Pillows, pillows everywhere

August 6, 2006 10:00 PM

What is with the ubiquity of pillows?

As I understand it, pillows were once a symbol of royalty or wealth. Most normal people just slept on mattresses. And by mattresses I mean bundles of straw, etc. Obviously we've come a long way in terms of nighttime comfort, but the rise (or fall, as the case may be) of the pillow from luxury item to convenience of the everyman baffles me. Using a pillow strikes me as quite singular; what other ergonomic device do we use to mold our body into a shape that it is not built for? Good office chairs make sure to sit us upright so the straightness of our spine is supported, good shoes seek to mimic the natural arc of our feet, etcetera. A pillow does just the opposite in forcing your head into an unnaturally elevated position!

Do we as humans truly need our head cocked above our body while we sleep? If that is the case, is there historical/anthropological/paleontological evidence of the use of pillows or pillow-like apparatus in the days of yore? Or is the pillow just another gimmick product, albeit an extremely successful one at this point, that we feel obligated to buy simply for the fact that living without one has become nearly inconceivable? (I, after all, know no one who sleeps without a pillow. Do you?)

posted by jckll to society & culture (25 comments total)

Well, if you sleep on your side a pillow should bring your head back into alignment with your spine!
posted by sLevi at 10:08 PM on August 6, 2006

Oh man, I'd kill someone over my pillows. It started out simple enough... two. Now it's grown into four. At first the extra two were just for show... now I use two at night (one under my head, another under the arm.) I've been accused of building "pillow fortresses" to keep the girl at bay. I can no longer sleep on my back and I have to contort myself around my pillows in just the right way. Please help me cklennon!
posted by wfrgms at 10:19 PM on August 6, 2006

Boni headrest
posted by Loto at 10:19 PM on August 6, 2006

IF you're using 2 pillows or one that is too thick you will have problems. The Japanese pillow is a block of wood. It depends on your body position during sleep for what is comfortable. As I sit in bed with my laptop I'm glad I have pillows to prop me up. Enjoy.
posted by ptm at 10:22 PM on August 6, 2006

If there were no pillows, how would we have pillowfights?
posted by Mach5 at 10:22 PM on August 6, 2006 [1 favorite]

cklennon, if your pillow forces your head above your body it's because you have a bad pillow. Using the right one is very comfortable!
posted by Lucie at 10:25 PM on August 6, 2006

I dont use a pillow when I'm on my back or front, and have a very thin mouldable feather one for when I'm on my side. If there's no pillow (such as when camping) I make do perfectly well.

So they're not that necessary.
posted by wilful at 10:25 PM on August 6, 2006

I believe that pillows help for when you sleep in certain positions where, when pillowless, your neck would be bent quite painfully (ie, on your sides, which is, I believe, how most people sleep).

However, when pillowless, it's my experience that people tend to opt for more neck-friendly positions, such as on the stomach, or with the body in kind of a 3/4 turn to the bed/floor/whatever, with arms used as nessecary to keep the neck in a feasible position.

Perhaps, in the days of yore, people just did the latter.
posted by internet!Hannah at 10:39 PM on August 6, 2006

I usually sleep with my head under the pillow, or just sleep with my head on my arm.

It's useful for sleeping with boyfriends, because I could care less about having a pillow.
posted by Amanda B at 10:59 PM on August 6, 2006

This is kinda turning into chatfilter.
posted by ChasFile at 11:08 PM on August 6, 2006

We don't need a pillow there, and I prefer to be pillowless when I lay on my back or front. I think that most people sleeping without a pillow would sleep on their back or front, or on their crooked arm, which is a pretty comfortable height, I find.
posted by tomble at 12:01 AM on August 7, 2006

Don't assume that prehistoric man slept on a perfectly flat surface without a pillow forever and ever and only now have we invented the pillow. The natural world is notoriously uneven, and I'm sure some patches of ground were more comfortable than others.

I don't think we're designed for sleeping, anyway. I think the greater evolutionary pressures are on our waking activities like food seeking and mating. If you're optimized for waking-hours stuff, is it any surprise that eventually you'd develop some devices to get you throught a night's sleep?
posted by scarabic at 12:34 AM on August 7, 2006

In the highlands of New Guinea (and possibly other places too, but the highlands is where my experience is) logs were traditionally used as pillows. Not as soft, obviously, but with exactly the same purpose in elevating the head while asleep.

So there's some istorical/anthropological/paleontological evidence right there, as it's a practice going back to first contact in the 1920's and not an imitation of western ways.
posted by Silentgoldfish at 1:38 AM on August 7, 2006

While thinking about your question (and the previous one on sleeping on the floor) I got to wondering what primative societies and primates do. It turns out a Physiotherapist called Michael Tetley has already got there. His findings suggest several natural ways of sleeping - none of which require a pillow.
posted by rongorongo at 2:12 AM on August 7, 2006

I saw an anthropological film showing people who slept on their backs, using their neck muscles to hold their heads up off the ground. Supposedly it was to keep bugs out of their ears.
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:44 AM on August 7, 2006

I personally feel more comfortable with a pillow then without.
posted by Paris Hilton at 3:50 AM on August 7, 2006

We're tool making animals...we probably always made ourselves comfortable. Gorillas make nests out of foliage.
posted by lunkfish at 4:51 AM on August 7, 2006

This might seem silly, but this makes me think of my dog. My dog has learned to use pillows, and that's not something I taught her. It's hilarious to watch her get on her couch, then paw at the throw pillow until it's in just the right spot for her to plop down on it. She doesn't always use them, and sometimes she does this opposite-of-pillow thing where she's laying on her dog bed with her head hanging off the bed on the hardwood floor. Anyway, the point is that my dog is a champion sleeper, and if she has learned on her own to use pillows sometimes, that means to me they are A-ok. For her, it's not about social constructs or traditions or what have you - they're just comfy!
posted by misskaz at 5:39 AM on August 7, 2006

Heh, I was staying at the Sheraton this weekend and there were 5 pillows on the bed. I'm trying to figure out what to do with all these extra pillows and just ended up throwing the 3 extra on the floor. All I have is one head, so one is enough thanks.
posted by JJ86 at 5:41 AM on August 7, 2006

I don't sleep with a pillow most of the time because I sleep on my stomach. So, uh, your premise doesn't make sense.
posted by dame at 6:11 AM on August 7, 2006

Getting back to the question of the origins of head support for sleep, the ancient Egyptians used headrests. These have been found in grave goods of both rich and poor.
posted by jadepearl at 6:27 AM on August 7, 2006

Those headrests look awfully uncomfortable. How the hell do you lay on your back then crank your head up about a foot onto another surface parallel with the ground? This terra cotta depicts a woman on her SIDE with one of those things.

And yet they seem almost as ubiquitous as the pillow. Here's a Japanese one.
posted by condour75 at 6:44 AM on August 7, 2006

Actually, that Japanese pillow that condour75 links to is a very particular kind intended to elevate the head to avoid squishing an elaborate hairdo (think geisha); the nape rests on the pillow.

Typical Japanese pillows are small sacks of buckwheat husks or (more commonly nowadays) plastic pellets.
posted by adamrice at 7:41 AM on August 7, 2006

Funny, misskaz, my kitty does the same thing. If fact, he was lougning on my desk, and literally used his paw to pull my hand towards him so he could use it as a pillow. (Unfortunately it sorta disrupted my web surfing, but it was mega-cute).
posted by radioamy at 11:26 AM on August 7, 2006

I used a buckwheat style pillow when I lived in Japan. I now have a giant fluffy one. I can't really say which was better for my back/neck. The buckwheat pillow is better at staying cool however and very welcome during the summer.

I don't think pillows were ever a luxury. I guess it depends on your definition of pillow because it's easy enough to make a pillow out of anything. Bundle up some of your blanket and use it as a pillow. Pillows are as old as blankets I would imagine, maybe older.
posted by robofunk at 12:21 PM on August 8, 2006