I Rock with the Roll

I realized over the last few months, that I relax much more deeply with a neck pillow instead of a head pillow. A towel roll, or just a really narrow pillow, placed under the cervical curve (Wikipedia), allows those muscles in the neck to release.

Traditional Western pillows lift the head up substantially. This almost runs counter to releasing the neck muscles and leads to widespread neck tension that I think most people assume is inevitable.

A towel is not the most comfortable, but it works. You should give it a try! Different bodies and spines will need different shapes or sizes of support. The main idea is to lift the neck slightly, and let the head rest flat on the bed (or your preferred sleeping surface). If you feel your neck with your fingers, gently pressing and massaging, you may notice a significant difference between your regular pillow and this new approach. This also requires you to sleep on your back, which I don’t always do, so I rotate around. But, I think this is something valuable to have in case of some nasty neck soreness!