The Effect of Pillow Height on Muscle Activity of the Neck and Mid-Upper Back and Patient Perception of Comfort

Sacco, Isabel de Camargo Neves; Pereira, Ivye L. R.; Dinato, Roberto C.; Silva, Vivian C.; Friso, Beatriz; Viterbo, Samires F.

doi:10.1016/j.jmpt.2015.06.012

Cited by 17 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The EMG of the upper trapezius muscle and the wrist flexor muscle of the dominant upper limb were Fig. 5 The comfort on three different heights of pillow * * not different between the three pillows height, which is consistent with Sacco IC et al [9]. They studied the EMG signal of the sternocleidomastoid muscle and upper trapezius muscle; the EMG was not significantly between lying on the three pillow's height.…”

Section: The Pillow Heights On Emgsupporting

confidence: 81%

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The Development of Pillow for Healthy People: A Pilot Study

Chaiming¹,

Eungpinichpong²

2020

GEOMATE

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The proper size of the pillow is an important factor in promoting the quality and quantity of sleep. However, most of the pillows available in the market are built may not be suitable to the curve of the cervical spine for Thai people. We determine the proper pillow size of 8 cm, 10 cm, and 12 cm on the perception of comfortable, the ability to produce the force of wrist flexor muscles, electromyography (EMG) signals of the upper trapezius muscle and wrist flexor muscle, and skin temperature of the neck. In addition, we studied the correlation between body height and the preferred pillow size. Thirty healthy individuals aged 20-80 years participated. The participants underwent baseline tests. After 5 minutes, the participants performed the post-tests and rated on the perception of comfortable as they rested in the supine position with their heads supported on three different heights of an adjustable pillow. Descriptive analysis, repeated-measures ANOVA, and Spearman rank tests were used to evaluate for pillow size preference. Most of the participants preferred the 8 cm pillow heights. However, most of the force and EMG of the wrist flexor muscle were greatest when they rested on the 10 cm, and 12 cm of pillow heights. EMG of the upper trapezius muscle and temperature of the neck were not statistically significant among resting on the three pillows. There was no correlation between body height and the preferred pillow size. The three pillow heights could be suitable for sleeping in healthy people.

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Section: The Pillow Heights On Emgsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…the participants feel the most comfortable. Inconsistent with Sacco IC et al [9], they study the participants to lying on three pillow height as 5 cm. 10 cm.…”

Section: The Pillow Heights On the Comfortablementioning

confidence: 98%

The Development of Pillow for Healthy People: A Pilot Study

Chaiming¹,

Eungpinichpong²

2020

GEOMATE

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“…Users generally rank higher comfort for softer pillows (Hurwitz et al, 2009), though the perception of comfort may change after a period of adaptation (Gordon, Grimmer-Somers & Trott, 2011). In fact, a firm pillow that may initially seem less comfortable is helpful to stabilize the spine and reduce undesirable spinal distortion (Sacco et al, 2015; Verhaert et al, 2011). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of pillow height on the biomechanics of the head-neck complex: investigation of the cranio-cervical pressure and cervical spine alignment

Ren

Wong

Yang

et al. 2016

PeerJ

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BackgroundWhile appropriate pillow height is crucial to maintaining the quality of sleep and overall health, there are no universal, evidence-based guidelines for pillow design or selection. We aimed to evaluate the effect of pillow height on cranio-cervical pressure and cervical spine alignment.MethodsTen healthy subjects (five males) aged 26 ± 3.6 years were recruited. The average height, weight, and neck length were 167 ± 9.3 cm, 59.6 ± 11.9 kg, and 12.9 ± 1.2 cm respectively. The subjects lay on pillows of four different heights (H0, 110 mm; H1, 130 mm; H2, 150 mm; and H3, 170 mm). The cranio-cervical pressure distribution over the pillow was recorded; the peak and average pressures for each pillow height were compared by one-way ANOVA with repeated measures. Cervical spine alignment was studied using a finite element model constructed based on data from the Visible Human Project. The coordinate of the center of each cervical vertebra were predicted for each pillow height. Three spine alignment parameters (cervical angle, lordosis distance and kyphosis distance) were identified.ResultsThe average cranial pressure at pillow height H3 was approximately 30% higher than that at H0, and significantly different from those at H1 and H2 (p < 0.05). The average cervical pressure at pillow height H0 was 65% lower than that at H3, and significantly different from those at H1 and H2 (p < 0.05). The peak cervical pressures at pillow heights H2 and H3 were significantly different from that at H0 (p < 0.05). With respect to cervical spine alignment, raising pillow height from H0 to H3 caused an increase of 66.4% and 25.1% in cervical angle and lordosis distance, respectively, and a reduction of 43.4% in kyphosis distance.DiscussionPillow height elevation significantly increased the average and peak pressures of the cranial and cervical regions, and increased the extension and lordosis of the cervical spine. The cranio-cervical pressures and cervical spine alignment were height-specific, and they were believed to reflect quality of sleep. Our results provide a quantitative and objective evaluation of the effect of pillow height on the biomechanics of the head-neck complex, and have application in pillow design and selection.

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“…Thus, this requires determining the quantitative index of comfort in a relaxed posture. Electromyogram (EMG) is an objective indicator commonly used to evaluate muscle fatigue; however, EMG is not practical for status assessment of relaxing muscles [16]. Other studies used measured body pressure distribution on the mattress when an individual using it feels comfortable [17]; however, the proper body support is different among individuals owing to different body shape and weights.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Method for Biomechanical Evaluation of Bedding Comfortableness

Kuramoto¹,

Kimura²,

Inou³

2019

Molecular &Amp; Cellular Biomechanics

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Comfortable bedding is usually designed subjectively because of the difficulty in performing a quantitative evaluation. This paper proposes a quantitative evaluation method of comfortableness of beddings. The bedding shape determining how comfortable an individual may feel in using it depends on the body shape and normal posture of individuals. The internal physical load is expected to relate to the comfortableness of bedding. However, only a few quantitative discussions exist on the relation between the comfortableness of bedding and physical load. This study proposes a new evaluation method of physical load in a relaxed posture. The strain energy of muscles and joints was used as an indicator of physical load. To estimate physical load, a neutral body position was simulated from a natural standing posture and was used as a reference posture with the neutral condition of muscle lengths. By considering individual differences, multiple models of neutral body position were provided. We simulated individual differences of a comfortable pillow height using the proposed models. Physical load in a relaxed posture was varied according to the models. Calculated results show that physical load becomes small when a pillow is comfortable. For both subjective pillow comfortableness and smallness of physical load, there is a similar tendency that the low pillow with the small height difference between head and neck is preferable if the concave depth of back shape of head and neck is small. Moreover, the results show that muscles and joints equally affect the comfortableness of designed pillow. This implies that less total energy required for maintaining the posture contributes to pillow comfortableness.

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The Effect of Pillow Height on Muscle Activity of the Neck and Mid-Upper Back and Patient Perception of Comfort

Cited by 17 publications

References 18 publications

The Development of Pillow for Healthy People: A Pilot Study

The Development of Pillow for Healthy People: A Pilot Study

Effect of pillow height on the biomechanics of the head-neck complex: investigation of the cranio-cervical pressure and cervical spine alignment

Quantitative Method for Biomechanical Evaluation of Bedding Comfortableness

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