Phoenix Woman, 67, Discovers What ICU Nurses Are Calling The Fastest Way To Fix Shoulder Pain For Side Sleepers

Every Thanksgiving, my husband and I drive eleven hours from Phoenix to see our daughter Sarah in Denver.

I love her more than anything. But I dread going.

Not the drive. Not the cold. The sleeping.

I'm a side sleeper. Always have been. But three years ago the shoulder pain started, and it's gotten worse every single year.

I always slept on my left side. Then the left shoulder got so bad I had to switch to my right.

It was probably only a matter of time before the right one went too.

Most nights I can fall asleep fine. It's staying asleep that's the problem.

I'll wake up and my shoulder is killing me. Deep, aching pain in whatever side I'm lying on.

Sometimes my arm goes completely dead. Pins and needles from the shoulder all the way down to my fingertips.

I'll flip to the other side, get comfortable for a little while, and then that shoulder starts aching too.

I haven't slept more than four hours straight in years.

On the bad nights I give up and move to the La-Z-Boy in the living room. Sitting upright is the only position that takes the weight off my shoulders.

At home, it's just another bad night. Nobody's watching. Nobody's asking if I'm okay.

At Sarah's house, I'm a guest. I don't want to be the mom who can't sleep, who's miserable all morning, who ruins Thanksgiving because she's exhausted and hurting.

The First Night

We arrived around 7 PM. Hugs, dinner, catching up. By 10 I was exhausted from the drive.

I laid down on my right side around 10:30 and closed my eyes.

I woke up and looked at the clock... 6:47 AM.

I had slept through the entire night for the first time in three years.

On my side. On the same shoulder. Eight straight hours.

“You didn't get up once,” my husband said. He looked confused. He'd heard me shuffle to the La-Z-Boy for years.

“Must've been the drive,” I said. “I was exhausted.”

But that wasn't it. Because the second morning I woke up... and realized again... I slept through the entire night.

No tossing. No flipping to the other side. No 3 AM walk to the living room.

I lifted my right arm above my head. Full range of motion. No stiffness. No catching. No pain.

That hadn't happened in three years.

The Discovery

That morning, I stripped the pillowcase off and looked at the pillow underneath.

It didn't look special. No weird contours. No fancy memory foam shape. Just a pillow.

There was a small tag hanging off the zipper.

I'd never heard of it.

I pulled out my phone and googled it right there.

First thing that came up: Trustpilot reviews. 4.7 stars. Thousands of reviews.

I started scrolling...

What My Daughter Told Me

I found Sarah in the kitchen.

“That pillow in the guest room,” I said. “Where did you get it?”

She laughed. “I wondered if you'd notice.”

Sarah's an ICU nurse. Has been for twelve years.

“You know Dr. Reeves? The orthopedic surgeon I work with?”

I shook my head.

“His wife had a total reverse shoulder replacement last year.

“After the surgery, sleeping was impossible. She's a side sleeper, same as you, and the pressure on the joint was so bad she'd be up every two hours.

“He tried every pillow, every positioning trick. Nothing worked.”

“Then he found this pillow and it was a game changer. She started sleeping through the night within a week.

“He wouldn't shut up about it. Kept telling the nurses, ‘If your patients have shoulder issues from side sleeping, tell them about this pillow.’

“So a bunch of us ordered them.”

Why didn't you tell me?

“Mom, I've tried to help your shoulders for years. You've tried everything. I didn't want to push another pillow on you.”

She was right. I had tried just about every cream, tincture, and pillow out there.

Back home in Phoenix, I have a closet full of different pillows that all claim to be “the best.”

• Coop Original Pillow
• MyPillow Premium
• Cervical Neck Pillow from Amazon
• Tempur-Pedic Cloud
• Purple Harmony Pillow
• Derila Ergo Pillow
• Miracle Bamboo Pillow from Costco

Not one of them solved the shoulder pain. Not one.

I really didn't have much hope left that anything would help.

What My Daughter Explained To Me

“Mom, let me show you something.”

Sarah sat down next to me. She grabbed one of the old guest pillows from the closet.

“Lay on your side for a second.”

I did. She slid her fingers gently beneath my neck instead of pointing at my shoulder.

“See this little space under your neck? Most people never notice it.”

“Your head is resting on the pillow... but your neck isn't. It's floating.”

She pushed the old pillow under my head. My head sank. The pillow compressed. The gap was still there.

“That's what I call the floating neck gap. Most pillows support the weight of your head, but they never properly cradle the natural curve of your neck. Your head settles in, but your neck keeps floating.”

“And when your neck keeps floating all night...”

She put her hand on my shoulder, pressing lightly downward.

“...the muscles around your neck never fully relax. Your shoulder starts compensating, pressing harder into the mattress while it tries to stabilize everything. It does that all night.”

She let that sink in.

“Eight hours of your body weight crushing into one shoulder joint.

“That's why you wake up with a dead arm. That's why the shoulder aches.

“It's not really a shoulder problem, Mom. It's a floating neck gap problem.”

“And here's the thing. Even if you've got arthritis in the shoulder, a torn rotator cuff, whatever.

“It doesn't matter what's going on in that joint if you're driving it into the mattress for eight hours every night.

“It can't heal. It can't recover.

“You're just re-aggravating it in your sleep and wondering why nothing gets better.”

That hit me.

I'd been taking Advil every morning. Trying pillow after pillow.

But the whole time, it was my floating neck gap that was never being supported.

And my shoulder was paying for it every single night.

“So Why Doesn't Any Pillow Fix This?”

“Because most pillows are designed to support your head—not your neck,” Sarah said.

“Everyone's neck curve is a little different, but almost every traditional pillow makes the same mistake.

“They create a floating neck gap instead of gently cradling your neck.”

She picked up the Loona pillow and turned it sideways.

“See this contour? It's designed so your neck settles into its own cradle instead of floating above the pillow.

“Your head rests naturally, while the curve underneath keeps continuous support against your neck.”

“If you sleep on your side, the higher contour helps keep your neck aligned.”

“That's how you keep the floating neck gap from ever forming in the first place.”

“Okay, but I've had thick pillows before. They just felt like bricks.”

“That's the other part.”

She pressed her hand into the pillow. The surface gave way. Her hand sinking in deep, naturally.

“It's slow-rebound memory foam. It isn't there to push against you.

“It lets your head settle naturally while the cervical cradle stays in gentle contact with your neck all night.”

“So your head and neck are supported, and that takes all the pressure off your shoulder.”

She released. The pillow rebounded instantly.

“Support your head. Take the pressure off your shoulder. And it feels totally natural. That's it.”

That's when I understood why nothing else had worked.

Every other pillow either let my neck keep floating or pushed my head up without actually supporting the natural curve underneath.

This was the first pillow that eliminated the floating neck gap and finally let my shoulder relax.

I Ordered Two Before We Left Denver

I'll admit it... when I saw the price, I hesitated.

Ninety-nine dollars felt like a lot for a pillow.

But then I thought about the last three years.

The prescription creams.

The bottles of Advil.

The pillows sitting in my closet that never helped.

The sleepless nights.

The mornings where I could barely lift my arm.

If this pillow gave me my nights back... and let me sleep without shoulder pain...

I'd gladly have paid twice as much.

Looking back now, it wasn't an expensive pillow.

It was the cheapest solution I'd tried.

The pillows arrived three days after we got home.

I used the higher contour just like Sarah suggested. With my broader shoulders, it kept my neck perfectly supported when I slept on my side.

My husband sleeps like a rock on anything...

But out of curiosity, he tried it and said it was perfect for him.

That Was 8 Weeks Ago

The first few nights, I figured it was wishful thinking. I've been disappointed by pillows enough times to know not to get excited.

But by the end of week one, something hit me. I hadn't woken up once to switch to the other side. Not once. I'd sleep the whole night on one shoulder and wake up fine.

After the first week, I'd say the shoulder pain was maybe 75% gone. I still had some stiffness in the morning, but nothing like before.

After two weeks, it was completely gone.

I stopped taking Advil before breakfast. I used to take it every single morning. For three years.

The stiffness that used to make it painful to reach behind my back? Gone. I can pull a sweater on without wincing. I can reach the top shelf again.

And the neck pain I'd had for years? That went away too. Once my shoulders stopped getting crushed every night, my neck stopped trying to compensate. Just like Sarah said it would.

I'll be honest. I was skeptical of a pillow making this big of a difference. But I don't know what magic is stuffed in this thing. It works. You can see by my sleep score on my Apple Watch that once I started using it, I've had consistently high scores.

I'm not saying I feel 20 again. I'm 67.

But I feel like myself again. The version of me before the shoulder pain started. Before the La-Z-Boy became my second bed. Before I started dreading every trip.

If You're Still Waking Up In Pain

Loona has a 90-day guarantee.

Three full months to sleep on it every night. If your shoulders don't feel the difference, send it back. Full refund. No questions asked.

I know what it's like to dread going to bed because you know your shoulder is going to wake you up. To have your arm go dead night after night. To spend hundreds on pillows that promise to help and don't change a thing.

You don't have to keep living like that.