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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > [Tell] Jizzy about Mattresses. More than a place to hide cash and tap ass?
 
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Sharks Eat Bear
Dec 25, 2004

Synastren posted:

Pillows are tricky beasts, best tried and coupled with your mattress, as the same pillow will feel a bit different on a different mattress. Unfortunately, that's not usually a possibility with online mattress purchases.

Short heuristics to finding the right pillow:
The thickness should be determined by how you most commonly sleep. Thickest for side sleepers, thinner for back sleepers, thinnest for stomach sleepers.

The goal of a pillow is to fill the space between your head and your mattress. You want to try to keep your spine roughly aligned, especially near the base of your neck. The most common neckache issues are due to a pillow that is either too tall or too short.

The squish of a pillow is the most subjective part. In general, I find that folks who gravitate towards softer beds like the feel of firmer pillows more, and vice versa.

If you're not spending at least $20 on a pillow, it will likely be garbage--imo $40 is a good starting point for a decent quality pillow.

ed: Almost forgot about the one thing folks don't usually consider with respect to pillow: weight. For example, I've heard nothing but good things about the Purple pillow... except that it weighs roughly 10 lbs. :v:

This is a (very good) old post on pillows. Question - what do yo recommend for someone who sleeps on stomach & side and often switches positions throughout the night? It seems like this is a hard trade off given your heuristic around thinnest for stomach and thickest for side... I'm having a hard time imagining anything other than just trying to swap pillows when you change positions, which is basically what I do now, but often times I'm not really conscious enough to swap pillows and wind up with a sore neck/shoulders from sleeping on the thick pillow on my stomach or the thin one on my side.

* # ¿ Nov 17, 2020 01:10
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 13:13
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Sharks Eat Bear
Dec 25, 2004

Synastren posted:

There are a lot of specialty pillows for back/side sleepers which usually involve tapering down in the center with loftier sides; that could maybe work for you, but would require some awkward pillow position. I have a couple of ideas, so if you want to try a few and report back, I'd find that extremely helpful.

Idea 1: two thinner pillows, overlapping around the center. You should be on your side where the pillows overlap, then when you roll forward onto the tail, it should be much flatter.
Idea 2: high loft foam pillow, with significantly rounded edges. I'm thinking something shaped like the mid loft Tempur Adapt Pro pillow. It's a similar idea to the former, but would perhaps require getting a new pillow.

Unrelated pillow usage tips!
If you sleep on your back, try tucking the pillow an inch or two under your shoulders. That ensures that the pillow does not crane your neck and constrict your airway.
If you sleep on your side, try angling the pillow along your jawline. It should provide superior support, and generally feel better.
If you have a contour pillow (one of those shaped pillows with a scalloped shape), rotate the pillow based on your sleeping position: on your side, the thicker side should be under your neck, while the thinner if you're on your side!

Thanks, this is helpful. It's also making me consider something that maybe is topic-adjacent, so not sure if you have any perspective. Maybe it warrants its own A/T thread but I'll start here...

Should I just train myself to sleep on my back & side instead of stomach & back? Is this something you've advised or have experience with?

I did a little searching for articles on this, and it seems like the common recommendations boil down to:
- have a good pillow for sleeping on your back
- put a pillow under your knees for hip & lower back support
- put pillows around you, to support your arms if that helps or to partly cover your face if that sensation is relaxing
- stretch before bed, especially hamstrings & hip flexors

I figure it makes sense to try this out, since it seems easier to get a pillow setup that can work for back/side than stomach/side, and since it seems like back sleeping is the best for long-term spinal health anyway.

* # ¿ Nov 17, 2020 20:15
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Sharks Eat Bear
Dec 25, 2004

 A coworker just got a Saatva Loom & Leaf and is raving about it. Saw a few old posts ITT that seemed to be generally positive, although a lot of times it was grouped in with BIAB options even though the L&L doesn't come in a box. Not sure if they've changed that recently or if it was just lumped in on account of being an online memory foam mattress. Anyone have more recent experience?

* # ¿ Sep 9, 2021 20:23
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Sharks Eat Bear
Dec 25, 2004

 Putting off buying a new mattress until covid cools down and going into a store for an extended amount of time makes sense.

In the meantime, I’m thinking of blind buying a topper that will make our very firm innerspring mattress more comfortable to me, a mostly side sleeper. Any topper recs? Was thinking of a 3” latex topper (Turmerry) based on 5 minutes of research but thought I’d ask here before I go down the rabbit hole.

* # ¿ Jan 8, 2022 05:31
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Sharks Eat Bear
Dec 25, 2004

Sharks Eat Bear posted:

Putting off buying a new mattress until covid cools down and going into a store for an extended amount of time makes sense.

In the meantime, I’m thinking of blind buying a topper that will make our very firm innerspring mattress more comfortable to me, a mostly side sleeper. Any topper recs? Was thinking of a 3” latex topper (Turmerry) based on 5 minutes of research but thought I’d ask here before I go down the rabbit hole.

Ended up getting a Tempurpedic 3" foam topper, and also a Coop adjustable foam pillow. Have slept on the topper for a few nights now and it's good enough as a temporary stopgap until we get ourselves into an actual store to test out some real mattresses. The pillow is great after a couple nights' sleep, enough support for me to side sleep comfortably for most of the night and enough give that when I roll onto my back it's fine too.

* # ¿ Jan 18, 2022 19:32
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > [Tell] Jizzy about Mattresses. More than a place to hide cash and tap ass?