[Standard Theodora disclosure: there’s a paid review at the end of this post. Also, there will be a discussion on these sorts of posts soon, promise.]

There’s a lot of talk on healthy living blogs about the importance of exercise and nutrition, but I think there are a ton of factors that go into your health–including your mental health, and SLEEP.

I love sleep. I know a lot of people say that, but I really love sleep. And my bed. And laying in it. (No, really. I have no idea how I gained 50 pounds…)

I read an interesting post on Greatist the other day about which is more important: sleep or exercise. One of their readers had asked if it was better to get 8 hours of sleep and no workout , or six hours of sleep and a workout.

If someone put a gun to my head and asked which I’d rather do, I’d first freak out, you know, that there was a gun to my head.

But I would then answer that I’d rather the eight hours of sleep and no workout. I am absolutely one of those people who needs her 8 hours of sleep every night (and three square meals) to be a normal, functioning human. I can get by for a few days on less sleep, but I’m a lot less nice of a person to be around, and I feel way less productive at work. I can also feel the link between sleep and recovery–it takes me much longer to get over muscle soreness.

Sleeping in certain positions is also linked to pain. I usually sleep on my stomach, with my right knee up, almost like a reverse sort of pigeon pose.

Which can’t be good for anything.

Since the Dr. Oz show, I’ve been sleeping with a Comfort Revolution pillow we got. Before that, I’d only ever done the standard feather pillows from Target.

Through FitFluential, I got the opportunity to try out a fancy new pillow. I was curious to try it and see how it compared to the Comfort Revolution.

Like the Comfort Revolution, the Technogel pillow is no light and fluffy pillow. This box was hefty.

We were allowed to choose whichever pillow we wanted, so I went with the Anatomic pillow, which is recommended for people who suffer from neck, back or shoulder pain. It’s also recommended for back sleepers, which I’m not, but I was hoping that I could still reap those benefits even sleeping on my stomach.

  

The pillow is soft and contoured.

I like the contoured aspect of the pillow, but sleeping with it straight across hasn’t been very comfortable for me, whether I try to sleep on my back or stomach. It’s been most comfortable when I sleep with it either completely sideways or on a diagonal.

Would I buy this pillow on my own? Unsure. At ~$150, it’s definitely more than my Target pillows were, and the contour hasn’t seemed to work with my body. I’m also lucky enough to generally just fall asleep as my head hits the pillow, so I didn’t have any insomnia I hoped the pillow would help with. With that said, I love the texture and firmness of the pillow, and it works much better with my body when I sleep with it at an angle.

Now, I’m going to go get back in bed…without the tripod on my windowill.

What position do you sleep in, and what kind of pillows do you like–soft or firm?

FitFluential LLC compensated me for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.