Sleeping without a pillow can help some people who sleep on their stomach, but it is not a good idea for everyone. People who sleep on their side or back will usually find that sleeping without a pillow puts pressure on their neck. By doing this, it can ruin a person's quality of sleep and lead to neck and back pain.
Without a pillow to support the head, side and back sleepers may experience stiffness or soreness in the lumbar or cervical spine. Referred neck pain from not using a pillow may also contribute to tension headaches. Even when stomach sleepers don't use a pillow, neck pain isn't necessarily unavoidable.
It's generally recommended to use a pillow if you sleep on your back or side. However, what's most important is that you feel comfortable and pain-free in bed. If you have neck or back pain, or if you have spine condition like scoliosis, sleeping without a pillow may be unsafe.
Back and Side Sleepers
A pillow helps fill that gap, taking pressure off your neck and other parts of your body. That's why it's important that back and side sleepers don't skip out on the pillow. Neck pain can ruin the quality of your sleep and leave you tossing and turning all night.
Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt
Pillows have long been produced around the world in order to help solve the reoccurring problem of neck, back, and shoulder pain while sleeping. Besides for comfort, the pillow was also used for keeping bugs and insects out of people's hair, mouth, nose, and ears while sleeping.
Situating a pillow between your lower half helps keep the knees aligned on top of one another, which in turn keeps your hip and pelvic area aligned. It can also reduce stress on the hips: A firm pillow between the knees can prevent the upper leg from pulling the spine out of alignment.
The best sleeping position for is on your side with a pillow or blanket between the knees. Side sleeping can also relieve symptoms for those with neck or back pain. Choose a pillow with a loft, or thickness, that matches the distance between your neck and your shoulder.
The natural condition is bimodal - two bouts of sleep interrupted by a short episode of waking in the middle of the night. Many patients tell me they have a sleep problem because they wake up in the middle of the night for a time, typically 45 minutes to an hour, but fall uneventfully back to sleep.
They found that average time the members of each tribe spent asleep ranged from 5.7 to 7.1 hours per night, quite similar to the reported sleep duration in more modern societies.
Biphasic sleep is a sleep pattern in which a person splits their sleep into two main segments per day. They may sleep longer at night, and then take a nap during the day. Or, they may split their nighttime sleep up into two segments. Biphasic sleep is also referred to as segmented or bimodal sleep.
There is no ideal wake-up time that will work for everybody. The most important thing is keeping your wake-up time (and bedtime!) consistent. Once you do, falling asleep at night and waking up with energy in the morning should become more second nature.
The worst sleep position: On your stomach
“This position puts the most pressure on your spine's muscles and joints because it flattens the natural curve of your spine,” he says. “Sleeping on your stomach also forces you to turn your neck, which can cause neck and upper back pain.”
Teens (14-17 years) require about eight to 10 hours of nightly sleep. Adults: Between the ages of 18 and 64, adults should aim for seven to nine hours of nightly sleep. If you're older than 65, you may need a little less: seven to eight hours is recommended.
The recommended sleeping direction per vastu shastra is that you lie down with your head pointed southward. A north-to-south body position is considered the worst direction.
If you stick out your feet out of your blanket in the winter season then it might make you feel cold and you might have to get the feet back inside your blankets, this can eventually lead to disturbance in sleep.
This position can be linked to shyness and sensitivity. People who sleep on one side with arms outstretched may be open-natured but somewhat suspicious. They also tend to stick with their decisions. Stomach sleeping with hands up or under the pillow is linked to a sociable nature and a dislike of criticism.
Reduces Pressure on Hips
A leg pillow can keep your hips from twisting in the night. It can keep your knees neatly stacked on top of each other, preventing awkward spine curvature. This supports the natural alignment of your spine and reduces strain on your hips as you move in your sleep.
How did our ancestors sleep without pillows? In almost every one, they were sleeping on their sides with their heads resting on their curled up lower arms, or on their upper arms. Presumably that's what humans did before they started using other objects on which to rest the head.
The oldest known pillow dates back to Mesopotamia over 9,000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians also used these types of pillows, but they were more interested in protecting the head because it was seen as the spiritual center of their bodies — comfort was strictly optional. The Chinese were also fans of the hard pillow.
Straw, hay,grass, and other materials were used before. Even wood can be more comfortable than you would think. As humans came into existence through creation or evolution, they immediately made comfy beds and pillows out of whatever was available.
The first pillow is believed to have originated in ancient Mesopotamia (today's Iraq) around the year 7,000 B.C., making the pillow about 9,000 years old (not counting ancient civilizations we may have long forgotten).
Ancient Chinese people believed, as recorded in Tao Shou, that sleeping on a porcelain pillow would assure one's eyes were clear and bright, so that even when old, one could still read books with small characters. The book noted that the porcelain pillow was popular at court.
Caveman beds
The archaeologists found a mattress complete with soft bedding. It was made primarily from stems, leaves and other plant materials. Even back then, we were looking for a comfy night's sleep. What surprised scientists most, however, was the use of natural insecticides.
However, pillows beginning in the Stone Age, were literally that, stones. Even as civilization thrived in places such as Asia, stone pillows were common. Other hard materials were also used in those early centuries, including ivory and wood.