Therapeutica Sleeping Pillow

Ten years ago I fractured 2 vertebrae in my neck/back (C7/T1). I'd never needed a special pillow previously so I struggled with "normal" pillows for 1.5 years. Then a new chiropractor turned me onto the Therapeutica pillow. It took a week or two to adjust to it but I've never looked back. All it takes is 3-4 days away from home on a "normal" pillow to remind me what an extraordinary difference this pillow makes to my neck. Without it, I wake up with neck & back pain, muscle strain, and head aches. The additional cervical/upper thoracic spine support makes all the difference in the world. I couldn't live without this pillow!! For those of you having difficulty with the side lying position, pull the pillow down snug against your shoulder when you roll on your side this fully supports my entire cervical spine and I sleep like a baby :).

I finally got this pillow after a friend of mine told me she swore by it. I found that the first two weeks were painful while my neck muscles relearned how to be relaxed while sleeping. I recommend giving this pillow at least two weeks for your neck to adjust. I'm a massage therapist and I suggest this pillow to my clients. I have noticed that the firmness of your bed also effects the usefulness of this pillow. I had a fairly firm bed and loved this pillow then I got a softer bed and the pillow didn't work. This is why I only gave 4 stars. I can not use the Average size pillow with a softer bed because I sink down too much. I'm going to try a smaller size and see if that helps.

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And perhaps the only perfect pillow is one you can mold to your own specific requirements, but I thought this was the next best thing. The truth is that if it were returnable I would've returned it... but since it wasn't I went ahead and made my own adjustments to it.

Pros:

1-vents that allow airflow and keep your head and face from getting too warm.

2-The sides of the pillow are the perfect part as far as I'm concerned. They make side sleeping comfortable and super easy. Just roll over to the side and you have a pillow high enough for side sleeping. The measurement you take mostly applies to the side panels..which is probably why this aspect of the pillow has the least complaints.

3-For most parts the foam is soft enough to be comfortable yet firm enough to keep your head from sinking too close to the mattress (as my previous tempurpedic pillow did).

4breathable & soft pillow cover.

Cons:

1The neck contour is as firm as the rest of the pillow. I felt it pushing against my neck and the soft goodies inside my neck & throat (whatever they are) were getting squished.

The human head weighs almost ten pounds and this is why a certain amount of firmness is good to keep the weight of the head from flatening the pillow down. But unlike the bony, heavy headthe neck is both both soft and virtually weightless. So the neck doesn't need that same amount of firmess. A much softer foam for that area would've been more comfortable while still being supportive. I brought the pillow to my doctor to show him and he agreed the neck cradle was pushing on my neck too much and it was throwing my head a bit too back. So be aware that different people will have different needs there. It seems that the measurement you take only applies to the size you need for the SIDE panels of the pillow and there's no way to measure what the person needs in the back of the head while back sleeping. I decided to copy the reviewers who mentioned they cut out the foam where neck support is. I went one step further and replaced it with a smaller foam cut out from my old much softer foam pillow and sewed that piece to this pillow. Ahhhhh. Now it's perfect. No more feeling my throat getting squished and pushed around.

2The center cavity is a bit limiting. Which is a pro if you've had surgery and want to keep your head from moving, but otherwise it can be a bit restricting. The back of your head has to be on the deepest point of the cavityIf I want to move the pillow even just a tiny bit higher or lower I can't because it'll throw my head out of alignment. Unlike softer foam pillows this doesn't really conform to the shape of your head so much...rather your head has to conform to it's properties. It might have been nice if the center cavity had the best of both worlds: A firm foam base at the bottom to keep the head from sinking down too far towards the mattress and then a softer foam on top that sinks down and conforms to the head whenever you'd like to move the pillow a bit might've been the ticket.

Conclusion: This may work for some and not for others. I would suggest sleeping on it for a few days with the plastic covering still on and a pillow cover over it so that you can return it if it doesn't suit your needs.

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It's a very nice pillow. I bought it and the first night I had the WORST night's sleep I ever had. But the next was better and so on. Getting the right size is important as I gave the large to my wife and at 6'-1" I bought the x-large. Everyonce in a while I sleep on it incorrectly and am a little sore. But for the most part, its a great pillow that you get used to sleeping on it in a particular way. I just have to figure out what to do with our old pillows. Of course it would be nice to have a nicer cover, but I'll make due.

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I ordered this pillow on the recommendation of my chiropractor (and yes, my chiropractor measured me). For the first 1.5 weeks, it was painful to sleep on, but I kept at it. For the next 1.5 weeks, I loved it and I noticed a huge improvement in my posture. What happened after that point was that the pillow noticeably 'broke down' and no longer supported my cervical and thoracic vertebrae in the same way (it got real squishy). I am a side sleeper and so I bought this to maintain my alignment while sleeping on my side. The pillow, however, compressed more and never maintained its structural integrity such that my alignment then changed and I began having my 'old' pains once again. I contacted the company, Therapeutica, several times with my concerns, with no answer. Finally, several weeks later, I received an email back requesting my receipt, etc. with the receptionist, Wendy the General Office Manager, stating that she would have to check in with a supervisor to see if it would be possible to exchange the product. 3.5 weeks later, she informed me that I would have to send the pillow into their New York office so that they could test it on "their machine" to determine whether the foam had broken down. Now, I agree that the product must be sent in to be inspected, however, the need for a machine to confirm my own experience with pain? Not to mention the fact that one can physically FEEL the pillow on all its sides and SEE that the foam has obviously broken down in the area that juts up against one's shoulder. (Yes, I followed their directions on how to sleep on the pillow to a T, in order to sleep on it correctly.) I don't know about any of you, but this is THE MOST HASSLE and WORST COMMUNICATION I have ever had with a company and their product guarantee. BUYER BEWARE!

Sidenote: before purchasing this pillow, I had requested advice from the company re: the differences between the full sized pillow and the travel sized pillow. Wendy, had informed me at that time that the travel sized pillow offered the same exact support as the full sized pillow and that for my needs, the travel sized pillow "was perfect". Once the pillow broke down, however, she changed her comments and stated that the company had not received many comments re: the travel pillow and that it was a TRAVEL pillow and not meant to be slept on every night. I, for one, have never heard that about any kind of pillow. Perhaps the company thinks that we should have revolving pillows that we purchase from them?