Hi Maxie,
That’s good news!
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to a single nights experience which may be an anomaly that could be the result of many things … some of which may have little to do with your mattress … and I would look for longer term and more consistent “patterns” in your experience over the course of a longer period of time (such as a week or two).
The pain in your neck could be pillow related (although it could be from your sleeping position as well) but it unlikely that a pain in your bum would be the result of a pillow.
Your mattress is also two sided so I would make sure that you are rotating and flipping it on a regular basis to even out the compression of the natural fiber layers and help maintain the comfort and support of the mattress (see post #2 here).
[quote]What do you look for in a pillow?
Does a bad pillow throw off the alignment?[/quote]
A suitable pillow is an essential part of good alignment for the head and neck and upper body because the gap between the head and the mattress and the curve of the cervical spine needs to be supported just like all other parts of the spine. Like mattresses … there are certain “needs” that depend on body type and sleeping positions but with pillows, personal preferences play a more important role because the face is much more sensitive to textures, temperature, smells, and other more subjective “feel” based properties of a pillow. There is more about choosing pillows in the pillow thread here and the other topics and sources of information that it links to that may be helpful.
[quote]This morning I woke up with the pain in the middle area of my left bum and no neck pain.
What is causing this area of pain?[/quote]
There is no way for me to know for certain and if you haven’t been doing so on a regular basis I would flip/rotate your mattress to see if it makes any difference. It’s possible that it could be from the firmness of your mattress or it could be from a sleeping position that is straining the muscles in the area as well.
I don’t know your normal sleeping positions but if you are a side sleeper it may be worth trying a relatively thin pillow in between your knees and if you are a back sleeper it may be worth trying a pillow under your knees to see if it makes any difference as well.
Phoenix