Pillows Have an Uncomfortable History

In my quest for learning something new everyday I was blown away by the history of Pillows. Yes that's right. The thing that we sleep on or use as decoration has an interesting history.

Some of the very first forms of pillows were quite uncomforable. In prehistoric times tree dwelling Great Apes built platforms that included wooden pillow forms to improve their sleep. Iron wood pillows gave apes long periods of rem sleep during the night. The platforms and pillows enabled them to escape night predators and also from falling out of the trees while sleeping. This may have also increased their cognitive capacity.

In ancient Egypt forms of pillows were used by only the wealthy. The more pillows you had symbolized your wealth and status. The pillow forms were made of wood. They had a curved arc for their heads to rest upon. This will make you twitch. Besides the comfort that a pillow brought to the affluent it also helped to keep bugs and insects out of people's hair mouth nose and ears while sleeping.

These pillow stands were also used to rest a deceased person's head upon. A person's head was considered to be the essence of life and sacred. I believe we still use this practise today.

In ancient China a similar form was made of jade bamboo porcelain wood or bronze. If you had a jade pillow rock it was believed that energy from the stone was translated to the human brain. Jade pillow stones were used to cure headaches and depression. It was also rumoured to better the inellegence of those who used them.

Until today my idea of a pillow was only a symbol of comfort for sleep, a soft form to have a pillow fight, an added bit of colour in decorating a home. Times have changed as far as several pillows in ones home symobolizing wealth. We have become creatures of soft comfort and not so much traditional discomfort.

In the photos below you will see uncomfortable pillows and some softer more comfortable pillows that we use today. We tend to use them as accent pieces or places to rest our bodies for comfort. We use fabrics that catch the eye, buttons that add detail and in some cases we reuse fabric that was once a set of curtains. That is what I call input from my history.

When you lay your head down tonight be thankful that history has been preserved for us to learn from.