Are Bamboo Pillow's Potentially Toxic?

[Oxajil]

Same here, I sleep on my side too and it feels natural. I tend to alternate between lying on my left and right side before I fall asleep.

Interesting info here:

Joachim said that the benefits [of sleeping on your side] can stretch to your heart, brain, stomach and respiratory system.

The stomach is positioned slightly to the left side of the body, so sleeping on the right side can ease the movement of food from the oesophagus to the right side of the stomach.

Hans Förstl, who runs a clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy in Munich, said the brain can also benefit from a side position.

It is thought that harmful substances are “flushed” out of the brain and removed through the immune system during sleep.

Tests done on mice and rats have shown in the past that this is only the case when the animal was sleeping on their side.

 

[Mrs. Peel]

When I sleep on my back, nothing hurts but I wake up after a while and my mouth is totally dry, like a desert. I guess it falls open and I breath through it after I fall asleep. I like sleeping on my side much better, but after a while I wake up cause something hurts, usually my shoulder, so I roll onto the other side, than same thing happens. I sleep with a contoured leg pillow between my knees, on an organic latex mattress. I have tried every type of high tech pillow: latex, memory foam, bamboo, down, the "MyPillow" etc. What seems to work best is a ratty, beat-up, cast-off that my husband used to use! Go figure.

 

[Voyageur]

Good comments about sleeping positions, cause it seemed that the body seeks its optimum positioning, and I'm with Laura on the back and stomach thing, it just does not work, and for the same reason you said Keyhole, there is snoring, and for me there is an added semi-closure to a nasal passage, so left side sleeping was adopted.

The other thing is that my Chiro always advised me about being on my side - pillow between the knees, so this other Chiro comes along (on Mercola) and upsets the whole sleeping thing. He makes a bit of sense, too, yet I'm not going to worry about it and carry on the way the body wants to sleep.

 

[3DStudent]

I'm using a feather pillow with a medium organic latex mattress and mattress topper. Latex seems to run on the firmer side and I have a lot more soreness on all contact points (back sleeper). I sleep like a rock and rarely go over to my side, but if I do my arm goes to sleep because I have no other pillow supports. I'm going to try a soft memory foam topper (which hopefully won't outgas too much), and if that doesn't work then extra soft!

For the meanwhile I think I will put a blanket doubled over to act as some support. For years now I use hook type back trigger point and roller massagers multiple times a day (was thinking of getting one for work). Always have a sore muscle, including jaw and temples with TMJ disorder. Sometimes I find a tight muscle near bedtime and think, "Oh that's what's been putting me in a bad mood all day today!"

 

[SlipNet]

Interesting info on pillows and sleeping position, thanks to all for their input. I'm an insomniac and getting off to sleep is always the challenge for me. Once I fall asleep all is fine, I can sleep like a log for 8-9 hours fine, but it's just the getting off to sleep thing that gets me. I take my meds an hour or so before bed but even the melatonin doesn't knock me out these days. I use it as a bonus period of thinking time, I'll chew over some thoughts for a good hour or more before I slip off into the land of nod.

I've recently bought a new mattress and a memory foam pillow and if I'm honest it's as good as anything I've had before. One thing stands out in my mind, I turn my pillow over from one night to the next, not for posture or comfort, but rather I seek a cooler feeling to get comfy in bed. If I stay with the pillow in one position it gets too hot, and that really annoys me, I've never been able to handle excessive heat in bed. So my pillow doesn't have a fixed shape, as it gets turned one way or the other from night to night. Even in any given night, I'll turn it over before nodding off.

Sleeping position varies with me, but I never sleep on my back or on my stomach, always on either side. Most often I fall asleep on my right side and wake up on my left, but I have never, ever, been able to get off to sleep in any other position.

 

[Fluffy]

For all you tummy sleepers.

I can’t fall asleep unless I’m on my tummy. I got severe torticollis from favouring one side and had to learn to sleep head turned to the other. I have also learned to place my arms down by my side to relax my shoulders, I feel like I look dead. I move through the night to half tummy half side, shoulder and chest still down but whole body supported using latex pillows, also under my leg. I use this squashed flat old infant pillow that I scrunch under my neck to support it though my head mostly rests on the mattress -memory foam pod, super soft with thick woollen overlay. I feel spoilt to have such a nice big comfortable bed to myself, my partner and I don’t even share bedrooms because of nighttime wars about literally everything bed and sleeping related a couple could fight about.

I tried to get onto my side to sleep for the health benefits, bought a very comfortable Marino wool filled pillow for the job, problem is old injuries, broken clavicle where the bone fused wrong on the right and have hip issues that are exacerbated by sleeping on it on the left. Back sleeping is not so common, but if it works at the time I’ll take it.