Pay attention to healthy pillow selection.
First, choose the most suitable filler type for you.
When sleeping, the pillow is in close contact with people, so the quality of pillow filler has a great influence on our health. There are many kinds of fillings in pillows. Only by clearly understanding the advantages and disadvantages of different fillings can you choose the most suitable pillow type according to your personal situation.
1, natural and environmentally friendly natural fillers: Compared with artificial chemical fibers, some people prefer to use pillows filled with natural materials, especially the elderly, and prefer this type of pillows.
2. Buckwheat skin with moderate hardness: This is the most common pillow filler. It is moderate in hardness, good in shaping and water absorption, and relatively light. The disadvantage is that the elasticity is poor, and the pillow makes noise when the head and neck are moving, which may affect people who are prone to insomnia.
3. Paddy hull with good water absorption: It is better than buckwheat hull in shaping and water absorption, but it will be slightly heavier, and there will be noise when people are active.
4. Molded rice bran skin: It has certain molding performance, but its edge is easy to pierce the cloth and irritate the skin, and it also has the disadvantage of being easy to make noise.
5, breathable fluffy down: down fiber has good resilience, and has the function of temperature and humidity regulation, high permeability, which can provide a dry and comfortable "small environment" for the human body. Down pillows can't be washed, so people with allergies had better avoid using this kind of pillow to avoid respiratory discomfort.
6. Artificial fillers with their own characteristics: Many high-quality artificial fillers have no loss of natural fillers in many aspects such as thermal insulation, moisture absorption and resilience, and some have good antibacterial, mildew-proof and disease-prevention functions because of the characteristics of materials or additives.
7. Ordinary man-made fiber easy to clean: This filler is made of chemical fiber cotton wool, which is easy to wash, even can be washed by a washing machine, and can also be compressed and stored in a vacuum compression bag, and the price is cheap. However, chemical fiber cotton wool is not very breathable, and it is easy to form balls and agglomerate after being used for a long time, thus lacking elasticity and shortening its life.
8. High-tech hollow fiber: Hollow fiber is a high-tech product and a composite material. It runs through one to several pores in ordinary man-made fiber with poor air permeability, so that each fiber can store more air. Pillows made of this filler have greatly improved resilience, warmth retention, bulkiness and service life. Due to the differences in materials and additives, some of them also have health care and medical functions.
9. Latex filler that can also be used by people with allergies: Latex is a filling material made of natural rubber through a "foaming" process. Because it comes from pure natural materials, it is non-toxic and tasteless, and has no adverse effects on human body. The integral structure of latex avoids the interference of fine fibers to human body, and is especially suitable for allergic people and asthma patients. In addition, latex is breathable, difficult to deform and easy to shape, which can provide suitable support for cervical vertebrae. However, due to raw material factors, the price of latex pillows is relatively expensive.
Second, determine the appropriate height and hardness
In addition to paying attention to pillows with different characteristics, the most important thing is to determine the height and hardness of pillows that are most suitable for your own physical conditions. Sleep habits also have a subtle influence on the height of pillows, which should also be taken into account. For normal people, the height and hardness of pillows are related to everyone's fat and thin, the width of shoulders and the length of neck, and comfort is appropriate.
1, high pillows are not worry-free: Normal people sleeping on a pillow that is too high, whether lying on their back or on their side, will change the physiological curvature of the cervical spine. Over time, the neck muscles will be strained and convulsed, which will accelerate the deformation of the intervertebral joints and promote the formation of bone spurs, leading to the instability of the cervical spine and other problems.
In addition, the high pillow will increase the angle between the neck and the chest, which will hinder the ventilation of the trachea and easily lead to dry throat, sore throat and snoring.
2, the low pillow is not comfortable: normal people sleep on the low pillow for a long time, which will also change the physiological state of the cervical spine. Because there is no valve in the vein of the head, gravity will slow down the venous return in the brain and increase the blood supply to the artery, resulting in discomfort such as head rise, irritability and insomnia.
3. How to judge whether the pillow is too high or too low?
(1) The pillow is too high: if you exclude the disease factors, you will experience neurasthenia such as neck pain, headache, dizziness, tinnitus and insomnia, or feel numb in your hands and feet when you sleep in the middle, it is likely that your pillow is too high.
(2) The pillow is too low: If you don't drink water before going to bed, but you wake up and find that your face is swollen, this may be caused by the pillow being too low, causing slight congestion in your head. If the pillow is too low, the jaw will be lifted upward, and it is easy to open your mouth and breathe, resulting in snoring.
4. What is the right height?
Usually, the appropriate height of the pillow is10 ~15cm, but the specific size depends on everyone's physiological characteristics, especially the physiological curvature of the neck. The pillow can be slightly higher for people with broad shoulders and fat body, while it can be slightly lower for thin people.
Sleep habits also have an influence on determining the height of the pillow. People who are used to sleeping on their backs should have the pillow height equal to their fist height after compression (the height of the fist is the fist height standard). For people who are used to sleeping on their side, the height of their pillows should be consistent with their shoulder width after compression. Of course, a pillow that can keep the normal physiological curvature of the neck whether sleeping on your back or on your side is the most ideal.
For the pillow itself, the part supporting the back of the neck (neck curvature) should be slightly higher and have a certain hardness, so as to set off and maintain the physiological curvature of the neck. The part supporting the back of the head should be 3 ~ 5 cm lower than the above parts, so that it can fully support the head and adapt to the height of the neck.
Generally speaking, people with high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma sometimes need to sleep on high pillows; People with low blood pressure and anemia sometimes need to sleep on a low pillow.
5, the pillow is soft and hard, and there are many harms: a hard pillow will reduce the contact area between the pillow and the head, increase the pressure, and make the scalp uncomfortable; However, if the pillow is too soft, it is difficult to maintain a certain height, the neck muscles are easy to fatigue, which is not conducive to sleep, and the head is trapped in it, which will affect blood circulation and make the head numb.
6. Appropriate softness and hardness: The pillow should be a slightly softer type without losing a certain hardness. On the one hand, it can reduce the pressure between the pillow and the scalp, on the other hand, it can maintain uneven pressure, so that blood can pass through the place with less pressure. As long as the pillow is slightly elastic, too much elasticity will cause neck muscle fatigue and injury.
How to choose a healthy pillow? When choosing a pillow, paying attention to the height and softness can bring positive help to choosing a good pillow. Remind everyone that there are many brands of pillows, and the types of pillows are rich and varied. Therefore, it is normal to be uncertain when choosing pillows. It is recommended that when choosing pillows, it is best to have a try. Also, pillows should be replaced regularly, and you can't use the same pillow for several years.