Nowadays, a common trend of sleeping has started- sleeping without a pillow. From the ancient time, people have used headrests while sleeping. But, now some people are leaving pillow saying that it doesn’t let the spine be in the right pattern. Is it true? Maybe or maybe not. Let’s see.
Reasons behind Sleeping without a Pillow
People who are in favor of avoiding a pillow at the time of sleeping have some strong points to support this activity. Among those, the first point is, the pillow doesn’t allow your upper end of the spine to remain inthe right structure. As a result, neck pain happens.
Another claim is, sleeping without a pillow allows your body to take rest in an optimal position. As a result, your body gets the best rest when you don’t use a pillow while sleeping. If the pillow can’t ensure proper support, your back and neck muscles need to take the pressure. But sleeping without a pillow won’t need back and neck muscles to take the pressure. So, you shouldn’t use a pillow while sleeping.
They also claim that sleeping without a pillow keeps your skin healthy. If you are a stomach sleeper, you press your face onto the surface of the pillow. This preventsskin cells to stay in touch of the air. Besides, it also smashes the pimples sometimes. If you leave pillow, these won’t happen. As a result, your facial skin will remain healthy.
What Happens When You Sleep without a Pillow?
People are using headrests at the time of sleeping mainly for supporting the head and reducing pressure from the neck. According to this perspective, you’ll need a pillow no matter in which position you sleep. Depending on the sleeping position, let’s see what happens if you don’t use a pillow.
Back Sleeping
If you sleep on your back, you’ll feel that there are two gaps when you sleep on a mattress. One is the gap between that mattress surface and your lower back; another is the gap between the mattress and your neck. The first gap doesn’t cause any uncomfortable situation as the mattress allows your hip to sink a bit inside it.
But there always remains a tiny gap between your neck and the mattress. As a result, your head doesn’t get enough support. You need to use a pillow to provide this support.
Using a pillow creates a problem for the beck sleepers when they use a too thick pillow. In this case, the head remains in an uncomfortably uplifted and tilted forward. To avoid this situation, you need to use a pillow that is moderately thin.
Side Sleeping
If you think that you are a side sleeper. You must use a pillow. This position is the healthiest sleeping position.
When you sleep in this position, the gap between your head and the mattress is huge. As a result, your head needs support. Your mattress may allow your pressure points to sink a bit, but that is not enough for supporting your head to keep the spine in a straight position.
As a result, the weight of your head will pull your head downwards and ruin the proper alignment of the spine. Only proper support can keep the alignment right in this case.
So, a side sleeper must use a pillow that is thick enough to support the head. A thin pillow can’t help a side sleeper much because it can’t fill up the gap.
Stomach Sleeping
Though stomach sleeping is called as the unhealthiest sleeping position, many people find comfort sleeping in this position. This sleeping position needs your neck to remain twisted. As a result, the alignment of the spine becomes ruined.
However, stomach sleeping doesn’t create an uncomfortable neck position caused by the gap between neck and mattress. As a result, experts have recommended stomach sleepers to use a very thin pillow. Using no pillow in case of stomach sleeping doesn’t create a major problem.
If you are a stomach sleeper and you use a thick pillow, your neck is taking a pressure. In stomach sleeping, your neck is already in a twisted position. A thick pillow makes the situation worse by pressing your head upwards.
Final Words
After the discussion above, you can choose to use a pillow or not depending on your sleeping position. If you ask me, I’ll say that sleeping without a pillow is not good for your neck. I suggest you to use a pillow depending on your sleeping position.
If you are a back sleeper or stomach sleeper, use a thin pillow to support your head. If you are a side sleeper, use a moderately thick pillow.
To determine the thickness of the pillow, keep in mind that you need to keep your head properly aligned to your body so that your neck and spine don’t need to bear extra pressure. That’s all.
