In the interest of my patients, I have started to use and review common healthcare or wellness-related products that are on the market, and offer my professional opinion. The first of these products is the “Original My Pillow®”
This is advertised as My Pillow® Premium and the inventor, Mr. Mike Lindell states, “I guarantee it’s the most comfortable pillow you’ll ever own!” Well, to put this to the test and see if this claim is indeed an accurate one, I purchased My Pillow® and used it daily for over two weeks. I used the product every night for over 14 days.
I went onto the website, watched the instructional videos to be certain that I purchased the right pillow from their website for my height, gender, etc. I purchased the correct My Pillow® for me and began to use the product as soon as I received it in the mail only a couple of days later. Although, it is one of the better pillows I have used, it is “not the most comfortable pillow” I had ever owned. Don’t already jump to the conclusion that I don’t think it is a good product. Let me explain further.
The My Pillow® product compared to other standard pillows on the market that could be purchase from many department stores or other vendors of this sort is indeed a superior pillow. I would be quite reluctant as a healthcare provider specializing in musculoskeletal injuries, to jump to recommend this to my patients as a therapeutic measure. I state so because although it is a product superior to most pillows on the market it lacks the biomechanical support needed to address sleep ergonomics. It is therefore, unable to address long term postural imbalances or compromise encountered during sleep.
To briefly describe important aspects of sleeping on one’s back and side, I will elaborate and explain why this pillow like most pillows on the market is insufficient for therapeutic purposes.
When you sleep on your back, the bottom portion of the pillow should typically meet the upper trapezii and base of the neck (the top of your shoulders). With My Pillow®, you can obviously meet this requirement because this is based on the positioning of My Pillow® and not on the product itself. What My Pillow® fails to address is that people tend to slide toward the foot of the bed as they sleep or push themselves toward the top of the bed. Under both circumstances, they “slide” off of the pillow if you will, and end up pushing their heads into a flexed position and over stretch the neck extensors in the process. These muscles stay in this position for an extended period of time, anywhere from minutes to a couple of hours or tens of minutes as you end up maintaining this position during sleep.
Now, if you are a side sleeper, My Pillow® does better in providing support. It is able to properly fill the space between your head/ear and the bed and maintain your neck in a “neutral” position through sleep. Ultimately, I would recommend My Pillow® IF you are using it to improve the pillow you are sleeping on with intentions to move toward better ergonomics and support during sleep, but WITHOUT the intention to necessarily resolve any common or chronic ache or pain that you have. If you purchase My Pillow® in an attempt to resolve pain, it may or may not be useful.