Howdy, strangers! I apologize for ghosting y’all last week, but if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, then you know that what I thought started out as a basic cold for me wound up evidently being COVID (a very mild case, but annoying nonetheless), which I then passed along to Matt (because I’m nothing if not a generous sharer), which landed him in the hospital…AGAIN.
I’m pretty sure this is the third time this has happened. I get a cold, or the flu, or COVID, and pass it along to him, and he lands in the hospital. But it’s never the actual cold or flu or COVID symptoms that land him there. He doesn’t get the sniffling, runny nose, congestion, watery eyes, coughing, and all the normal things that usually go along with any of those viruses. Because he’s already dealing with autoimmune issues (he has M.S.), he just gets extreme weakness and dehydration. It’s always those two things that land him in the hospital every time. Extreme weakness and dehydration. Ugh.
Anyway, we made it back home, but after several days of no rest and horrible sleep in the hospital, we were both so exhausted that I took a couple of days to just sleep, relax, and recuperate. Working on house projects was the last thing on my mind. I had no energy for it, and no interest in it. I just wanted sleep and rest.
So, speaking of rest and sleep, I wanted to share a recent purchase with y’all. I was very much influenced by several accounts I follow in Instagram who kept talking about this amazing DONAMA memory foam cervical pillow (affiliate link). It took a while to convince me, but I finally gave in and ordered it the day before Matt went into the hospital (which was on Saturday, February 3rd). It arrived the following Tuesday, while Matt was still in the hospital, and after those restless days and sleepless nights, I was so anxious to get home and try out my new pillow to see if it lived up to the hype.
Here’s what it looks like. It’s memory foam, so after freeing it from its vacuum sealed packaging, it took about 24 hours to plump up to its full size.
Before I tell you my thoughts on this pillow, let me give you some details. First, I am a back sleeper. And I do mean only a back sleeper. I never sleep on my side or my stomach. I go to sleep on my back, and I don’t toss or turn one single bit during the night. I sleep 100% of the time on my back. That’s it.
But over the last couple of months, I’ve been waking up in the morning with a pressure headache on the back of my head. I’d wake up with that every single morning, and while it would go away within 30 minutes of getting out of bed, I still didn’t like waking up in pain. There was no question in my mind that the pain was because of my pillow.
I have also been waking up with muscle pain in the middle of the right side of my back every single morning. I thought it was because I do my kettle bell swings right before bed, and that muscle just needed to be massaged a bit. That pain would always go away within an hour of getting out of bed in the morning. But it was just another annoying pain I was dealing with every single morning.
My first night sleeping on this pillow was AMAZING. I can’t even remember the last time I slept that soundly or that deeply through the night, and I woke up feeling great. But to be honest, I wasn’t so quick to give that credit to the pillow. I mean, let’s face it. I had just spent several nights trying to sleep next to Matt’s hospital bed in a rock hard, squeaky recliner that wouldn’t stay in the reclined position, while nurses came in at all hours of the night. So my thought was that just being in a bed in a place with no interruptions during the night could have done the trick. I wasn’t convinced that my first night of sound sleep had anything to do with the pillow.
But I have now slept five nights on this pillow, and y’all! I’M CONVINCED!! I am sleeping so soundly, so deeply, and so comfortably. I have not had a single pressure headache in the morning since I started using this pillow. I knew my pressure headaches were being caused by my old pillow, so while I’m enjoying my headache-free mornings, that was no surprise that those headaches are now gone.
What did surprise me, however, is that the pain in my back is completely gone! Evidently, that pain wasn’t being caused by my kettle bell swings before bed. It was being caused by my old pillow! I have now gotten out of bed five mornings in a row completely pain-free! It’s the pillow, y’all! 😀
So, yes, this pillow lives up to the hype for me. I give it a very solid and enthusiastic five out of five stars. I love it so much that if I had to travel, I’d take it with me. After five nights, I can say that I wouldn’t want to sleep without it.
Again, I must emphasize that I have no experience with this pillow as a side sleeper or stomach sleeper. I can see how it would be very comfortable for a side sleeper. I question whether it would be useful for a stomach sleeper. I just can’t envision a stomach sleeper being comfortable on this pillow, but I could be wrong. I just don’t know.
Anyway, the people I follow who have recommended this pillow all put separate pillow cases over it. I personally don’t see a need in doing that because it comes with a removable and washable pillow case. Here’s what the back looks like, and you can see that it has a zipper so that the fitted pillow case can be removed.
And that center divot is held there with a snap. You just unsnap it to remove the pillow case.
And the pillowcase itself has kind of a satiny feel to it. I mean, it’s not satin, but you can imagine a stretchy, satiny fabric. I really like it, so I probably won’t be putting a separate pillowcase over it.
So if you’ve been seeing this pillow and contemplating it (affiliate link), buy it! I have been sleeping so well these last few nights, and I now know for a fact it’s because of the pillow. I love it!
My other sleep recommendations:
Sleep is so important for our health, and a while back when I was dealing with insomnia, I tried out so many things to help me go to sleep and stay asleep throughout the night. Here are the things I recommend that have helped me get good, sound sleep.
- The right mattress — I know everyone has different wants and needs when it comes to mattresses, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to mattresses. But I absolutely love the mattress we got in 2020. We bought this 12-inch pillow top memory foam mattress (affiliate link), and I absolutely love it! It’s somewhere between a medium and firm, which is perfect for me. It has a 4.4 rating with almost 4,200 ratings. So if you’re in the market for a medium-to-firm pillow top mattress, this might be the one.
- The right sound machine — Matt and I sleep with a sound machine on every night to drown out ambient noises and outside noises. We’ve tried all kinds, and the ones with sounds like rain or ocean waves aren’t great for me because I start concentrating on the looped sound. So we bought this one that is nothing but white noise (affiliate link), and it’s amazing!! It has a 4.6 rating with over 6,200 ratings.
- A weighted blanket — I don’t know the science behind it, but weighted blankets are calming. That gentle pressure really keeps me from being restless and moving around at night, and I’m convinced it helps me sleep deeper since it keeps me still. This is the one I have (affiliate link), and I highly recommend it. It has a 4.6 rating with over 46,000 ratings.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
