I used to think that pillows, in particularly chiropractic pillows, were a bit of a crock - that they were just money making gimmicks.

A well functioning neck (spine) should be able to adapt to changing sleep postures during the night.  

Isn’t that what my body is supposed to do?

That made a lot of sense to me, but now I've changed my mind.

Some time ago I bought a memory foam pillow (with offset contours) because a friend in the profession recommended them.  

I thought, “Let’s give this contour thing a go, it’s probably just a gimmick but if I don’t try it, how can I ever say?”

As time passed, I never really thought about it again.

I regularly travel to seminars and other “away” locations, and have you noticed that hotels can have really crap pillows?  

Some are poorly disguised sedimentary rocks and others are really so insubstantial that I leave wondering if I paid enough to get an actual pillow.  (It seems I might have selected the “virtual pillow room” option, who knows...)

My pillow started coming with me on holidays and to seminars...

A longer time has passed now, and I noticed recently my pillow started to really suck.

I  was waking up with a sore neck.  I noticed that overnight I’d crush the pillow to almost nothing - I’m mostly a side sleeper so cruising the pillow to zero means quite a side bend stress on my neck.

Being really quick off the mark sometimes, it took me about 4 months to have the radical thought, “Wait a minute… my neck might be sore because of my pillow. I wonder how long memory foam lasts before it gets dementia?”

Turns out my pillow had a severe case of dementia.  

Lower density memory foam tends to last about 5 years - and sometimes less if it’s not cared for properly.  

My pillow was probably 6 years old by now, a real old codger in the pillow world.  I’ve since put him out to pasture and have bought myself a new contour foam pillow.

In the mornings now I don’t wake to a completely crushed “Flat Stanley” pillow.  My new contour pillow is roughly the same height it was when I went to sleep. I'm rarely sore in my neck from sleeping…..

One Monday in June 2025 Dr Brett in our office asked me why we don't stock pillows.

A client of mine asked me what pillow I’d recommend….

Then another client asked.

Could there be some level of synchronicity going on here?

If you’ve read this far maybe, like me you were a bit of a pillow skeptic.  I’m definitely now firmly (or softly?) in the pro-contour pillow camp.

The next obvious step has been to stock what I consider are the leading type of contour pillows available.

If you’re in the hunt for a good quality pillow that - like me - you’ll probably want to take everywhere with you, we’ve got you covered.

Next time you’re in, have a chat to Bodie, Taren or Lou and they’ll be happy to show you what we have on the shelf. Alternatively you might want to email.

Happy sleeping! Dr Travis

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