Pillow - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A pillow is a large cushion

Cushion

A cushion is a soft bag of some ornamental material, stuffed with wool, hair, feathers, polyester staple fiber, non-woven material, or even paper torn into fragments. It may be used for sitting or kneeling upon, or to soften the hardness or angularity of a chair or couch...

support for the head

Human head

In human anatomy, the head is the upper portion of the human body. It supports the face and is maintained by the skull, which itself encloses the brain.-Cultural importance:...

, usually used while sleep

Sleep

Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than...

ing in a bed

Bed

A bed is a large piece of furniture used as a place to sleep, relax, or engage in sexual relations.Most modern beds consist of a mattress on a bed frame, with the mattress resting either on a solid base, often wooden slats, or a sprung base...

, or for the body as used on a couch

Couch

A couch, also called a sofa, is an item of furniture designed to seat more than one person, and providing support for the back and arms. Typically, it will have an armrest on either side. In homes couches are normally found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge...

or chair

Chair

A chair is a stable, raised surface used to sit on, commonly for use by one person. Chairs are most often supported by four legs and have a back; however, a chair can have three legs or could have a different shape depending on the criteria of the chair specifications. A chair without a back or...

. There are also throw pillow

Throw pillow

A throw pillow, or toss pillow, is a small, decorative type of pillow. Throw pillows are usually placed on sofas or armchairs but are also frequently used on beds and day beds. Throw pillows serve both an aesthetic and a functional purpose. Decorative pillows are commonly used to tie in color...

s (also called toss pillows), which are pillows that are purely decorative and not designed for support or comfort. Outside the USA these are generally considered a type of cushion, with the term pillow reserved for the pillows on a bed.

History

Pillows were originally used mainly by wealthy men in Asia. They were also found in Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

ian tombs. The difficulty of sophisticated dyes and sewing techniques led to the development of pillows as an art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

form, with highly decorated pillows becoming prized commodities first in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

and Persia and later in Medieval Europe. In Tudor

Tudor dynasty

The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...

England, pillows became widely-used; it was believed only women giving birth and weak men should use one. The Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

saw the mass production of decorated textiles and decorated pillows.
Traditional Chinese pillows are often hard boxes made from stone, wood, metal, or porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

instead of stuffed fabric

Fabric

A fabric is a textile material, short for "textile fabric".Fabric may also refer to:*Fabric , the spatial and geometric configuration of elements within a rock*Fabric , a nightclub in London, England...

.
Some ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made out of stone.

Construction and parts

Internally, a pillow comprises a filler made from foam

Foam

-Definition:A foam is a substance that is formed by trapping gas in a liquid or solid in a divided form, i.e. by forming gas regions inside liquid regions, leading to different kinds of dispersed media...

, synthetic fills, feather

Feather

Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They...

s, or down

Down feathers

The down of birds is a layer of fine feathers found under the tougher exterior feathers. Very young birds are clad only in down. Powder down is a specialized type of down found only in a few groups of birds. Down is a fine thermal insulator and padding, used in goods such as jackets, bedding,...

and viscoelastic foam and latex. Traditionally straw was a filler, but this is uncomfortable and rarely used today. Feathers and down are the most expensive and usually the most comfortable; they offer the advantage of softness and their ability to conform to shapes desired by the user, more so than foam or fiber pillows. One of the disadvantages of a down-filled pillow is that a significant number of people are allergic to them. There are currently hypoallergenic

Hypoallergenic

Hypoallergenic, meaning "below normal" or "slightly" allergenic, was a term first used in a cosmetics campaign in 1953. It is used to describe items that cause or are claimed to cause fewer allergic reactions...

varieties of down pillows to allow people sensitive to down to enjoy the comfort of feather or down pillows. In Asia, buckwheat

Buckwheat

Buckwheat refers to a variety of plants in the dicot family Polygonaceae: the Eurasian genus Fagopyrum, the North American genus Eriogonum, and the Northern Hemisphere genus Fallopia. Either of the latter two may be referred to as "wild buckwheat"...

is a common filler, as are plastic imitations. Such pillows tend to be smaller than a standard pillow. In India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

is also a common filler and is considered to be healthier than synthetic fills.

The fill is surrounded with a cover or shell made of cloth or silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

, known as the pillow case or pillow slip. Some pillows have a fancier cover called a sham which is closed on all sides and usually has a slit in the back through which the pillow is placed. Rectangular standard bed pillow cases usually do not have zippers, but instead have one side open all the time, however, a zippered pillow protector is often placed around standard pillows with the case in turn covering the protector. It is recommended that all types of pillow covers be laundered

Laundry

Laundry is a noun that refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered...

periodically since they are the part that is in contact with a person's body. But even with regular washing, pillows tend to accumulate large amounts of dust

Dust

Dust consists of particles in the atmosphere that arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind , volcanic eruptions, and pollution...

and vast numbers of microbes among the fill and it is recommended that they be replaced every few years, especially for those with allergies

Allergy

An Allergy is a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system. Allergic reactions occur when a person's immune system reacts to normally harmless substances in the environment. A substance that causes a reaction is called an allergen. These reactions are acquired, predictable, and rapid...

Types

A pillow is designed to provide support and comfort to the body and head. There are three main types of pillows; Bed pillows, Orthopedic pillows and Decorative pillows, with some overlapping of use between these. The appropriate size of a bed pillow depends on the size of the bed. In general a twin bed goes best with a standard pillow while for queen and king sized beds larger pillows are recommended.

Beds

The classic bed pillow shape is a square or rectangle. In the US, they are common in these three sizes (in inches): Standard (20 x 26 inches), Queen (20 x 30 inches), and King (20 x 36 inches).

Pillows are generally covered with a removable pillow case, which facilitates laundering. Apart from the color and from the material of which they are made, pillowcases are described by three characteristics:

Size
Features
Opening/closing

Size conforms to the pillow the case is to contain. They are typically described as:

Standard: 20 ×
Standard: (square) 16 ×
Square: 26 ×
King: 20 ×

Square is also called continental in the UK. German pillow sizes are 80 cm × 80 cm (older) or 40 cm × 80 cm (newer). When considered as a subset of Bed Pillow, Euro pillows finish 26 in × 26 in and older style Travel Pillows commonly finished 12 in × 16 in.

The main distinguishing feature is whether the pillow case is plain or with a valance around the edge. In the former case this is described as 'plain style' and in the latter as 'Oxford style'.

"Oxford … has a 5cm-10cm valance round all four sides. With a hemstitched or corded decoration around the inner edge of the valance."

The opening/closure of pillow cases ranges from the straightforward approach in USA called simply bagstyle to the more usual European method with a pocket inside the open end to fully contain the pillow. This is Housewife style.

"Housewife is … essentially a bag, with a flap in the open end to tuck the pillowcase behind to keep it in…"

Other methods of closure are ties or buttons/buttonholes.

Body pillows are as long as a full adult body, providing support to the head

Human head

In human anatomy, the head is the upper portion of the human body. It supports the face and is maintained by the skull, which itself encloses the brain.-Cultural importance:...

and neck

Neck

The neck is the part of the body, on many terrestrial or secondarily aquatic vertebrates, that distinguishes the head from the torso or trunk. The adjective signifying "of the neck" is cervical .-Boner anatomy: The cervical spine:The cervical portion of the human spine comprises seven boney...

at the top and to the knee

Knee

The knee joint joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two articulations: one between the fibula and tibia, and one between the femur and patella. It is the largest joint in the human body and is very complicated. The knee is a mobile trocho-ginglymus , which permits flexion and extension as...

s and leg

Human leg

The human leg is the entire lower extremity or limb of the human body, including the foot, thigh and even the hip or gluteal region; however, the precise definition in human anatomy refers only to the section of the lower limb extending from the knee to the ankle.Legs are used for standing,...

s lower down. This type of pillow can be especially useful in providing support for those who sleep on their sides and for pregnant women. Size is 40 cm x 140 cm.

Orthopedic

Neck

pillows support the neck by providing a deep area for the head to rest and a supportive area to keep the neck in alignment with the spine while sleeping. These can also be known as cervical pillows.

Travel pillows provide support for the neck in a sitting

Sitting

Sitting is a rest position supported by the buttocks or thighs where the torso is more or less upright.- Sitting on the floor :The most common way of sitting on the floor involves bending the knees...

position. Their "U" shape fits around the back of the neck and keeps the head from slipping into an uncomfortable and possibly harmful position during sleep. However, U-shaped pillows can sometimes force the head forwards creating neck stiffness. They can also be known as a Bucky pillow.

Donut

DONUT

DONUT was an experiment at Fermilab dedicated to the search for tau neutrino interactions. Even though the detector operated only during a few months in the summer of 1997, it was largely successful. By detecting the tau neutrino, it confirmed the existence of the last lepton predicted by the...

pillows are firm pillows shaped like a torus

Torus

In geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle...

, with a space in the middle to alleviate pressure on the tailbone area while sitting. These pillows are used primarily by individuals who have suffered an injury to the tailbone area or who suffer pain from hemorrhoids or another ailment of the colon

Colon (anatomy)

The colon is the last part of the digestive system in most vertebrates; it extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated from the body, and is the site in which flora-aided fermentation of unabsorbed material occurs. Unlike the small intestine, the colon does not play a...

.

Lumbar

Lumbar

In tetrapod anatomy, lumbar is an adjective that means of or pertaining to the abdominal segment of the torso, between the diaphragm and the sacrum ...

pillows are designed to support the inward curve of the lower back

Back

- People :* Adam Back, British cryptographer* Charles Back, South African winemaker* Chris Back , Australian politician* Ernst Emil Alexander Back , German physicist* Frédéric Back , Canadian animator...

, filling the space created between the lower back and the back of the chair when in a sitting position. These pillows are generally used to support the lower back while driving

Driving

Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a land vehicle, such as a car, truck or bus.Although direct operation of a bicycle and a mounted animal are commonly referred to as riding, such operators are legally considered drivers and are required to obey the rules of the road...

or sitting, such as in an office chair

Office chair

An office chair, or desk chair, is a type of chair that is designed for use at a desk in an office. It should be comfortable and adjustable and can swivel 360 degrees.-History:...

. Orthopedic pillows are similar to Memory foam

Memory foam

Memory foam is polyurethane with additional chemicals increasing its viscosity and density. It is often referred to as "visco-elastic" polyurethane foam, or low-resilience polyurethane foam . Higher-density memory foam softens in reaction to body heat, allowing it to mold to a warm body in a few...

pillows.

Decorative

Decorative Pillows serve a dual purpose. They likely have fancy cover material which serves to decorate the room where they are found. Since Decorative Textiles are commonly 54 inches in width, many decorative pillows finish about 17x17 inches. (54/3 = 18 less seam allowance) When used to decorate a fully made up bed, decorative pillows are likely thrown aside at bedtime, since they are not covered with a washable pillow case, thus, while found on the bed, they are primarily there for decoration, hence they fall under this category. These pillows may be custom made, as well as made by freelancers.

Decorative pillows are also found on furnishings in more public parts of the home, such as sofas, chairs and window seats. Here, their common use may overlap both orthopedic and bed pillows. For example, unless a person has some particular medical condition, they will likely use a handy decorative pillow for lumbar support, as needed, while seated on a sofa. Likewise, for the occasional nap, decorative pillows are handy for supporting the head or neck, even though they are not covered with a pillow case, as are bed pillows.

There are five common synonyms for decorative pillows which are descriptive of their use in the home. "Accent" Pillows emphasize or accent some other part of the home decor. The terms Sofa Pillow and Couch Pillow refer to the place these decorative pillows are likely found. The terms "toss pillow" and "throw pillow