Latex Pillow
Latex Pillows: Are They the Secret to Better Sleep?
As a rule, people spend a lot of time, while choosing a pillow, that will not only perfectly suit your sleeping manners, but also have a conspicuous orthopedic effect and be the most appropriate for human anatomy peculiarities. Moreover, those who suffer from chronic musculoskeletal disorders may be interested in this, especially, after some cases of feeling neck pain, heaviness in the upper back, headache, or, commonly, not feeling rested in the morning. If these symptoms started to make your life unbearable: your workability got worse, you became stressed, irascible and drowsy, think about choosing a latex pillow.
Benefits to Sleeping on a Latex Pillow
It is widely known, that latex has a lot of properties, which provide not only a comfortable position for your spine (orthopedic function) – its structure will be also useful to make getting up pleasant without a feeling of any inconveniences:
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One of the most long-term materials – you may not think about changing a pillow after a few years of use – its function will be provided longer. Latex pillows can stay in a good condition for more than 4 years.
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Good breathability functions – the porous material with a lot of cells helps air to circulate properly and will give your head specific overheat protection.
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Latex is hypoallergenic material – if you have any genetic predisposition or suffer from acquired allergy, latex will not cause any symptoms of common or severe allergy.
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Best antibacterial properties of latex – microorganisms may not start multiplying after some time of pillow use.
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Sleep without noise – everything that you’ll hear at night is your breath: latex doesn’t make any sounds if you move it.
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Easy to wash – you may not use any specific cleaning agents: latex is mainly washed with water.
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Neck pain relief – your head and neck will be in the correct position only if you place them in parallel to the bed – latex is elastic and soft, which will help you to do this.
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Shoulder and upper back muscles are more relaxed – not only will the neck be rid of disorders: pillow support makes your upper limb muscles stay more relaxed. It will help you to use them with bigger diligence.
What Is a Latex Pillow?
Such pillows are made of latex, a material, which has similar properties to rubber and its analogs. Latex is widely used in orthopedics for making footwear and small prostheses because of its structural characteristics and notable influence on pain relief.
Natural or Synthetic?
Latex can be natural – made of natural rubber, and synthetic – made of polystyrene. A synthetic latex differs externally (its color is dark), a specific smell appears after some time of use and, as a rule, it has a less stable form, so it will be easy to define it. It is also cheaper, because of its short lifetime.
Manufacturing
This pillow type is made after a four-stage process, after which a product can be commonly bought by everybody:
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Foaming – liquid is mixed with air, getting the foam consistency.
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Dilution – latex is usually diluted with supplements (like silicone) – it gives them more structural properties. If the percentage of supplements doesn’t exceed 15%, the product has high-quality characteristics.
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Heating – the fluid is placed into the form and baked.
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Cooling – the product gets cooled and dried.
Natural Latex Pillow vs Memory Foam
As a rule, latex is free of chemicals (only 5-10% of synthetics should be a part of it); memory foam is fully made of polyurethane. After the use of latex, allergy or skin diseases will not manifest because of the absence of toxic influence of material. Memory foam is good at keeping warm, but worse in its return, which usually causes overheat while asleep – it is uncomfortable for those, who have light sleep.
However, a memory foam pillow may be a good choice for those, who prefer softness and comfort to orthopedic use. It will remain in the same form for a long time after you use it, which makes it possible to find the most suitable position for your head; latex pillows will bounce back when you get up.
Natural latex pillows, due to their better structural properties, are usually more expensive than memory foam pillows. They may also be high-priced because of their long-term ability to stay in a good condition: memory foam pillows should be replaced after 1 or 2 years.
Choose Your Shape 
The anatomical characteristics of your body may also be capricious to making a pillow choice. If you want it full-appropriative, define the pillow shape that will be the most suitable and make a choice:
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classic shape – for those, who will use it for comfortable and harmless sleeping, like any other type of pillow.
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roller shape – this one is useful in orthopedic applying: placing the neck in the middle of it and sleeping with a head thrown back reduces pain in your neck (or back).
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curved shape – if you prefer sleeping on the side, it will be the best for you.
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round shape – the best variant for traveling and having a comfortable sleep in a car or a plane.
Moreover, if you have any health restrictions and common pillow forms aren’t helpful for you, you may consult an orthopedist about it and pick up a form that will be comfortable.
Latex Pillow Care
Specific care should be taken of latex – use of aggressive cleaning agents can cause structural deformation of the material and lead to loss of its functions: soap-powders, bleaches, rinses are forbidden. Strict rules should be followed while washing a latex pillow in a washing machine and drying them after it:
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Set middle temperature: you can wash the pillow only at 100-105 F°.
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Adding soap to the water will make it soapy, which helps to reach a cleaning effect.
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Use only “delicate mode”: latex can be easily torn by reinforced modes.
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Dry on air: mechanical drying may cause loss of pillow elasticity.
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Don’t let the sunlight fall onto a wet pillow: material may become hard and breakable.
Following all of these rules will save all structural and functional properties of latex and let the pillow have a long lifetime and you may not think about its replacement.
Sleeping on a Latex Pillow
If you have light sleep or your health doesn't let you feel comfortable and you want to buy the best pillow for your peculiarities, think about replacing an old one and choosing a latex one. It has minimum restrictions of use, may suit practically everybody and will bring you energy for starting a new workday, or help to relax on weekends. Find the best place to buy a pillow and understand that a latex pillow is a way to get rid of all sleep abnormalities and make your health better.