Ask Lemmy

I have no idea what any of these brands are, but I have a very small threshold where I get painless sleep. I wake up with a day long headache if I put on the pillowcase wrong.

Only my Japanese Memory foam cluster gel pillow does the trick for me. It works for any position for me, although I only sleep on my side due to back issues. It's not really a brand pillow and not at all expensive. In my experience, brand pillows weren't that much better than cheap ones.

What I've also noticed is that it's not all about neck and head support, but also arm support. If you place a softer pillow next to your primary pillow, and let your hand rest on it, it helps balance your weight, taking some of the weight away from your neck.

Hugging a larger pillow also helps keep your shoulders balanced. Finally, a thin pillow between your legs brings the final balance to keep your entire spine in a natural position when lying on your side.

You'd be surprised to how much your lower back affects your neck, and vice versa.

You can keep the leg pillow and hugging pillow with you as you shift to lying on your back as long as they aren't too big.

I switched to a buckwheat hull pillow . It's ideal for me. I can adjust the shape, then it locks up as soon as I put my head down. I can sleep on my side or back on it, but I often prefer a small rice-filled neck pillow when I'm on my back. I don't use a pillow when I lay on my belly.

I am confident I can solve your pillow problem! I had the same issues, and tons of neck pain for years. Now I use a Mediflow Water Pillow. They’re not cheap - like eighty bucks - but they last forever. One side is memory foam, so you have that comfort and support. The other side is a chamber you fill up with water. Hear me out - you can add as much or as little as you want, so you can make it entirely specific and exact to how you like to sleep. Side, back, both, you can add or take water out until it’s perfect! After a few nights of fussing with the water amount, I’ve not had to touch it for years. Seriously, this is the pillow!

Make sure to follow directions for sealing it, too, and then you won’t hear or have any sloshing sensations when you lay on the foam side. It also doesn’t get super hot at night because the water absorbs a lot of heat. I’ve never had it leak or be problematic at all. My only issue ever is how heavy the pillow is! Water weighs a lot, who would have thought. But that also means the pillow doesn’t wander around the bed at night, in case that was ever an issue.

I hope you try it out! Or find another perfect pillow for your needs. :)

I have a pillow from Sutera that solved my neck and shoulder pain. It also works well with my CPAP.

I don't know if it's good for "hybrid sleeping" but since I bought a Purple pillow I can't remember the last time I woke up with neck pain.

Might not be useful, but what worked for me was to switch to a folded blanket. Being able to modify the thickness by folding it in infinite ways allowed me try and figure out the right thickness to support my head/neck properly regardless if I was sleeping on my back or on my side.

For example, I folded it in a way that the sides were thicker than the middle. That way, my head isn’t too high when laying on my back. Then when I roll to my side, the blanket gets thicker so it keeps my neck aligned.

I've been using these Royal Therapy pillows for a couple years now, and they completely fixed my neck and hip pain. I'm tall and thin and discovered my issue was that I needed a really thick pillow to keep my neck straight and between my legs to keep them parallel at night. This one contains shredded memory foam, so you can take some out if you need, but I left it all in. I also switch to my back in the night and have no issues with these

I really like the Casper Hybrid pillow

Snuggle-pedic Shredded Memory Foam Pillow

4-5 years ago I did several rounds of buying 3-4 pillows trying to find my dream pillow, haha! I eventually bought this one and loved it from the start. You can add or removed the memory foam as needed, helping you find the best ‘custom’ fit.