Hi, my name is RedWind!

RedWind

I have suffered from chronic head tension for the past 10 years. The tension results from my head being extremely sensitive to pressure from it being on a pillow while sleeping. My head will feel very heavy, slow, with a vice-like pressure for the whole day if I sleep on a bumpy/ flat/ thick pillow, along with me feeling like my personality is shut-down, my vision feels strange and muddled, and my brain finds it harder to process things.

 I specifically only use the 'Vildkorn' pillow from Ikea, a polyester ball fibre pillow (I used to use the 'Hampdan pillow' but this was tragically discontinued a few years ago!).

I have to buy loads of the same pillow, remove them from packaging and work-out which one produces the least tension (each one comes out different after being removed from the plastic packaging). At the same time I gently pull the filling apart each day so it's less knotty, dense , through the cover of the pillow. This helps me make the pillow more the shape I want- but a 'good' pillow will only last me about 3-4 months, and it can take weeks to months trying to find the right pillow, and once a pillow has 'died'- become too flat- then I'm back in the chaos of trying to find the right pillow again, and trying to shape a pillow, so a lot of trial and error, and being in a lot of tension/ pain during this, also feeling uncertain about when I will actually find a good pillow again, and at it's worst this can feel like a really hopeless/ never-ending battle.

When it is fine- my pillow is just right and causing me little tension, I feel great and can almost forget I have this condition.
I have recently started to use acupuncture which has definitely made a difference, but so far hasn't massively changed the amount of tension I feel, although I plan to do acupuncture more regularly, like twice/ three times a month, rather than just once every few months.
I also take Vitamin B2 Riboflavin, along with Ginger/ Tumeric capsules daily- and they feel like they are making a slight difference.

I want to join this site, share my story/ situation in the hope of finding others going through a similar experience, and to find possible solutions that I hadn't considered.
My pain has felt particularly bad this year, and I am struggling to manage the head tension, so I really want to reach out and find a better way forwards.

Hannah_Scope

Hello @RedWind

Welcome to the community!  

It sounds like you've gone through such an experiment to get that right pillow. I hope the acupuncture helps ease that pain more. I'm sorry your pain has been particularly bad this year. Have you also spoken to your GP? I always find talking to my pharmacist beneficial as well