Tips for Better Spine Alignment

Tips for Better Sine AlignmentAt Natural Comfort Pillow, we’re obsessed with spine health and spine alignment. And although our Natural Comfort Pillow plays a major role in having a healthy spine, we’d like to share three additional healthy habits that can help keep your spine aligned. They all revolve around improving you posture — while sitting, standing and walking.

Please keep in mind, we’re not expecting you to incorporate all of these strategies into your life in one day. Pick a few at a time and master them. Then add additional healthy spine alignment techniques over time.

Sitting Posture

  • Elevate your computer monitor to eye level
  • Improve workspace ergonomics. Make sure chair height and keyboard height are promoting healthy posture, and that your back rests on the back of your office chair.
  • Knees should be even with the hips, or slightly higher when sitting in an office chair.
  • Keep both feet flat on the floor. Use a footrest if necessary.
  • Keep shoulders straight while sitting — no slouching or leaning to one side.
  • Check out this interactive Workspace Planner from Ergotron, which can help you set up your workspace components and furniture to support spine alignment.

Standing Posture

  • Stand with weight mostly on the balls of the feet, not on the heels.
  • Keep feet approximately shoulder width apart.
  • Allow arms to relax and hang naturally at the sides of your body.
  • Avoid locking the knees, instead keep them slightly bent.
  • Keep your chin slightly tucked in, it helps keep your head level.
  • Be sure your head is square on top of the spine, not jutting forward.
  • Stand up straight and tall, with shoulders upright.
  • Shift your weight when standing for long periods of time. Switch from one foot to the other, or rock from heels to toes.

Walking Posture

  • Keep your head up, and your eyes looking straight ahead. Avoid the temptation to look down (unless you need to), which puts unnecessary stress on the neck, head and spine.
  • Be mindful of holding your head squarely on your spine. If you notice that you’re leaning your head or neck forward, simply adjust it back to a place of balance.
  • Keep shoulders properly aligned with the rest of the body. Looking at yourself in a mirror may help with this. People often fall into the habit of leaning to a particular side, which can make the spine unaligned.

Bonus Tip
As long as you’re physically able, perform exercises that promote core muscle stabilization.  Strengthening the core muscles of your back and abdomen make it easier for your spine to achieve “neutral posture.” These types of exercises include squats, push-ups, planks and lunges, to name a few. A physical therapist can also be a huge help with core muscle strengthening. They often incorporate proprioceptive training, balance exercises and stabilization techniques in their treatment plans — which are all highly effective in improving core muscle strength.

Thank you for visiting Natural Comfort Pillow. We hope these tips help you improve your spine alignment!

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Is Your Pillow Causing or Relieving Neck Pain?

Neck & Shoulder Pain ReliefNot all pillows are created equal. As a matter of fact, some can actually aggravate neck pain, cause headaches, insomnia — and even misalign vertebrae. The good news is that a well-made, supportive pillow has a wealth of health benefits. Let’s examine what goes into the making of a well-made pillow, and what types of benefits it can offer — including proper support of the head and neck, as well as relaxing neck muscles and de-stressing joints.

A well-made, supportive pillow should:

  • Support the head and neck — in both back- and side-sleeping positions
  • Relax the muscles of the neck, lessening stress on joints
  • Mold to your neck and head, with no recoil or spring back
  • Never stress the joints of the neck
  • Be comfortable, yet supportive
  • Be breathable

Benefits of a supportive pillow include:

  • Relief from neck pain or stiffness, neck injuries, headaches, insomnia and shoulder pain
  • Improved performance for athletes
  • Helping vertebrae remain aligned
  • Improved airflow and blood flow, while reducing breathing obstruction in the throat
  • A better night’s sleep

Hallmarks of a quality pillow:

  • A blend of natural down and feathers
  • 100% cotton casing
  • Bounces and fluffs into shape
  • Easily conforms to the size and shape of your head and neck (unlike molded foams and rubber)
  • Feathers and down also “breathe”
  • Absorbs body moisture

A non-supportive pillow isn’t only less comfortable, it can also have the opposite affect of a supportive pillow. In fact, a non-supportive pillow can exacerbate headaches, neck pain, or any of the conditions we’ve mentioned in this article. Learn More About How Our Pillow Can Help Visit the Natural Comfort Pillow homepage for specific information pertaining to neck pain, shoulder pain, osteoarthritis, insomnia, sleep apnea, snoring, TMJ and migraines. Try our pillow at no risk … When you try our pillow, we want to make sure you’re completely satisfied with your purchase. That’s why we offer a no-risk, 60-day money back guarantee that allows you to return the pillow for any reason. All we ask is that you use your pillow for at least 30 days to allow the feathers and down to mould to your unique neck and head shape — and for you to get accustomed to the special support the Natural Comfort Pillow offers. Thanks for visiting Natural Comfort Pillow!

5 Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep

Tips for a Better Nights SleepConsistently getting a good night’s sleep is critical for physical and mental health, as well as your ability to be successful in your personal and professional life. Anyone who’s missed even a couple nights of restful sleep understands how debilitating exhaustion can be. Let’s take a look at five easy tips — including keeping a regular sleep schedule and creating a relaxing bedtime routine — that can help you get a solid amount of sleep on a consistent basis.

Get Comfortable
Although this may sound obvious, getting comfortable goes beyond making sure you have cozy PJs. In order to be completely comfortable for a good night’s sleep, you’ll need to create a room that’s ideal for sleeping. To do this, make sure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet. If there’s light coming in from an outside streetlamp, or a neighbor’s porch light, try room-darkening shades. If there’s any type of noise you’d like to filter out, try earplugs, a fan or an ambient-sound sleep app on your smart phone that can add just enough background noise (like rain, or ocean waves) to cancel out disturbances while helping provide a more optimal sleep environment.

Your mattress and pillow also make a big contribution to the quality of your sleep. In addition to better sleep, a supportive pillow like our Natural Comfort Pillow can also reduce neck pain, TMJ, migraines and a host of other issues.

Keep a Sleep Schedule
This tip may take a bit of retraining your habits — especially if you’re a night owl. What you’ll need to do is go to bed and get up at the same time every day — even on weekends. A consistent sleep schedule reinforces your body’s sleep-wake cycle, promoting better sleep. That being said, if you haven’t fallen asleep within approximately 15 minutes, it’s OK to get up and something relaxing. The keyword here is RELAXING, so stay away from the temptation to work. Once you feel tired, go back to bed. Remaining in bed, stressing over falling asleep, may make it harder to actually fall asleep.

Stay Active During the Day
Physical activity isn’t just good for your overall health. It can also aid in better sleep. Consistent daily physical activity can help you fall asleep faster and experience deeper, more restful sleep. The time of day you have physical activity plays a role in how effective it is in helping your sleep improve. Exercising earlier in the day is optimal, making a morning run, or possibly a lunchtime walk, far more beneficial than exercising at night — which can leave you too energized to fall asleep. Other benefits of regular physical activity include more energy throughout the day and improved clarity of mind. Please note, before taking on any new type of physical activity, it’s always a good idea to consult with your doctor.

Create a Bedtime Ritual
A ritual is really just another way of getting yourself on a clearly defined schedule. Finding what bedtime routine works for you, and performing it every night, can go a long way in telling your body and your mind that it’s time to wind down. Reading, a warm bath, listening to relaxing music or meditating, are only a handful of tactics that can help you sleep better. Relaxing activities have a way of making us sleepy, priming us for restful slumber.

Part of your ritual can also include removing noise and excessive light from your sleep environment (in other words, turn off the TV).It can also involve fluffing your pillow, and setting your blankets in a specific way to make your bed more inviting.

Be Mindful of What You’re Eating
Going to bed hungry or full can affect the quality of your sleep. That being said, this is not an invitation to eat an entire container of your favorite ice cream. Instead, eat something light. It’s also a good idea to be mindful of how much you drink — starting at least an hour before you go to bed. This will help prevent the need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Having dinner earlier in the evening, and avoiding rich heavy foods within two-hours of bedtime, can help you sleep better. Heavy foods are harder to digest, and may keep you up. Spicy or acidic foods may cause heartburn, which can disrupt sleep. A simple cup of coffee, even when consumed hours before bed, can keep you up at night. Every person is different, so it’s a good idea to keep track of when you have your last cup, and how you slept that night. If you notice a trend of better sleep when you drink your coffee earlier in the day, why not make that part of your sleep ritual?

We hope these sleep tips help you rest more soundly. Please note that the tips on the Natural Comfort Pillow blog are not meant to replace the medical advice of your doctor.

Learn More About Our Pillow
Haven’t tried our therapeutic pillow yet? Learn more about how it can improve the quality of your sleep — and your life.

Thanks for visiting Natural Comfort Pillow!

Welcome to the Natural Comfort Pillow Blog

Therapeutic Natural Comfort PillowNatural Comfort Pillow has always been about doing out part to help improve the lives of our customers. Whether it’s relieving headaches, improving spine alignment, or addressing issues like insomnia or sleep apnea, our pillow has been providing relief to people for thirty years.

This blog is an extension of our philosophy — with a focus that goes beyond our physiotherapist-approved pillow to include exploration of different health-related topics.

Topics we’ll be covering include:

  • Neck Pain
  • Shoulder Pain
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Insomnia
  • Sleep Apnea
  • Snoring
  • TMJ
  • Migraines
  • Physical Therapy & Chiropractic

These topics are the areas we’ve been studying for three decades to help us make a better therapeutic pillow.

Beyond the Pillow

Although our Natural Comfort Pillow provides relief in all the areas mentioned above, taking an organic, whole-person approach to solutions for these conditions is what works best. In other words, we encourage you to take care of yourself throughout the day — not just when you’re sleeping — and our tips will help you do just that. Taking a whole-person approach is the most effective way to stay healthy and feel good.

Please note that our tips are not meant to replace the help of a professional doctor, physical therapist or chiropractor. But they are designed to raise your awareness regarding ways in which you can improve your health.

Learn More About Our Pillow
Haven’t tried our therapeutic pillow yet?
Learn more about how it can improve the quality of your sleep — and your life.

Thanks for visiting Natural Comfort Pillow!