The Role of the Nexi Custom Pillow in Enhancing Sleep, Anti-Aging and Longevity

Lack of quality sleep is taking a major toll on our health. A survey by the National Sleep Foundation found that “6 out of every 10 adults don’t get enough sleep” with only 7% giving their sleep satisfaction an “A” rating.¹ Nearly one-third of Americans suffer from at least one sleep disturbance.²

The NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute reports that sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic health problems. These include heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and depression.

They also note that sleep deficiency increases the chance of injury in adults, teens, and children. Sleepiness while driving is responsible for serious automobile accident injuries and death. Sleep deficiency in older adults can be linked to a higher chance of falls and broken bones.³

Sleep Deficiency Impacts Health

According to Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine, regularly sleeping less than about eight hours per night increases the risk of developing certain medical conditions and may reduce the body’s ability to ward off disease. Research demonstrates the negative impact of insufficient sleep:⁴

• Heart Disease – One study found that sleeping six to seven hours per night can greatly increase the risk of coronary artery calcification, which is a predictor of future heart attack and death.⁵
• Diabetes – Studies show that sleeping less than five hours per night greatly increases the risk of having or developing type 2 diabetes.^6,7
• Obesity – Insufficient sleep and weight gain are linked in several studies showing that people who regularly sleep less than six hours are much more likely to have excess body weight vs people who sleep an average of eight hours.⁸
• Immune Function – Studies have shown that insufficient sleep increases many inflammatory responses which in turn impacts the amount and quality of sleep.⁹
• Common Cold – Another study found that people averaging less than seven hours of sleep are almost three times more likely to develop cold symptoms than those getting eight hours or more.¹⁰

Insufficient sleep impacts daily health as well as life expectancy as sleeping five or fewer hours can increase mortality risk by as much as 15 percent.¹¹

Health Benefits of Sufficient Sleep

In its position paper, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine states that “sleep is essential to health. Because of sleep’s significant and multifaceted connections to health and chronic disease, sleep education should have a prominent place in K-12 and college health education, medical school and graduate medical education, and educational programs for other health professionals. Clinicians should routinely inquire about sleep habits and symptoms of sleep and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders during patient encounters…”¹²

Healthy sleep is key to maintaining optimal mental and physical health. Evidence points to sleep disturbances as contributors to early disease onset and shortened survival.¹³ Adequate sleep provides a restorative process for the brain and body to recover from waking activities. Sleep disturbances are defined as having difficulty falling asleep, waking frequently, the inability to fall back to sleep and waking too early. These disturbances occur increasingly with age. Most older adults average less sleep per night than when they were younger.¹⁴

Evidence suggests disturbed sleep has significant consequences for long term health and longevity. Sleeping 5 or fewer hours per night is associated with increased risk for early development and progression of agerelated conditions.¹⁵

A study of hospital physicians found DNA damage after an overnight shift that included acute sleep loss compared to normal sleep. The doctors also had reduced DNA repair gene expression. This suggests a reduced capacity to repair the damage brought on by sleep deprivation.¹⁶

While the number of studies are limited, one demonstrated that women with a sleep disturbance had an older epigenetic age. Not surprisingly, the largest difference in epigenetic age was between those with greater sleep disturbances and those with fewer.¹⁷

A study of “oldest old” adults (ages 85 – 105) found that they maintained “strictly regular sleep and wake schedules… These individuals tend to go to bed, wake-up, and take naps almost at the same circadian time.”¹⁸

Obstacles to Quality Sleep  

While there are many contributors to sleep disturbances, two of the most common are chronic pain and personal pillows. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in the past three months 24.3% of adults had chronic pain, and 8.5% of adults had chronic pain that frequently limited life or work activities with more women experiencing pain than men.¹⁹

A 2022 survey by the Sleep Foundation found that in the past week 94.8 percent of adults lost almost an hour of sleep due to pain. Almost as many (85.1 percent) lost at least two hours of sleep due to pain over the same period.²⁰

An earlier study found that many patients reported being unhappy with the pillow they sleep on. Regular waking, uncomfortable pillows, and poor-quality sleep were reported by more than half the participants sleeping on their own pillows. Cervical stiffness was the most common symptom reported, not relieved by sleep on their own pillow and potentially related to pillow performance. The investigators found a high rate of reported waking symptoms and significant variability in reported pillow comfort and sleep quality for participants sleeping on their own pillows. This finding underscores the difficulty some individuals may have in choosing or changing their pillow.²¹

The authors gathered data on the various types of pillows the participants slept on as their own pillow. They found a moderate association between pillow comfort and sleep quality, but there was no significant difference in sleep-quality or pillow-comfort scores for the six different types of pillows used by the participants. Different participants experienced good, variable and poor sleep on their own pillow type, suggesting that one type does not work for all participants.

The Role of Pillows in Quality Sleep

The best pillow is different for each person. To be the most effective, a pillow should not only enhance sleep quality but also provide cervical support and relieve pain.

In a randomized controlled trial, Lee et al. demonstrated that an ergonomic pillow significantly reduced neck pain and improved sleep efficiency in patients with chronic pain.22 An optimal sleep position has also been shown to help interrupt nociceptor input, thus decreasing pain. These findings underscore the importance of tailored interventions in addressing the interplay between spinal alignment, sleep, and pain.

An earlier study found that pillow height has a direct impact on pulmonary function including vital capacity, tidal volume, inspiratory reserve volume and expiratory reserve volume.23 More recent research demonstrated that pillows that are too high can increase the risk of spontaneous vertebral artery dissection.²⁴

These studies underscore the need for a therapeutic pillow customized to the individual user. It should be designed to support optimal sleep posture and reduce cervical stiffness and pain.

The Role of Pillows in Quality Sleep

The first cervical support pillow was developed by Dr. Monte Greenawalt in 1964. This initial pillow provided cervical support and pain relief based on recommendation of the patient’s healthcare provider. Over the decades Dr. Greenawalt’s research and innovation was furthered, and the cervical pillow was enhanced.

In 2025, the Nexi custom pillow was developed based on the latest sleep science. Its custom design addresses the factors that prevent people from having the restorative, restful sleep needed.

The Nexi custom pillow is tailored to each patient using a scan of their head, neck and shoulders. The scan is taken with the Posture Check 3D™ capturing 130,000 datapoints. This data is used to craft a pillow specifically designed for that patient. Like fingerprints, no two Nexi custom pillows are alike.

By customizing the Nexi pillow to the patient’s exact measurements, a pillow using different types of material is created to provide the comfort, support and pain relief required. In doing so, the Nexi pillow unlocks the long-term benefits of restorative sleep, increasing the impact on the patient’s biological aging and ultimate longevity.

The Nexi custom pillow is only available through license healthcare providers. It should be part of a complete examination that includes all aspects of a patient’s physiological and musculoskeletal health along with a personalized care plan.

References:

1. National Sleep Foundation’s 2025 Sleep in America Poll. March 6, 2025.
2. Liu, Y. et al. Prevalence of healthy sleep duration among adults—United States, 2014. MMWR. Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 65, 137–141 (2016).
3. What Are Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency? NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
4. The Hidden Costs of Insufficient Sleep. Sleep and Health. Harvard Medical School, Division of Sleep Medicine.
5. King, CR et al. Short Sleep Duration and Incident Coronary Artery Calcification, JAMA, 2008: 300(24): 2859-2866.
6. Knutson KL, et al. Role of Sleep Duration and Quality in the Risk and Severity of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Archives of Internal Medicine. 2006 Sep 18; 166(16):1768.
7. Gottlieb DJ, et al. Association of Sleep Time with Diabetes Mellitus and Impaired Glucose Tolerance, Archives of Internal Medicine. 2005 Apr 25; 165(8): 863.
8. Kohatsu ND, et al. Sleep Duration and Body Mass Index in a Rural Population, Archives of Internal Medicine. 2006 Sep 18; 166(16): 1701.
9. Opp, MR, et al. Neural-Immune Interactions in the Regulation of Sleep, Front Biosci. 2003 May 1;8:d768-79.
10. Cohen S, et al. Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold, Arch of Intern Med. 2009 Jan 12; 169 (1):62-67.
11. 1Colten HR and Altevogt BM, eds. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem. Board on Health Sciences Policy; National Academies Press. 2006.
12. Ramar K, Malhotra RK, Carden KA, et al. Sleep is essential to health: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021;17(10):2115–2119. https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.9476
13. Carroll JE, Prather AA. Sleep and Biological Aging: A Short Review. Curr Opin Endocr Metab Res. 2021 Jun;18:159-164. doi: 10.1016/j. coemr.2021.03.021. Epub 2021 Apr 5. PMID: 34901521; PMCID: PMC8658028.
14. Ohayon MM, Carskadon MA, Guilleminault C & Vitiello MV Meta-analysis of quantitative sleep parameters from childhood to old age in healthy individuals: developing normative sleep values across the human lifespan. Sleep 27, 1255–73 (2004).
15. Consensus Conference Panel et al. Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society on the Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: Methodology and Discussion. Sleep 38, 1161–83 (2015).
16. Cheung V, Yuen VM, Wong GTC & Choi SW The effect of sleep deprivation and disruption on DNA damage and health of doctors. Anaesthesia 74, 434–440 (2019).
17. Carroll JE et al. Epigenetic Aging and Immune Senescence in Women With Insomnia Symptoms: Findings From the Women’s Health Initiative Study. Biol. Psychiatry 81, 136–144 (2017).
18. Mazzotti DR, Guindalini C, Moraes WA, Andersen ML, Cendoroglo MS, Ramos LR, Tufik S. Human longevity is associated with regular sleep patterns, maintenance of slow wave sleep, and favorable lipid profile. Front Aging Neurosci. 2014 Jun 24;6:134. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2014.00134. PMID: 25009494; PMCID: PMC4067693.
19. Lucas JW, Sohi I. Chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain in U.S. adults, 2023. NCHS Data Brief, no 518. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2024. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc/169630
20. Painsomnia Steals 51.5 Minutes of Our Sleep Every Night. How Do We Cope? Sleep Foundation. December 16, 2022.
21. Gordon SJ, Grimmer-Somers K. Your Pillow May Not Guarantee a Good Night’s Sleep or Symptom-Free Waking. Physiother Can. 2011 Spring;63(2):183-90. doi: 10.3138/ptc.2010-13. Epub 2011 Apr 13. PMID: 22379258; PMCID: PMC3076923.
22. Lee, J. Y., et al. (2021). Effect of ergonomic pillows on sleep quality and cervical pain: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 17(3), 345-352.
23. Seo K, Cho M. Analysis of the pulmonary functions of normal adults according to pillow height. J Phys Ther Sci. 2015 Oct;27(10):3085-7. doi: 10.1589/jpts.27.3085. Epub 2015 Oct 30. PMID: 26644649; PMCID: PMC4668140.
24. High pillow and spontaneous vertebral artery dissection: A case-control study implicating “Shogun pillow syndrome”. European Stroke Journal. 2024;9(2):501-509.