Better Sleep Month

According to a news bulletin earlier this week, it appears that May is Better Sleep Month - halle-freakin-lujah.

I will toast to that.... as I could use a whole lot of better/more sleep.

A month or so ago PC came home from the chiropractor (before I started seeing him) with a pillow, a Swedish massage pillow, that cost 140 bones (yes, I said: one hundred and forty dollars). I almost fell off my chair. This pillow wasn't a so-called deal (although PC claims it was cheaper from the chiro than Shopper's Drugmart), however, apparently it is suppose to help support the neck and back during sleep, which would result in less stress to the spine, causing a more deep, comfortable sleep.

I will admit I was skeptical. Earlier in the year, I had mentioned to PC that we needed to get better pillows, but I wasn't expecting to have take out a loan - and return home with only one pillow. PC was the first to use the pillow... and we learned that the reason the pillow was such a solution to our stiff neck problems, was because it would not allow you to sleep on your stomach. This took some getting use to, and I don't think PC really did adjust to the side/back sleeping.

We shared the pillow for two weeks. I got Monday, Wednesday, Friday, etc. and he took the other days. I found it worth while, but wasn't prepared to take out a second mortgage on the house just to buy another suped-up Sweeeeeeeeeeeeedish pillow.

On a rare outing together to Costco... PC came across a similar pillow, with the memory foam in it, for the low price of $30. I shook my head when we saw the pillow, as we could have had 6 of the Costco specials for the price of one Swedish one. However, we did agree that it looked like a good 'deal', so we bought it for the other person to use on the odd days.

Let's recap - that's now $170 we've spent on pillows - at least one of us better be sleeping like a Ba.by.

I had my own neck issues recently (as you may recall my pinched nerve story). Apparently the chiro tells me that its from sleeping on my stomach for many years. He said using the Swedish pillow full time would definitely solve a lot of my problems. Turns out the grand-daddy pillow is too thick for PC and he likes the Costco one better... so the expensive one is all mine.

I have been using it straight for about 10 days, and I don't have one complaint, my sleep patterns are solid, and there is no stress in the neck either. Its heaven waking up in the morning without being stiff and wanting die with the first stretch of the day.

However... what I found disturbing after visiting the Web site for Better Sleep Council Canada is that only 1 percent of couples are both stomach/front sleepers. PC and I make up that one percent of the country - WEIRD - very weird.

The Better Sleep Council also has some good info on their Web site about sleep positions, tips for better sleeping, and for the real investigators, there's a whole section of the science of sleeping. Its worth checking out, afterall, who can't afford to sleep better? And who knows, maybe it won't take the $140 Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeedish pillow to solve all your sleep problems!