Guy Bell/Alamy
What is it about the human physiology that leads us to use pillows, and does anyone know when we first came up with the idea? (continued)
Alex Jones
Sydney, Australia
In my 30s, I suffered from neck pain and my doctor suggested I try sleeping without a pillow. It took a few nights to get used to, but I have now been sleeping pillowless in complete comfort for 50 years. Pillows may be used in many cultures, but for all that, it is a learned behaviour and one it is quite easy to do without.
Brian Darvell
Neston, Wiltshire, UK
The Nanyue King Museum in Guangzhou, China, has many ceramic pillows. When I saw them, I wondered how they could be comfortable, but they seem to have been popular in the 7th to 12th centuries among the better off.
Bob Ladd
Edinburgh, UK
This question assumes that the explanation must lie in something about “human physiology”. This can’t be the whole story, however, given that neighbouring peoples – who are presumably genetically, morphologically and physiologically similar – have come up with designs as different as the rigid narrow French traversin (bolster) and the wide, flat, fluffy pillows found in Germany.
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