# Sleeping with one's head on a pillow
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 8, 2022, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683 "2022-03-08T14:38:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpacemanSpiff_II)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2022, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683/1 "2022-03-08T14:38:06Z")
This seems pretty widely done if not universal in Western society.
ISTM that this makes a lot of sense if sleeping on one’s side, due to the angle of the shoulder to neck. I wonder if there are other societies in which people sleep on their sides without pillows, and if so, how they deal with it.
Conversely, in the case of people sleeping on their backs, it’s hard to see a rationale for it. And I suspect it may even be damaging, in that it would get people accustomed to having their necks leaning forward. I can understand doing it once accustomed to it, but why people should get accustomed to it is harder to figure. Perhaps people lie in bed watching TV and the pillow makes it easier to see the screen and thus naturally sleep this way as well, which raises the question of whether this habit predates screens. Perhaps reading in bed is similar. Here too, I wonder what other cultures do in this regard.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683/2 "2022-03-08T15:20:37Z")
> **[Headrests in Glencairn's Egyptian Collection: Practicality and Protection —...](https://www.glencairnmuseum.org/newsletter/2018/7/25/headrests-in-glencairns-egyptian-collection-practicality-and-protection)**
>
> Number 7, 2018 Glencairn Museum’s Egyptian collection features several objects related to the weres , or headrest, an ancient Egyptian pillow made of wood. Headrests were believed to magically protect the sleeper at night, and also eternally after...
> **[Oh, My Aching Head! - History of Headrests](https://www.beprimitive.com/blog/oh-my-aching-head)**
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> Pillows weren't always soft and fluffy throughout history but they have always been considered an object of importance. From keeping one's head safe from bugs to maintaining elaborate hairstyles to heightening body energy and vitality, different...
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683/3 "2022-03-08T15:35:00Z")
I thought the collection of ceramic pillows at the Nanyue King’s Mausoleum in Guangzhou was kind of interesting.
> **[Ancient Chinese Ceramic Pillows](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ceramic-pillows-at-the-museum-of-the-mausoleum-of-the-nanyue-king)**
>
> A rare collection of porcelain pillows displayed above a 2,000-year-old royal tomb.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2022, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683/4 "2022-03-08T15:36:04Z")
A traditional pillow can put stress on the neck, especially when sleeping on your back. An orthopedic pillow is better, as it has a thick “hump” in it to support your neck, and the area to rest your head is relatively thin.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2022, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683/5 "2022-03-09T06:11:07Z")
Using a pillow of one sort or another seems to have very early origins.
> [@Genesis 28:11 KJV](#):
>
> 11 And he [Jacob] lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
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### Author:  [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2022, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683/6 "2022-03-09T22:33:28Z")
That’s what I was going to say. You’d think he’d have needed something more comfortable when he was wrestling an angel.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2022, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-with-ones-head-on-a-pillow/960683/7 "2022-03-09T23:04:44Z")
> [@P-man](#):
>
> That’s what I was going to say. You’d think he’d have needed something more comfortable when he was wrestling an angel.
That was a later event. Genesis 32:22-32.
> [@](#):
>
> 24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.