pillow for neck pain?

I am sure I am covering old ground, but it seems every pillow I try is just not right and aggravates my neck muscle pain at night. Solid latex seems to be too firm; down or synthetic down is too squishy. Microfiber gel is OK, maybe the best I have found, but still not great. I have tried the Lanoodle and while it’s not bad, in the end it still felt a little firm somehow even though I removed probably half the stuffing. Part of the issue is that I sleep both back and side, which supposedly have different requirements. ANYHOW, I was looking at a few alternatives I have not tried yet: (1) K-Lex which is a blend of shredded (I think) latex and kapok: (2) Easy Breather (which seems to use multiple ingredients in addition to shredded memory foam (there is a latex noodle version also)l and (3) Coop Home Goods shredded memory foam which is the #1 bestselling pillow on Amazon apparently. What these seem to have in common is acombination of support and softness, and (except maybe the K-Lex, about which I am not sure) adjustability. Thoughts, advice, etc. would be welcome. Maybe I am looking for something that does not exist.

Hi Pspa123,k

I don’t think there is such a thing as a pillow that works for neck pain in general… only a pillow that may work for your neck pain (at least if the cause of your neck pain is a pillow that is causing your head and neck to be out of alignment). There is more information about choosing a pillow in the main pillow topic here and it also includes links to some of the other pillow topics on the forum but pillows are such a personal item and there are so many unique preferences involved that I don’t think that anyone will be able to tell you which pillow will work best for you and deciding which pillow is best for you will really come down to your own personal experience.

I’ve personally tried both the K-Lex standard latex/kapok pillow and the Easy Breather memory foam/polyester pillow and both of them were great and very well made with a beautiful cover. The K-Lex has an organic cotton cover but I don’t know the type of fabric that is used in the Easy Breather ( I think it may be a viscose/rayon fabric but you can check with Nest Bedding). Based on my perceptions the Easy Breather is softer and has a higher profile and the K-Lex standard has a little lower profile and is a little firmer but it’s also more resilient because of the latex. The Easy Breather has 75% memory foam “noodles” and 25% polyester fiber and the K-Lex has 76% latex “noodles” and 24% Kapok fiber. The Easy breather has a zipper that lets you customize the amount of fill while the K-Lex doesn’t. With the foam “noodles” and the fiber … both of them are “scrunchable”.

While my own pillow preferences seem to change over time … for the moment I personally still prefer and sleep on the Lanoodles pillow which has a higher profile and is a little more resilient than both of them but of course that’s only my own current personal preference and doesn’t say anything about which pillow someone else may prefer or which one would be the best choice for someone else to keep their head and neck in good alignment in all their sleeping positions.

If you have a pillow that uses shredded foam and/or fiber then you can also “form it” to make a dip in the middle of the pillow so when you are sleeping on your back there is good support under your neck and then when you turn onto your side there is a higher profile that provides good support in between the side of your head and the mattress for side sleeping.

Phoenix

Just to follow up briefly. The Easy Breather comes in both a memory foam and latex version same additional material and both adjustable. Any thoughts on what the expected differences between the two might be? I wrote to Nest Bedding but they did not get back to me. Thanks.

Hi Pspa123,

There is more information about the general differences between latex and memory foam in post #2 here but in very basic terms latex would be more resilient than memory foam. I would also keep in mind though that both of these pillows don’t use solid layers of latex or memory foam and also have other fibers in the mix that will dramatically change how the latex or memory foam will feel and perform compared to a solid layer of either material so comparing them based on “specs” would be very unreliable.

These types of questions are much too subjective to be able to reliably answer outside of your own personal experience because the only way you will know how they compare for you (regardless of anyone else’s experience or opinions which could be very different from your own) would be based on your own personal experience.

If you can’t test a pillow in person then the most reliable source of guidance about how they may compare would be a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable retailer or manufacturer that would know much more about how they compare based on their own personal experience and on the feedback of many customers than anyone else. I would always avoid emails for these types of more subjective and complex questions (see post #4 here).

Phoenix