Neck Support Pillows may be Dangerous

A neurologist I met in the Emergency Ward of an overburdened local hospital may have solved a real problem I've been having for some months. This may also point out a possible problem with modern “neck support” pillows - the kind sometimes marketed as “chiropractic pillows”. (There are some great doctors out there, something demanding patients such as myself, with obscure and complex genetic conditions have been known to doubt now and then.)

I didn't meet him by coincidence: I've been having increasingly serious episodes, seizures/migranes or something during sleep that leave me useless for at least the next day, accompanied by strong intestinal cramping through the whole day too. The last episode took me to Emergency again, because it left me with a visual migrane in the morning; which is to say, I lost vision in one eye briefly. Mild anticonvulsants were helping a bit with these episodes in the last couple of weeks, but the problem was escalating nonetheless.

After hearing the whole story, the doc wanted my carotid (main neck) arteries checked by ultrasound to see if my brain was getting enough blood at night. That test's been done but the results aren't in yet. Even if the arteries are fine, which I rather suspect, I believe he's on to something.

The night after talking to him, as I went to bed I suddenly realized that my very unusual sleeping position, which uses the equivalent of a “chiropractic pillow” to support my neck, probably puts a great deal of pressure on one of my carotid arteries – quite possibly enough to close it, or nearly. (Apnea has driven me to some extremes in an effort to get the best sleep I can.)

I generally sleep - until the night before last that is - on my stomach, but with a big pillow tucked under one shoulder so my head's at a tilt, and my (pigeon) chest spread out. That leaves my neck unsupported so to keep from getting a real crick in it, I use a very small (buckwheat) pillow underneath my neck. This pillow is small but very solid – buckwheat forms around objects, but it doesn't compress that much – that is, it's not very springy. And the way I arrange myself, as I've described, puts this rather hard little pillow against the softest part of the neck, under the skin of which is... the carotid artery for that side of the brain. Not a good idea, I've now concluded.

Two reasons to explain this to people whose sleep patterns may not be so very eccentric as my own: Firstly, I've actually recommended this position to people who suffer from apnea because it seemed to help me for a while (with a lot less neck support maybe), so now I want to tell them NEVER to use this position. (Empiricism is dangerous, as Francis Bacon, the Grandfather of science, found out in old age while stuffing a chicken with snow – he died of the exposure to cold.) Just sleeping on one's stomach is probably a bad idea, I now conclude, and I'm guessing your Chiropractor will likely agree, there, heartily.

Second, so-called “chiropractic” pillows or “neck support” pillows made of foam that have a curl of foam coming up to support the neck, might allow one to fall into the same problem, I suspect. Now, there's absolutely no problem if you sleep on your back using one of these pillows – with bone in the way, there shouldn't be pressure on the arteries unless you really bend your neck, maybe. But if you sleep on your side with extra support under the neck, and then fall forward somewhat during the night, you may be putting pressure on that same soft part of the neck, compromising a carotid artery on that side of the neck. IF so, the same very serious problems may possibly result, without you're knowing what's causing the problems. The first symptom will likely be headaches on the side of the head that was closest to the bed.

IF this is so, then the result may be migraines, seizures, headaches or just really bad sleep – and brain damage to one extent or another, possibly, too. IF.

This isn't a claim of knowledge – so far I only know that abandoning my previous unusual posture and sleeping on my side instead with NO neck support has eliminated months worth of very serious problems with my sleep. No more vision loss, migraine headaches, intense gastrointestinal distress during the day, etc, etc. No more waking up feeling I've been electrocuted and dropped off a tall building just before waking up. I'm using a small “C” shaped buckwheat neck pillow curled around the ear leaving it uncompressed, with lots of support for the head and jaw, along the bone (only.) This is very comfortable, but I'm guessing my more intelligent readers will be wary of taking any sleep advice from me given the tale I've told so far, so I don't expect this technique to spread, necessarily.

Anyway, now I wonder about those “neck support” pillows, and whether they're really a good idea. No offense to Chiropractors here – they certainly didn't recommend that I arrange myself for sleep in anything like the way I did, or anything remotely like it. But just possibly, people whose uppermost shoulder falls forward somewhat while they sleep on some of these rather firm “neck support” pillows may end up with very similar problems. So I thought I'd best note the possibility of a real problem here. Again, I can't swear that the same problem would occur with those pillows (unless perhaps you used one while sleeping on your stomach) but the possibility worries me. If you have a big, muscular neck (I certainly don't) this may reduce or eliminate the problem, as well.

However, needless to say, my advice is to NEVER to use a buckwheat pillow for neck support if you sleep on your stomach or even on your side, perhaps – certainly, if you angle over toward your stomach during the night at all while sleeping on your side, too much “neck support” might be a bad thing, squeezing the neck arteries.

It sure has been nice waking up and being able to see out of both eyes, these last two nights, and to actually enjoy thinking about food during the day, too. True, one (barn) swallow doesn't make a summer, and I can't be certain the pillow under my neck was the problem, but I'll never use it again under my neck.

I'm not quite through experimenting though. It's just in my nature. Following guidelines taken from the new science of chronobiology that are up at photoperiodeffect.com, I'm now going to find out whether experiencing a natural night with real darkness will help with my remaining problems with apnea, etc. I'm pretty sure that the same darkness our ancestors have experienced for millions of years can't hurt me. Then again, who would have thought a pillow would make you go blind?

- Ben Topes