tiggymalvern (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tiggymalvern) wrote2022-02-16 08:43 pm
tiggymalvern) wrote2022-02-16 08:43 pm
The Body Pillow (or how Kuro learned to stop grumping and love the lump)
I've had a lot of issues with low back pain over the years, especially in bed. It's really annoying when you wake up at 6am and want to keep sleeping, but your back won't stop aching until you get out of bed and move around. I've had all kinds of different mattresses and pillows, and I decided to try out a body pillow. So I looked at reviews and bought this thing:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MZ9WYDQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_asin_title
It's not as big as the picture makes it look - the model is short! I tried sleeping with it like in the picture, but it wasn't comfortable for my neck, it was far too thick. So I reversed it and put the U down at my feet, with an arm sticking up either side of me. That way, there's an arm to prop my top leg on, whichever side I sleep on.
It worked really well. I've been waiting a while to say anything, because there are good phases and bad phases with spines, but now it's been a month and I haven't had a back ache in bed. I am pleased!
The same could not initially be said for Kuro, who for fifteen years has been sleeping curled up in front of me, propped against me. He was APPALLED to find that his spot on the bed had been taken by this lumpy THING. He wowzled. He kneaded HARD, and failed to reshape it. For several nights, he came to bed with me, wowzled, grumped around, and then stalked off in a huff. Sometimes he would return later in the night, and wowzle and knead and grump some more before leaving again, all rejected and humpy.
And then a few nights after I turned the bed pillow upside down, he discovered the U at the bottom. Which, in being designed to fit a human head and neck, turns out also to be precisely cat shaped. He curls into it beautifully, with support on both sides of him, and this support doesn't even wriggle around in the night. It is FAR better than sleeping propped against a stupid human!
So now Kuro is happy. And I am mostly happy. I have a really good body pillow. As long as I arrange my feet around a sixteen year old cat.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MZ9WYDQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_asin_title
It's not as big as the picture makes it look - the model is short! I tried sleeping with it like in the picture, but it wasn't comfortable for my neck, it was far too thick. So I reversed it and put the U down at my feet, with an arm sticking up either side of me. That way, there's an arm to prop my top leg on, whichever side I sleep on.
It worked really well. I've been waiting a while to say anything, because there are good phases and bad phases with spines, but now it's been a month and I haven't had a back ache in bed. I am pleased!
The same could not initially be said for Kuro, who for fifteen years has been sleeping curled up in front of me, propped against me. He was APPALLED to find that his spot on the bed had been taken by this lumpy THING. He wowzled. He kneaded HARD, and failed to reshape it. For several nights, he came to bed with me, wowzled, grumped around, and then stalked off in a huff. Sometimes he would return later in the night, and wowzle and knead and grump some more before leaving again, all rejected and humpy.
And then a few nights after I turned the bed pillow upside down, he discovered the U at the bottom. Which, in being designed to fit a human head and neck, turns out also to be precisely cat shaped. He curls into it beautifully, with support on both sides of him, and this support doesn't even wriggle around in the night. It is FAR better than sleeping propped against a stupid human!
So now Kuro is happy. And I am mostly happy. I have a really good body pillow. As long as I arrange my feet around a sixteen year old cat.
no subject
And I'm so glad you found a solution to back pain! It's a real bugger. I want SO to try a body pillow for his "no I don't snore" snoring issue which is caused by him "no I don't sleep on my back, honest" sleeping on his back. But I don't know if we have a big enough bed for that and the two of us.
At the moment, my curse is knee pain from falling down the stairs last November, which no amount of exercise seems to mend, and not many positions seem to suit. I'm going to see the GP on Monday - have been holding off because I thought it might get better on its own, and the whole pandemic thing has made going to the doctor a bloody nuisance (and a strain on an already overwhelmed system). A week's enforced rest for reasons has demonstrated that not exercising doesn't help either :(
I don't know that she'll be able to do more than possibly diagnose a problem which can't be sorted out, but we'll see.
no subject
I no longer sleep with the SO because of his snoring. It's been separate bedrooms for the past 18 months, so a queen bed is just right for me and my body pillow. No way it would work if there were two of us without a California King...
Sounds like you might have damaged your cruciate or a meniscus :-( I hope it's something less annoying to treat though.
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no subject