In my book, There Are No Cave Drawings Of Chairs, I challenge the idea that modern furniture is a “necessity” for human comfort. We’ve explored how the chair has essentially “caged” our hips and weakened our spines. But there is another modern convenience—one we spend roughly a third of our lives utilizing—that deserves the same scrutiny: The Pillow.
Just as our ancestors didn’t have ergonomic mesh office chairs, they didn’t have memory foam pillows or plush down headrests. If you look at the archaeological record and the few remaining hunter-gatherer tribes today, you’ll notice a trend. They might use a wooden block, a rolled-up hide, or simply their own arm to support their head.
Why? Because your body was designed to be its own support system.
The “Bed Chair” for Your Head
When we discuss the “Sitting Disease” in Chapter 6, we talk about the C-slump—that rounded posture where the head drifts forward, the chest collapses, and the spine loses its natural curves.
Surprisingly, most of us replicate this exact same damaging posture while we sleep.
If you sleep on your back with a large, fluffy pillow, you are essentially forcing your neck into constant flexion. Your chin is tucked toward your chest, and your cervical spine (the neck) is pushed out of its natural inward curve (lordosis). This is essentially “Text Neck” but maintained for eight hours straight.
How the Pillow Harms Your Anatomy
As a chiropractor who treats professional athletes and touring rock stars, I see the “backstage” reality of what these habits do to the human frame. Here is the breakdown of how pillows often cause more harm than help:
- Reversal of the Cervical Curve: Your neck is designed with a gentle inward curve. A pillow that is too high flattens or even reverses this curve. This puts immense pressure on the intervertebral discs and creates tension in the spinal cord and exiting nerves.
- Suboccipital Tension: Those tiny muscles at the base of your skull (the suboccipitals) get stretched and strained all night. This is a primary driver for tension headaches and “brain fog” upon waking.
- Shoulder Impingement: Side sleepers often use thick pillows to bridge the gap between their head and the mattress. This often leads to the shoulder being “pinned” and collapsing forward, which can lead to the very impingement issues we discussed in the Bonus Chapter on gravity-assisted stretching.
- The Soft Surface Trap: We use pillows to compensate for mattresses that are too soft. Because the mattress allows our hips to sink, we need a pillow to keep our head from feeling like it’s falling backward. We are layering one “convenience” on top of another to fix a problem that wouldn’t exist if we were grounded.
We Are Mammals in Captivity
As I often tell my patients: “We forget we are mammals and primates before Homo sapiens because we live in captivity.” In the wild, a mammal finds a flat, stable surface. They utilize their limbs or the natural terrain to find alignment. By surrounding ourselves with “pillows and mattresses,” we have effectively put our musculoskeletal system in a cast. We have traded the structural integrity of our spine for the temporary sensation of “softness.”
Reclaiming Your Sleep Blueprint
I am not suggesting you throw your pillow in the trash tonight and sleep on the hardwood floor (though some of you might eventually find that’s where your back feels best!). Like the squat, reclaiming your natural blueprint is a process.
- Go Flatter: Start transitioning to lower-loft pillows to allow your neck to return to a more neutral position.
- Support the Curve, Not the Head: If you use support, try a small roll under the neck rather than a large cushion under the skull.
- Explore the Floor: Try spending 10–15 minutes lying on a flat, firm surface before bed to let your spine decompress naturally from the day’s “chair time.”
Remember, your body doesn’t need to be “cradled”—it needs to be aligned. If you want to move like a primate and perform like an athlete, you have to start looking at the environment you’re living in.
Stop being a mammal in captivity. Start moving (and sleeping) like you were designed.
For more insights into reclaiming your natural movement and spinal health, visit DrChada.com or pick up your copy of “There Are No Cave Drawings Of Chairs.”