Most people who get a good night’s sleep on their standard pillow can be forgiven for thinking that what they used last night is pretty much the last word on pillows.
Think again. the humble pillow comes in a wide and very diverse range of shapes and sizes.
For instance, take the standard pillow size in this country, the 20″x26″ pillow filled with synthetic fibre or foam. While it might be the common on beds here, if you go to sleep in a local hotel or home in the Middle East, say, in Egypt for example, you will be faced with a totally different pillow. In fact some of us might not even call it a pillow” at first sighting. Because the standard pillow there is a long tube that reaches from one side of the bed, right across to the other. It is a single tube that is used by both mum and dad, without any crease or line in the middle. Further, where our pillows are light and mildly firm, the pillow in Egypt is hard, unyielding and definitely not soft and cuddly.
Or take the pillow used by many of the old people in the Pacific. My wife and I spent a night once with a friend in his home in the bush on the island of Samoa. We were given pillows (and a mosquito net) but the old father slept on a wooden log. We marveled the next morning at how anyone could rest their head on it for more than 30 seconds. But our friend’s dad has spent (another) comfortable night on his solid wooden pillow and was as rested as my wife and I were.
Then there are medical pillows in wide use in our country. There are neck support pillows. buckwheat pillows, wedge pillows and body pillows. Some people (and I have been one of them, for the weeks following a serious accident I had when riding my bicycle) who are given responsive beanbags to support our backs and heads during the night. Children often have kids novelty pillows to go with their kids bedding. But infants will always have tiny little miniature versions of their parents pillows to practice sleeping on.
So, the range or pillows is large. Which is good news for anyone who is having uncomfortable nights and is thinking about changing pillows. Change is an option! There are a great number of different pillows out there and one of them may well give these people the support they need at night.