The Foundation of Good Sleep Hygiene Has Nothing to do with Caffeine
In recent years, sleep has become one of the stars of the self-care movement. Slowly but surely, we’re realizing that getting enough sleep is imperative to our health. Less evening screen time, no stimulants after 3PM, and meditation are commonly touted sleep aids — but have you considered your pillow as a way to deepen your sleep?Like the start of many businesses, Coop Home Goods started as an answer to a problem. Co-founder Kevin Chon realized that a great day could only follow a great night’s sleep. Suffering from chronic upper back and neck pain, Kevin soon realized that his pillow was the cause behind a lot of his suffering. Most pillows on the market follow a one-size-fits-all mentality, whereas the Coop pillow is an adjustable pillow — so the size, loft, and density of your pillow changes alongside a customer’s individual needs.For me, the power of the pillow was a revelation. As someone who often woke up with neck tension, it never occurred to me that my pillow was the culprit (and later on, the cure). In my mind, my stiffness was a result of tech neck or a gentle nudge to get to a yoga class. It wasn’t until a friend recommended the Coop pillow and (also helped me to understand my necessary alignment) that I realized my neck pain was actually sleep-related.Perhaps this was due to the fact that when I’d swapped out my pillow in the past, it never seemed to make a significant improvement. The difference with Coop was that each pillow is customized to our own unique needs (read: necks) and preferred sleeping positions. And it makes sense, a 6ft back sleeper is going to have a completely different need to a 5ft side sleeper. Probably the reason Coop made their pillows truly adjustable allowing you to add or remove the pillow’s contents. They even threw in an extra half pound bag of medium-density fill for those who like it extra cushy.
Thinking about it, we spend a lot of time in our waking hours working on our spinal alignment be it through pilates, standing desks, or chiropractors. Yet, when it comes to posture, we often overlook the one third of our life we spend sleeping.
It’s not that we each need our own unique, customized pillow — it’s that we need to change the way that we think about healthy sleep hygiene and to add the importance of alignment into our sleep wellness routines. In the same way we transition to clean bedding to provide better care for our skin, or play calming sleep-focused meditation music to calm our nervous system, we need to give our skeletal frame the support it needs to hold its structure, and get through the taxes of the day.Alignment is where sleep hygiene starts and once you’ve got that sorted, of course you can move onto customize your own sleep self-care routine. After figuring out my pillow, I transitioned over to silk pillow cases and silk sheets. My night time regime now consists of washing my face diligently, meditating, setting my intention for the following day, and slowly but surely going to bed. Although it’s not necessary for me to follow this militantly, when I do there’s a high likelihood that I will have slept well and without interruption.For 15% off your Coop order, use code THEFULLEST at checkout.Aneesha Rao is the Head of Growth at Coop Home Goods, a company focused on ensuring every person has a good night's sleep ahead of them. Having previously founded Lantera Labs — a startup focused on redistributing access to technology education, she has worked across e-commerce sectors, and has worked with and for organizations like Google, Outdoor Voices, Capital One, Side Real Estate, the City of Richmond, and more.
