Don’t sleep with a pillow
In this video post, Dr. Castanet will tell you how, and why, he came to hypothesize that the use of pillows for one’s neck is a destructive behavior, and why it’s an insidiously, yet, clearly observable, detriment to human spines over a lifetime. It also has detriments to your airway at night, so exacerbates snoring and sleep apnea. The solution to both of these problems, is to get rid of your pillow. He will also allude to his tried solution to his own snoring and apneic problems, with a simple piece of surgical tape to keep your mouth shut as you sleep. This is better for you on many grounds. It reduces risk of infection, xerostomia, i.e. a dry mouth, increases nitric oxide, restores your normal nasopharyngeal function, stops the progression of your thoracic kyphosis and the compensatory cervical hyperlordosis, and probably improves and restores many other, unknown physiologic functions.
Don’t sleep with a pillow
Like so many other creeping, detrimental phenomena humans have thoughtlessly adopted over our physical and cutural evolution, pillows are harming us. This has not been proven, but it is a parsimonious conclusion that explains the uncomtemplated problem of progressive kyphosis we see, as a rule, in so many old people. This problem is not even contemplated by spinal specialists, who also suffer this problem as they age. One would think that doctors, specialists in fact, would be prompted to explain this career-long observation, but, alas, no, they can’t see the forest for the trees.
Dr. Castanet, explains the career-long observations, that he has made, and that every lay person observes, but humans seldom take the time to wonder what is happening around them, and to them. This is just one of many observations over the course of 35+ years of practice, accompanied by an interest in physical culture, that has prompted this hypothesis.
Don’t sleep with a pillow
The origin of this idea, as he’ll explain, was the onset of upper back pain, at an older age, when attempting to do military shoulder pressing, overhead. He began to note thoracic pain at the bottom position, and it became evident that the problem was increasing difficultly in holding the barbell close enough to his sagital center of gravity. With a heavy load, it is essential to hold it close to your center of sagital mass, i.e. close to your manubrium, to prevent a moment arm that will flex, and injure your upper thoracic spine. This becomes increasingly difficult, and eventually impossible, if you are becoming progressively kyphotic, as commonly happens with aging. So his question was, why am I having a problem doing what was never a problem, and what is influencing, or causing, this change. It doesn’t take long to hypothesize the most likely culprit, unprecented, insidious, and progessive, to an eventual point of disability. So, he/I discarded the pillow influence at night, and the change was quite quick. I cannot prove that the logical is the case. There are other possible factors, but with continued improvement and time, and the observation that my posture remains youthful, I may prove it to my satisfaction. Furthermore, another argument is to consider the alternative. Is it possible, that such an influence would not yield the product of eventual deformity? I think not.
If I can help you with your neck or back problem, call me at 404-558-4015.
