My Husband's Neck

So, my husband and I both clench our jaws. My husband also has a jaw disorder called TMJ. He has neck pain and headaches because of it. Once he got to go to a physical therapist for 6 weeks to see if massages would help. Guess what; it did help.

One of the first things my honey did when he went to this physical therapist was to ask what kind of pillow he should use to reduce his neck pain - he was hoping they'd give him a free, super cool pillow. The doctor told him that the pillows don't usually help people. It's only every once in a while that people are happy with the results. The real solution is towels. You fold a towel in half or thirds, hot dog style, and then roll it up like you're rolling up a sleeping bag. You lay this in front of your pillow where your neck will go and it supports your neck while you sleep. Who knew?! Guess pillows don't support you neck.

I've always been a two pillow kind of gal. I stack them on top of each other. My sweet man asked the doctor if this would be better. And the doctor said...sometimes, but if you're going to use two stacked pillows, the best way is to lay the top pillow so that it is touching the bed and the front of the other pillow, lying at an angle, NOT lying directly on top. I guess this also (theme here) supports your neck enough to not cause strain. I used this method for a while and it helped reduce my neck pain from jaw clenching but it isn't as good as the towel under the neck with one pillow method.

So, both my man and I sleep with towels under our neck. He sleeps with his folded in thirds and rolled. I sleep with mine folded in half and rolled. At first I tried it in thirds, but that was too big for me. I guess there is a thing called too much support.

The other night I wanted to see how many knots I had in my neck and we could only find one! This is so miraculous. Most of the time I don't like my husband giving my massages because then I relax enough to feel how many knots I actually have and it hurts more than before the massage. Sleeping with our rolled up towels has really helped though. We love our towels!