Introduction

I'm a fairly healthy 22 year old male without any medical conditions. I've decided to put my spine on the line to contest the notion that pillows are a necessity. The current understanding of pillows is that they allow the neck to be in alignment with the spine in order to prevent neck pains, as well as being a comfortable surface for the head to rest on.

I have done a little bit of reading on the history of pillows and from what I've gathered pillows were only used by the wealthy to rest their heads. The pillows that were used in ancient times were not necessarily soft with the ancient Egyptians and Chinese using hard materials such as wood and stone as head rests while they slept. This definitely takes cranium comfort out of the equation but they must have realised some importance in elevating the head while sleeping.

Ancient Egyptian pillow

If pillows where just available to the wealthy in ancient times, the rest of the population must have survived without the use of pillows. Pillows started to become mainstream from the industrial age onwards when materials were much more affordable. I'm under the impression that owning a pillow from the industrial age onwards added to a person's social status whereas a pillowless person would be regarded as socially inferior.

I have been trying to find out the ways that nature has intended humans to behave. As humans are primates, it would be a good idea to observe the sleeping positions of primates, in particular chimpanzees as they are according to modern scientific understanding the closest relatives of human beings.

Sleeping chimpanzee

Observing sleeping apes, we can conclude that they have a range of sleeping positions which vary from resting their heads on their hands, arms or shoulders, whereas the head is completely unsupported when an ape sleeps on its back.

I also wanted to read about the sleeping habits of humans living in tribal communities and came across this article written by Michael Tetley, a physiotherapist, and an ex-veteran from Kenya. You can read more about Michael Tetley here. His article titled 'Instinctive sleeping and resting postures: an anthropological and zoological approach to treatment of low back and joint pain' enlightens us about sleeping positions used by tribal Kenyans, Tibetans and others without the use of pillows.

Tibetans sleeping on their shins

Using the sleeping positions outlined in Tetley's article I will be using this blog to document my pillowless experiences.