Pillows

Hi guys and gals,
Any advice on pillows(for the head, not the nose!)??? Right now I am sleeping with 2 down pillows that flatten down pretty well. I like to sleep on my side and hug yet a third pillow. Sound familiar to anyone? Some nights I do okay and some nights I find myself fighting to get comfortable with my nasal pillow device. I googled cpap pillows and don't want to make the investment without some advice from experienced cpap gurus. Thanks

Early on, I bought one of those expensive CPAP pillows. It turned out to be too firm, and I would wake up with a sore neck.

My wife gave me her old buckwheat pillow. I love it. After I wear it out, I plan to visit beans72 and buy one of theirs.

http://www.beans72.com/beans72/0-Pillows2.htm

Earl

apneawho wrote:Hi guys and gals,
Any advice on pillows(for the head, not the nose!)??? Right now I am sleeping with 2 down pillows that flatten down pretty well. I like to sleep on my side and hug yet a third pillow. Sound familiar to anyone?

Yep. I'm a side sleeper too, and have a fairly firm collection of stuff that I can lean forward against to take the strain off my top shoulder.

For my head, I use two small "dog bone" pillows ($7 each at Walgreens). The top one is wrapped in two towels that hang off the side I face and give me something to wad up if I need a little extra lift. When I first started CPAP, I thought I'd need a new pillow, and like you, I didn't want to pay $60 for the privilege of trying one out. But the trick of folding the towels under fixed my problem. Doing yoga more regularly didn't hurt either. My bottom ear gets sore sometimes, though, and I'm still thinking about what would be better. My setup would probably be too fiddly for an active sleeper, but even when I don't sleep well, I'm like a log.

Even if your goal is to buy an official CPAP pillow, you might try building your own out of small pillows, towels clothes, etc. At the very least, it might give you some insight into what will work for you.

I've got both a buckwheat/millet pillow and a memory-foam pillow. I'm not sure which I like better. I'm also a side sleeper.

The foam is softer but not convenient for the mask. The buckwheat is firm, good for my neck and I can clear a place for the mask to nestle into, but my ear hurts in the morning from laying on the buckwheat surface. I'm going back and forth between the two trying to figure out which one I like better. I've even tried the buckwheat on top of the MF, but it's too high.

Ohhh, the trials and tribulations of an XPAP addict.

You will find that personal preferences are about as many as there are people to have them.
What might work for me (small, petite, woman with bad neck) won't work for a big strapping man with large shoulders trying to sleep on his side.

I use a buckwheat pillow. Works for me. Large pillows put my neck at odd angle, not comfortable and I will have some killer headaches. Would be the same if I wasn't using xpap. I love the momentary feel of support with the memory foam contour pillows. I have 2 on my bed for visual balance. I use the small flat buckwheat to sleep on though. If I used the memory foam contour pillow all night I pay for it the next day. Now maybe if I was a larger person whose shoulders were larger so the spine was more straight, then I expect it would do quite well with the larger pillow.

I am mostly side sleeper. I just make a little nest in the buckwheat hulls for my nasal mask. Quite comfortable. Noise is a non issue. I never notice it. Often I end up pretty much on my stomach. Works just fine.

You can take ideas on which pillow works but the end result is that you have to figure out which works for your body the best. Another YMMV thing.

I use a Walmart artificial down pillow.....very soft and cuddly. When they brought my equipment out, he told me to use as soft a pillow as I could. Since I already used the down pillow, I didn't have to change it and he was right. I have no problem side sleeping with my nasal mask on my pillow and can plump it up in a place if I need to. I used a real down pillow for a few years and then decided to use the artificial down. I like it much better, easier to plump up and doesn't get any "hard" places in it.

I use one of those memory foam pillows from Tempur-Pedic. Got it with my new mattress a few months ago. I like it a lot. My neck doesn't hurt any more and my mask sinks into the pillow. My two cents!

apneawho wrote: I googled cpap pillows and don't want to make the investment without some advice from experienced cpap gurus. Thanks

When you use Google add cpaptalk.com after your search term to find things on the forum.

Or at the top of each forum page use the Advanced Search feature like - so
Search for Carbonman then search those results for pillow. Then search for knife to Drill down further if needed.

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&keywords=%2Bcarbonman++ Then search for knife to Drill down further if needed.

or just read here -
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66098&p=616386&hili ... fe#p616386

It is definitely a personal choice...... But for me? I use a buckwheat pillow from Beans72.com . BEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE! theirs have a zipper on the end so you can remove or add hulls to make it more comfortable for you. They overstuff their pillows by a bit so you have plenty to work with. They are firm, but not overly stiff. You kind of "nestle" into them when you lay down. These pillows are not light.... they weigh around 10 pounds. Very well made.


Jeff

I use a Sobakawa cloud pillow which I love. I don't like the weight of the buckwheat. So this is perfect for me. I am a side sleeper.