pillow Up Correctly and Protect Your Spine at Night
These instructions will teach you how to create a homemade pillow using towels that will place your head in the perfect position so that your spinal muscles can relax and the vertebrae are all optimally supported during the night. When you get this exactly right, you will sleep very soundly, often waking up in the exact position that you fell asleep in.
Since your spine will be in a position of comfort and ease, you will wake up with your back and neck feeling flexible and loose. If you wake up with your spine feeling stiff and sore, there is an excellent chance that either your pillow height is incorrect and you need to revisit the setup phase, or it could be that your pillow is good and your mattress is too soft.
These instructions teach you how to build a pillow using bath towels. This works very well and is especially useful when you are traveling and staying in hotels. These same instructions are followed when using the ABC Pillow, which is a product made from several differently sized pieces of foam that you select to create the perfect pillow for your body. You then put it into a pillowcase and have the perfect solution for you (see the videos below). You can purchase the ABC Pillow here or in the practice.
1. Sleeping on your side
Towels are used instead of pillows because they do not squash and are therefore very supportive.
Fold up three or four towels so that the height is about the same as the spread of your fingers from the tip of your little finger to the tip of your thumb. Then lie down on your side and test the pillow out.
If you feel like you are falling forward, then the pillow is too low. If you feel like you are falling backward, then the pillow is too high.
Simply add or remove layers of towels until you find the perfect height for you. You will know when you have found the right height because within a few seconds, your eyes will want to shut and you will feel like falling asleep.
One thin layer added or removed can make all of the difference, so play around with it until it feels right. To accommodate for your unique spinal curve and tension pattern your head may appear too high or too low to an external observer. Don’t worry about this. There is no right or wrong head position as such. However, it should be noted that you may need the height slightly higher or lower for sleeping on one side vs. the other.
2. Sleeping on your back (not recommended for most)
Take one towel and fold one end over to create a two-inch width (about 5 cm) folded section. Fold this section over again two more times.
Take the other end of the towel and fold it over once to meet the other section (creating 3 layers of towel). The higher, narrower bump goes under your neck, and the smaller bump supports your head.
The area of the towel under your neck should not feel like it is pushing your neck up, it is only supposed to provide very light pressure (not pushing in, just enough to feel it touch) to the underside of your neck.
The Best Pillow Advice for Pillow Set Up
The Perfect Pillow For Neck Pain and Back Pain at Night
How To Make The Perfect Pillow, Part 1
How To Make The Perfect Pillow Part 2
If you are still struggling after watching that, here is another video by Dr Jesse Jutkowitz demonstrating setting the pillow up correctly on a patient.
