Just bought a new pillow today...
it's an obus forme... but not foam!! it's regular pillow material, but still a cervical pillow! so super soft. although there is a stitch down the middle I guess (well, closer to one edge than the other) in order to make it a cervical pillow.
i absolutely could not fall asleep on ANY of the pillows i mentioned in my post above last night... each and every one of them felt too hard and horrible on my neck and back of my head....
felt pretty good when I tried it out. I'll let you know how this one turns out when I actually try to sleep on it all night...
and please!! If any one out there owns a chiari pillow, let me know how it is because I still will probably buy one with a good recommendation! (can never have too many pillows...)
I have yet to find a pillow that doesn't hurt my neck/head!! But, I haven't tried the chiari pillow yet!! Mainly because of price AND because I hate having to order things off the internet (I'm so "old skool" when it comes to purchasing products... love to do the research online... but I always want to go and buy the product at a store!). But... I currently have 6 different pillows on my bed (I only use one at a time) and they ALL hurt me!!
Two of them are from Ikea. One is a memory foam pillow for side sleepers that has a special place to put your shoulder in so that the pillow sort of wraps around your shoulder... but it is way too high for my head and causes my shoulder and arm to go numb pretty much instantly. The other ikea one is a "firm" memory foam cervical pillow. But.. again, it is way too high and hurts my neck and head sooo much.
I have two obus forme pillows. One of them I used to LOVE but they wear out SO quickly!!! Now it sinks in so much in the middle it is barely like having a pillow at all... but it used to be perfect. It was a memory foam cervical pillow... but, they don't make the same kind of memory foam anymore... now they have a bunch of new kinds of memory foam. I bought an obus forme pillow that felt similar... but I pretty much hate it. It doesn't provide any support at all and leaves me feeling awful in the morning... and again, after using it for about 3 months, it has completely worn out.
I have a "regular style" memory foam pillow that's not a solid block or anything like that, it's filled with memory foam bits I think... but, it's sort of too "full" and doesn't provide any support for my neck and puts my spine at a funny position and I get horrible headaches if I use it for anything other than propping myself up while reading.
I also have a buckwheat pillow... which I got because when I was in Japan I LOVED the buckwheat pillows and my headaches are generally a whole lot better when I am in Japan (I can't figure out why... maybe it's the food... maybe it's my allergies... maybe it's the sleeping arrangements... maybe it's the exercise I get...) BUT using it on a memory foam bed (which is what I have) or even a regular american-style bed is HORRIBLE... I woke up feeling like someone had beat me up after trying to sleep with one on my memory foam bed!! I think they are only comfortable if they are really tiny pillows that you use JUST under your neck to provide cervical support when laying on a hard tatami matt floor (with just a "futon" which is actually just a quilt cover and not what north americans think of as a futon at all! between you and the tatami matt!) ... a buckwheat pillow the size of a regular pillow under your whole head is way too hard and uncomfortable!! horrible!! it's the worst pillow that I own!
Anyway... yeah. My pillow situation makes me very unhappy and my neck/head always hurts when I am trying to fall asleep and when I wake up in the morning. So... depending on how the results of this poll turn out... I might just buy a chiari pillow to try it out!! If anyone has rave reviews... let me know... I'll give anything a try, and I won't be mad at you or anything if I hate it as much as the rest of my pillows!!! I know that everyone is different!! But, I do like to have a good review before I give something a try... so let me know!! :)