Hip Pain When Lying on Your Side: What Can a Pillow Do, and What Can't It?

Pain in the hip when lying on your side usually has to do with the joint, the muscles or the sleep surface, not with the pillow. A pillow can neither explain nor treat hip pain. The cause is a matter for a doctor.

What could be causing it?

When you lie on your side, the lower hip carries part of your body weight. Whether that hurts depends on many things: the hip joint itself, tendons, bursae and muscles, and sometimes the lower back too. Your sleeping position and your mattress also play a part. Whether the mattress should be soft, medium or firm for you is individual.

No guide can tell you what is causing your pain. Only a doctor can do that.

When should you have the pain checked?

• The pain lasts for several weeks.
• It regularly wakes you at night.
• You have injured yourself or had a fall.
• Swelling, redness, fever, pain spreading into the leg or numbness appear as well.

We deliberately don't give treatment advice here. Ask your doctor or a physiotherapist what is right for you.

What does the pillow have to do with it?

The right pillow height keeps your head and cervical spine in a line and leaves room for your shoulder. That concerns your head, neck and shoulder, not your hip. A pillow is not a cure, and it makes no promises for the hip.

However, you may also notice neck or shoulder discomfort when lying on your side. That is where pillow height plays a role. You can read more in Pillows for shoulder pain and Pillows for side sleepers.

How does Pillowise determine the right height?

With Pillowise, your size is based on three measurements:

1. Shoulder width: around the curve of your back, without pulling the tape measure tight.
2. Neck circumference: once all the way around.
3. Neck length: from the bottom of your ear to the tip of your shoulder.

Your sleeping position (back, side, stomach) and your mattress (soft, medium, firm) are factored in as well. An algorithm uses these to choose the best-fitting pillow. There are six sizes, each with its own colour: pink, orange, green, blue, red and purple. The pillow is made of 100% memory foam and is manufactured in the Netherlands.

The method comes from practice: Thijs van der Hilst was a physiotherapist who specialized in neck and shoulder complaints. He couldn't recommend a suitable pillow to his patients, so he developed the measuring method that Pillowise grew out of.

So: do I need to change my pillow because of hip pain?

No, not for that reason. You should have hip pain checked by a doctor; changing your pillow won't solve it. If your pillow feels good in the morning and you have no discomfort in your neck or shoulder, you don't need to change anything. If you do have doubts about the height, a measurement is worthwhile.

Determine your size yourself with PillowScan or find a retailer near you. For how the height can be calculated, see Calculating pillow height.

Thijs van der Hilst, physiotherapist (non-practising)
Inventor of Pillowise