We did not commission any of this. These are public
statements from two teaching hospitals and a peer reviewed journal, linked so you can read
the original for yourself.
Harvard Health Publishing
Harvard Medical School, February 2022
On pillow shape
Their guidance for back sleepers is to choose a rounded pillow to support the natural
curve of your neck, with a flatter pillow cushioning your head
. That is the shape
this pillow is cut to.
On pillow height
They warn against using too high or stiff a pillow, which keeps the neck flexed
overnight and can result in morning pain
. For side sleepers they say to
keep your spine straight by using a pillow that is higher under your neck than your
head
, which is what the two contour heights are for.
Say good night to neck pain
Dr Nancy Foldvary-Schaefer
Sleep medicine, Cleveland Clinic, January 2025
On support
Writing about sleeping positions for people with neck and back pain, she notes that
a supportive pillow under your neck can help
.
On alignment
Her wider point is symmetry: you want to have some spinal symmetry to keep from
straining one side of your body
. Keeping your head level rather than propped at an
angle is the part a pillow controls.
The best sleeping positions
Sports Medicine, Open
Cunha and colleagues, systematic review, 2023, 25 intervention studies
What actually moves recovery
Reviewing 25 studies, the authors found that napping and sleep extension were the
most promising sleep interventions for improved sleep and subsequent physical and/or
cognitive performance
. For athletes already getting around seven hours, they suggest
adding up to two hours a night across three to forty nine nights, or a nap of twenty to
ninety minutes.
The honest reading for a pillow: what helps is more sleep, not a
product. A pillow cannot make you fitter. What it can do is stop you waking up, which is
the only lever it has on any of this.
The Impact of Sleep Interventions on Athletic Performance