Like millions of adults all over the world, I have experienced difficulties related to sleep, the lack of sleep and/or the effects of sleeping on bad mattresses and pillows that are much too soft to do me any good. When I was younger, this wasn't a problem; I often could simply pick up a good book and, after reading a few pages or chapters, I'd be out like a proverbial light. Now that I'm skating perilously close to the Big Five-Oh, things aren't so simple.  If I'm sleeping upstairs on my old mattress I often have to toss and turn until I fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion. If I'm sleeping downstairs in the guest room, I sleep a lot better mattress-wise but (a) the pillows we have are all too soft to give my neck, shoulders and back any meaningful support, and (b) I have the unfortunate luck of living in a house that's adjacent to one where some "party animals" often play salsa and dance music loudly in the wee hours of the morning. While right now getting a new bed for the upstairs room is not an option because of the cost, I have at least solved the problem of the lousy soft pillows we have.  (The noisy neighbors, of course, are another matter altogether, but that's what the police department is for.) A few days ago, I purchased a **Chiropractors Preferred Memory Comfort Pillow **on the recommendation of my older sister.  Usually I don't pay much attention to my sister's advice on most matters since we have very different mindsets, but because she, too, suffers from the dreaded neck and back pains one gets when sleeping on bad mattresses/too-soft pillows, I decided to make an exception in this case. My sister had talked to a former neighbor of mine - Andreu Richardson - who is now a practicing chiropractor in South Florida.  She suffers from various painful ailments and was having sleeping problems because of some sharp back pains, so she asked Andreu (who also used to be my go-to guy when I wanted custom-built home computers) for advice on what to do. Andreu suggested a memory comfort pillow, which is a specially-designed pillow made of a "high tech" foam-like material which is ergonomically designed to support the head, neck and spine with its molded contours and firm texture. My sister bought a small one, and several weeks ago, upon learning that I was experiencing some pain and discomfort in my neck and shoulders, sang the comfort memory pillow's praises and  loaned it to me for a week to see if I would get one. **About the Product (From the CBG Chiropractors Preferred Memory Comfort Pillow packaging):** *High-Tech Temperature Sensitive Memory Foam molds to your body's weight and heat to provide the proper amount of support to allow you to get the rest you need. Memory comfort pillows are ergonomically designed to re-contour and adjust with your every movement. Made in China.* 1. *Includes Washable Zippered Velour Cover * 2. *Uniquely designed to cradle and support your head, spine and shoulders. * 3. *High tech temperature sensitive memory foam that molds and adjusts to all sleeping positions. * 4. *Memory comfort pillows are used and recommended by doctors and health professionals around the world. * 5. *Experience the most restful night's sleep of your life. * **My Viewpoint:  **Whether the Chrropractors Preferred Memory Comfort Pillow does, indeed, allow me to "experience the most restful night's sleep" of my life is really a matter of debate.  Right now I'm pretty stressed out - we are coping with financial difficulties I'm working on a screenplay that an actor friend of mine wrote, my mom has a pinched sciatic nerve and I am planning to go on my first out-of-town trip in six years (provided, of course, that Mom gets better by then) - so sleep does not come to me very easily these days. Nevertheless, my experiences with my sister's somewhat small-ish memory comfort pillow were good enough that we contacted Andreu, who went to a local store (Walmart, I think it was) and brought it over two nights ago. The pillow I have is about twice as long as a standard pillow and is shaped like a shallow sine wave.  Ideally, you're supposed to rest your head in the middle of the "wave" to allow the pillow to better support the head, neck, shoulders and upper spine.   My sister claimed that you're supposed to sleep flat on your back when using the pillow, but both the pictures on the box and on the online publicity photo in stores that sell it (Amazon carries it) prove that you can sleep in any position while using the nemory comfort pillow. Although I have no idea how this will affect me in the long run, the preliminary results from the first two nights' use are promising.  I toss and turn a bit less because the menory comfort pillow is so firm yet comfortable, and my neck and shoulders don't ache as much when I wake up in the morning.. If you have similar sleep-related physical issues, the Chiropractors Preferred Memory Pillow might not be a panacea if your mattress is old and doesn't support the rest of your body, but in firm beds it might help ease sore necks and backs caused by poor support from too-soft pillows. Now, if only something could be done about the noisy neighbors.......

Fardreamer

Miami, FL