How To Sleep With Vertigo - EnVy Pillow

For those of you who are suffering with this as a chronic affliction we as two nurses are beyond empathetic! Vertigo as a constant companion must be a horrible experience and can be very serious especially when one has to be careful during many activities including driving a car.

How Do I Sleep With Vertigo?

We received a call from “Evelyn” who was instructed by her doctor to elevate her head while to help deal with vertigo while sleeping. Evelyn already had an enVy™ pillow and was wondering if she could continue to use her favourite pillow with her head elevated. We had some advice for her which we will get to later BUT first let us explain what Vertigo is and what can cause it.

There are 4 common conditions that can cause Vertigo (beyond a little too much wine) that can cause the “dizziness” aka Vertigo.

Causes of Vertigo

Vertigo is often caused by an inner ear condition such as these:

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo

(BPPV) can occur out of the blue and for no particular reason. Generally caused by debris (calcium particles) which have collected in the inner ear. About 20% of all dizziness seen in medical offices is due to BPPV.  BPPV is most common in older persons with the peak age at 60.

Activities which bring on symptoms vary with the individual and may include dizziness, lightheadedness, imbalance, and nausea. Symptoms are almost always precipitated by a change of position of the head with respect to gravity. Getting out of bed, rolling over in bed, tilting ones head to look up (also called top shelf vertigo), having you head in the shampoo bowl when at a beauty salon or performing yoga or pilates positions are common "problem" motions.

 In older people, the most common cause is degeneration of the vestibular system of the inner ear or simply "wear and tear". In these cases, BPPV is called "idiopathic" and is usually due to degeneration (getting older sucks).

The most common cause of BPPV in people under age 50 is a direct or indirect head trauma. -- commonly seen with whiplash or a concussion. Additionally, head trauma can happen post surgery or dental work. It is believed that the causes of vertigo in this trauma group can be a combination of long periods of supine positioning plus vibrations such as can come from a drilling.