Pillows are like orthotics for our necks...

neck pillow2.jpg
Pillows are like orthotics for our necks...
By Bare Lee

Since our necks have atrophied from overly pillowed sleep, it's helpful to strengthen all parts of the head-neck apparatus while transitioning to bareneck sleeping. Some hardcore bareneck or barehead advocates recommend starting right out on the garage floor, or a gravel bed, reasoning that if you can learn to sleep gently on cold concrete or pointy stones, you will then be able to bareneck sleep almost anywhere, thus avoiding some of the more common overuse injuries--like NONP ("nape of the neck pain") and cranial stress fractures--involved in transitioning from sleeping on cushy 'head coffins' to a more natural, bareneck style. The secret is to start with short naps, and then work your way up from there to a full night of sleep.

Some practitioners have taken the bareneck practice to extremes, and have organized a Winter Bareneck Challenge, in which participants log hours sleeping outside in the middle of winter in nothing more than their flannel pajamas. Others have made unsubstantiated claims that bareneck sleeping promotes fantastic flying dreams, controls nocturnal incontinence, and often leads to an overwhelming sense of embryonic reunion with Mother Earth upon waking. To date, however, no study published on the internet has been able to exaggerate these claims successfully.

Leading Somnologists have decried the bareneck or bareheaded sleeping 'movement' as merely a fad, arising largely in the wake of the bestseller "Born to Sleep," about a lost tribe of insomniacs who eventually learn how to sleep for whole days at a time, and organize internationally renowned ultra sleepovers. Instead, Somnologists, or 'restperts' (rest experts) as they're called in the new, hip sleep-lingo, recommend a good Posturepedic pillow to remedy any sleep-related injuries or nightmares.

Nonetheless, Sealy has recently introduced the new "Sealy Free" minimalistic pillow, with just a two-inch stack height, in hopes of capturing the growing market of bare-curious slumberers. Apparently, many aren't quite ready to 'de-fluff' their pillows completely, yet are willing to pay lip service to the putative benefits of bareneck sleeping. Xero Pillows goes even further, offering a bareneck toalla, a traditional Mexican sleep towel, that promises to be 'better than bareneck,' with the same dream-feel of real bareneck sleeping but just enough protection from bugs and dust. The old canard of "bugs & dust," of course, is a common scare tactic used by opportunistic merchants hoping to cash in on the bareneck craze with products supposed mimicking the bareneck style.

Meanwhile, a recent documentary on National Geographic featured a man named "Pillowless Pete" who hasn't slept on a pillow for 25 years! Admirers were later disappointed however, when it was found out that the savage snoozer sleeps on a 70s-era waterbed and listens to Kenny G to help get to sleep.


Prompted by DayRunner's post here: http://thebarefootrunners.org/threads/pillows-are-like-orthotics-for-our-necks.15753/#post-150201