Pillow for my neck pain

I made a weird pillow, to counteract my neck pain, and it's working REALLY well!

I was badly injured in a car wreck many years ago, and my neck hurts bad when I sleep. I took a bad shoulder injury last summer that has not been healing, mostly due to sleep positions dislocating it close to every night. Made this less than a month ago, I wake up with no neck pain now, and my shoulder is almost healed as it's not getting reinjured every night.

It's a weird design....


Filled with buckwheat hulls, it's two blocks, 10 x 10 x 6 inches, connected by a tube, 10 inches by 2. I designed it to give me good neck support when I lay on my sides, and just a minimal neck roll when I'm on my back.
I do not have to move my pillow every time I move now.  
My neck is always aligned straight when I am on my sides, reducing the pain.
I have minimal neck support when I'm no my back, which is always best for me.





I bought buckwheat hulls from this site: Hullo Pillows it cost me $50.00, but I wanted to be sure I had good ones to try this with. I figure my chiropractor appointments run me $40.00 each, so it won't take much to make it worth it. It HAS been worth it, I haven't been to the chiro in a while, and I'm a frequent flier there. I added and subtracted buckwheat hulls until it feels right for me.

I read people on the net complaining of dust from their pillows, so I made them out of watertight ripstop nylon I had around from another project. Makes weird noises when I move, but I sleep with just a cat, and I don't mind it. If you sleep with a partner who hates noise, find a quieter fabric. This sounds like a windbreaker when you wear it.

All in all, one of the best things I have designed for my pain! Worth considering if you have the kind of pain that needs different sleep support than standard pillows.
:D

Thank you for this post.  I may try to make one of these.  I have neck pain caused by muscle tension, so I sometimes have to take a muscle relaxant but prefer not to take medications if I don't have to.

I made a buckwheat pillow when I made by buckwheat hull mattress. I love it. I'm mostly a side sleeper and getting something sufficiently supportive was difficult. I didn't make a fancy shape like yours, just filled a normal pillow. The first one I made was overfilled, and far too solid. The second one was thinner.

What I love about the buckwheat is that I can wriggle it into whatever shape I need, but when I put my weight on it, it holds firm. Perfect combination of adjustable and supportive.

You mentioned dust; I haven't had that problem with my pillow, but I bought a special thick weave fabric intended of for pillow making. Thinner weave stuff has shed some dust, but it hasn't been a major issue.

Cool pillow Pearl!  Glad it's working so well for you!

I use to have bad back, shoulder, hip and neck pain when I woke up and usually a super stiff neck for most of the morning. Then I switched to sleeping on a flat wooden platform with a little super firm padding for insulation and sleeping on a compacted, low pillow that kept my neck and head level and in line with my spine( I'm a side sleeper). This completely corrected all my pain and stiffness. I'm a happy sleeper now.

I do a similar thing with my worn-out feather pillow. I make it thin in the middle to go under my neck, and fluffed up at the sides to hold my head in place on my back. I'll shove blankets or small pillows against the side to make the sides bulkier to hold my head up. I like how it cradles my head, and it blocks light. I'll try to take a picture of my set up tomorrow!

I finally found a pillow that does not compress my herniated c6. That solved the waking up with headaches.  Most soft pillows, especially those with that neck hump, actually made my neck worse. You know the drill, try to lay on your side, wake up with upper back pain, sleep on your back and most pillows put pressure on your neck.

I suggest this guy here. Weird looking, I know but so worth a shot.

https://amzn.to/3v6yo0T

I hope it helps, neck pain sucks.

When our daughter was 2 years old, dear hubby had a car accident where he broke his neck.

Since then he has made his own pillows.

His chiropractor, says he needs a thick pillow.  The first pillow he made was from a pillow we already had that came with our mattress purchase.  It was shredded foam.

We knew nothing about buckwheat hulls back then but those would work well.

My advice is if you have a problem sleeping make your own pillow like Pearl who started this topic.

The design is what will be important to what works for the people reading this topic.

So this might not be for everyone. I also use a neck pillow of sorts!!

When i am on my side i sleep with the pillow that my neck feels the best on.

When on my back I move my head off the pillow. However i do not think i do this when i am actually asleep.

Maybe i need to make myself a neck pillow!!