This editorial policy sets out how content on Back Pain Sleep is researched, written, reviewed and maintained, and the standards we hold ourselves to. It exists so you know what is behind every guide you read here.
Our core principle: people first
Every guide is written to help a real person with a real problem, not to chase a search ranking. If a topic does not genuinely help our readers, we do not publish it. We would rather have a smaller number of useful, honest guides than a large library of thin pages written for algorithms. This shapes every decision below.
Who writes our content
Content is written under the pen name Jamie Hartley by a person with more than ten years of lived experience of occipital neuralgia and chronic neck pain. We are open about the fact that this is a pen name, used to protect personal privacy while keeping the writing genuinely personal. The author is not a doctor or other licensed healthcare professional, and we never present the writing as professional medical advice. The expertise we offer is experiential and editorial: knowing these conditions from the inside, and researching them carefully. You can read more on our about page.
How content is researched
Guides begin with lived experience and are then checked against reputable, recognized sources. For medical and general health claims we rely on bodies such as the NHS, Cleveland Clinic, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Mayo Clinic and NICE, along with peer reviewed research where appropriate. We do not use random blogs, AI generated filler sites, or low quality affiliate pages as sources. Where a guide states a general health fact, we link to a credible source so you can verify it and read further.
Separating experience from medical information
We draw a clear line between what we have personally experienced and what is established medical information. Personal experience is presented as exactly that, and is never dressed up as clinical fact. General health information is supported by the sources above. Where the two might appear to conflict, recognized medical guidance takes precedence, and we say so. This distinction runs through every health guide on the site.
Medical boundaries
Back Pain Sleep provides general information and personal experience for educational purposes only. We do not diagnose conditions, we do not prescribe treatment, and nothing here replaces a consultation with a qualified professional. Health guides include a plain when to seek medical help section wherever it is relevant, with clear red flags that warrant prompt or urgent attention. Our full position is set out in the medical disclaimer.
How products are reviewed
Product recommendations follow a documented process based on researching specifications, design principles and verified buyer feedback, filtered through lived experience of what neck and nerve pain need. We are explicit that we are not a testing laboratory and do not claim hands on lab testing. The full method, including how recommendations are worded honestly, is on our review methodology page.
Independence and advertising
The site is funded by affiliate links, principally through the Amazon Associates program. Commercial relationships never influence our editorial judgement. We are not paid by manufacturers for favorable coverage, brands have no approval over what we publish, and an affiliate link never changes a recommendation or the wording of a review. Affiliate links are disclosed clearly and the arrangement is explained in full in our affiliate disclosure.
Use of AI tools
Editorial judgement, lived experience and final decisions are human. Where digital tools are used to assist with tasks such as drafting structure, checking readability or organizing research, the substance, accuracy and personal voice remain the responsibility of the author, and every health claim is verified against the credible sources described above. We do not publish auto generated content masquerading as personal experience.
Accuracy, updates and corrections
We aim to be accurate and current. Guides are reviewed and updated when guidance changes, products are discontinued, or readers point out something that needs fixing. If you spot an error, please tell us through the contact page. We correct genuine mistakes promptly, and for anything significant we update the content rather than quietly leaving it wrong. Reader feedback is treated as a valuable part of keeping the site trustworthy.
Our commitment to you
In short: write for people, be honest about what we know and how we know it, source health information properly, keep commercial interests away from editorial decisions, and fix mistakes when they happen. If we ever fall short of that, we want to hear about it.
How we choose what to write about
Topics come from genuine questions: things we have had to work through ourselves, questions readers send in, and gaps where the existing information is either too clinical to be useful or too commercial to be trusted. We deliberately focus on a small set of closely related areas, occipital neuralgia, neck pain, tension headaches and sciatica, rather than trying to cover every health topic. Staying narrow is what lets us write with real depth and real experience instead of spreading thin. We do not publish a guide simply because a keyword looks popular.
Linking and references
Internal links are used to connect related guides so you can follow a topic naturally, for example from a symptom guide through to treatment options and on to the products that help at night. External links to medical sources are there so you can verify claims and read further, and they open in a new tab. We link to sources on their merits, never in exchange for payment, and we do not take part in link schemes.
Privacy and reader trust
We treat readers the way we would want to be treated. We do not sell personal data, and any contact you make with us is used only to reply to you or to improve the site. Respecting your privacy is part of the same honesty we apply to everything else here.