U.S. patent application number 13/872223 was filed with the patent office on 2013-12-05 for functional pillow.
The applicant listed for this patent is Eui Suk Kim, Nam Young Son. Invention is credited to Eui Suk Kim, Nam Young Son.
Application Number | 20130318722 13/872223 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 49668472 |
Filed Date | 2013-12-05 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130318722 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kim; Eui Suk ; et
al. |
December 5, 2013 |
Functional Pillow
Abstract
Disclosed is a functional pillow made of a material having
elasticity. The functional pillow helps a user sleep in a correct
sleeping position in which the user maintains a proper arrangement
and angle of the cervical spine while sleeping in any sleeping
environment, including on a hard floor or on a soft bed. The
functional pillow includes a shoulder protecting portion, a
cervical spine protecting portion, and a head protecting portion.
The cervical spine protecting portion includes a cervical spine
support that inclines upward in a front support portion which is
relatively near a body side and inclines downward in a rear support
portion which is relatively near a head. The inclination angle of
the rear portion and the height of the pillow at the highest point
are differently set depending on use of the pillow.
Inventors: |
Kim; Eui Suk; (Busan,
KR) ; Son; Nam Young; (Busan, KR) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Kim; Eui Suk
Son; Nam Young |
Busan
Busan |
|
KR
KR |
|
|
Family ID: |
49668472 |
Appl. No.: |
13/872223 |
Filed: |
April 29, 2013 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
5/632 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47G 9/1081 20130101;
A47G 9/10 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
5/632 |
International
Class: |
A47G 9/10 20060101
A47G009/10 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jun 1, 2012 |
KR |
10-2012-0059128 |
Claims
1. A functional pillow including: a shoulder protecting portion
including two portions located at both end portions of the pillow,
respectively, so that a user's shoulders come into contact with the
corresponding portions of the shoulder protecting portion, each
portion inclining upward toward an inner side from an outer side; a
cervical spine protecting portion including a space portion which
is provided between the two portions of the shoulder protecting
portion and curved in a concave form, and a cervical spine support
with a front support portion and a rear support portion, the front
support portion being provided behind the space portion, being
connected between the two portions of the shoulder protecting
portion, and inclining upward in a rounded manner with a
predetermined upward inclination angle toward a rear side so as to
conform to an angle of a cervical spine, the rear support portion
being provided behind the front portion, inclining downward in a
rounded manner with a predetermined downward inclination angle
toward the rear side, and coming into contact with a user's head,
the predetermined downward inclination angle being smaller than the
predetermined upward inclination angle; and a head protecting
portion which extends from the rear support portion of the cervical
spine protecting portion, has a recess where the user's head is to
be placed, and inclines downward toward left and right ends, at an
outer side of the recess, wherein the functional pillow is made of
a material having elasticity.
2. The functional pillow according to claim 1, wherein the cervical
spine protecting portion is configured such that a total vertical
height of the cervical spine support from a bottom to a highest
point is 140 to 145 mm and a portion ranging from the highest point
to a rear end inclines downward with an inclination angle of
38.degree. to 42.degree. with respect to a surface of a sleeping
place.
3. The functional pillow according to claim 1, wherein the cervical
spine protecting portion is configured such that a total vertical
height of the cervical spine support from a bottom to a highest
point is 135 to 140 mm and a portion ranging from the highest point
to a rear end inclines downward with an inclination angle of
28.degree. to 32.degree. with respect to a surface of a sleeping
place.
4. The functional pillow according to claim 1, wherein the function
pillow is made of a memory foam material.
Description
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the priority benefit of Korean
Patent Application No. 10-2012-0059128 filed on Jun. 1, 2012, the
entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to a functional pillow, and,
more particularly, to a functional pillow having a suitable
structure for the skeleton of a human body so that a user can sleep
in a correct sleeping posture, enabling the user to sleep soundly
and recover from fatigue.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Generally, various shapes of pillows are used to provide
users with comfort while they are sleeping. Such a functional
pillow has additional functions aside from its original function of
enabling a user to have a sound sleep. Functional pillows are
categorized in three types: ones using a special device, ones using
a functional material, and ones with a specially designed
structure. First, for the pillow using a special device, there is,
for example, a pillow in which a low frequency generator or a music
player is embedded to facilitate sound sleep. Second, for the
pillow using a functional material, there is, for example, a pillow
which is primarily made of bamboo or Hanji (Korean traditional
paper), or a pillow with a lining which is made of fabric
containing charcoal or tourmaline from which anions are generated.
Third, for the pillows having a specially designed structure, there
are, for example, a pillow for a patient suffering from back pain,
a height-adjustable pillow, and the like. That is, many pillows
that have a specially designed structure are increasingly
commercially used to help users get a good sleep.
[0004] Pillows that have a specially designed structure, i.e.
customized pillows for each user, which are available at present,
are designed with ergonomics in mind. However, the related-art
customized pillows don't have a function of causing the user to
sleep in a correct sleeping posture in which unique, desirable
angle of the musculoskeletal system of a human body is maintained.
Accordingly, the conventional customized pillows provide users with
only limited comfort during sleep. That is, the main purpose of the
conventional customized pillows is to provide comfort during sleep
to individual whose body shapes (skeletons) are deformed in various
ways over time. Although these customized pillows have an advantage
of providing comfort to a user while they are sleeping and allowing
the user to have a sound sleep, the effect is just temporary, and
the user cannot achieve a correct sleeping posture in which the
user can have a deep sleep. When people sleep in the correct
sleeping posture, they can have the deepest and most comfortable
sleep, fully recover from fatigue, and maintain their
musculoskeletal system in a good condition, resulting in an overall
healthy condition. The lack of complete understanding of the human
body accounts for the fact that pillows which can enable a user to
sleep in the correct sleeping posture are not yet available. That
is, even when a person whose musculoskeletal system is not deformed
lies down in the correct sleeping posture, he or she feels
resistance of body pressure at a portion of the occipital bone
which is in contact with the floor, and, because of this
discomfort, he or she tosses and turns to reduce the resistance of
the body pressure. After the tossing and turning, the resistance of
the body pressure may be reduced, but the person ends up sleeping
in an undesirable sleeping posture. When the person sleeps in this
undesirable sleeping posture for a long time, the person may be
hindered in having a deep sleep.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in
mind the above problems occurring in the related art, and is
intended to provide a functional pillow having a structure suitable
for a human being's musculoskeletal system so that a user may feel
completely comfortable while achieving a correct sleeping posture
during sleep.
[0006] In addition, the present invention is also intended to
provide a functional pillow having a structure which is differently
designed according to the body pressure which varies depending on
sleeping places, for example, on a soft surface like a bed with a
soft mattress, and on a hard surface like the floor, so that a user
can sleep in a correct sleeping posture in any sleeping
environment.
[0007] In order to achieve the above object, according to one
aspect of the present invention, there is provided a functional
pillow including: a shoulder protecting portion including two
portions located at both end portions of the pillow, respectively
so that a user's shoulders come into contact with the corresponding
portions of the shoulder protecting portion, each portion inclining
upward toward an inner side from an outer side; a cervical spine
protecting portion including a space portion which is provided
between the two portions of the shoulder protecting portion and
curved in a concave form, and a cervical spine support with a front
support portion and a rear support portion, the front support
portion being provided behind the space portion, being connected
between the two portions of the shoulder protecting portion, and
inclining upward in a rounded manner with a predetermined upward
inclination angle toward a rear side so as to conform to an angle
of a cervical spine, the rear support portion being provided behind
the front portion, inclining downward in a rounded manner with a
predetermined downward inclination angle toward the rear side, and
coming into contact with a user's head, the predetermined downward
inclination angle being smaller than the predetermined upward
inclination angle; and a head protecting portion which extends from
the rear support portion of the cervical spine protecting portion,
has a recess where the user's head is to be placed, and inclines
downward toward left and right ends, at an outer side of the
recess, wherein the functional pillow is made of a material with
elasticity.
[0008] Preferably, in the cervical spine protecting portion, the
material with elasticity may be a memory foam material, a total
vertical height from a bottom to a highest point may be 140 to 145
mm, and a portion ranging from the highest point to a rear end may
incline downward with an inclination angle of 38.degree. to
42.degree. with respect to a surface of a sleeping environment when
the pillow is a pillow for use on a soft surface; and on the other
hand, the material with elasticity may be a memory foam material,
the total vertical height from the bottom to the highest point may
be 135 to 140 mm and the portion ranging from the highest point to
the rear end may incline downward with an inclination angle of
28.degree. to 32.degree. with respect to a surface of a sleeping
environment when the pillow is a pillow for use on a hard
surface.
[0009] As described above, the functional pillow according to the
present invention has an advantage of helping a user achieve a
correct sleeping posture, in which the unique angle of a
musculoskeletal system is maintained, thereby causing a change in
the shape of the user's body. This helps a user to maintain his or
her correct posture in joints and musculoskeletal systems such as
the spine and pelvis, contributing to a users health.
[0010] Furthermore, the functional pillow according to the present
invention has another advantage of helping a user to have a good
sleep and to recover from fatigue, by enabling the user to have a
sleeping posture in which the user's musculoskeletal system is
maintained in proper arrangement so that the user may stay
healthy.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The above and other objects, features and other advantages
of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the
following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, in which:
[0012] FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a functional
pillow according to one embodiment of the present invention;
[0013] FIG. 2 is a plan view of the functional pillow illustrated
in FIG. 1;
[0014] FIGS. 3A and 3B are cross-sectional views taken along line
IIIA-IIIA' and IIIB-IIIB' of FIG. 1, respectively;
[0015] FIGS. 4A and 4B are cross-sectional views illustrating a
functional pillow, according to the present invention, for use on a
hard surface (floor) and a soft surface (bed), respectively;
and
[0016] FIGS. 5A and 5B are side views illustrating the pillows for
use on a soft surface and a hard surface, with heads placed on the
pillows, respectively.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0017] Hereinbelow, preferred embodiments of the invention will be
described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms used in this specification and
claims, including technical or specific terms, should be
contextually interpreted in light of the concept of the present
invention and are not to be interpreted to have ideal or
expressively formal meanings defined in a generally used dictionary
based on the rule that inventors can define specific terms to most
properly describe their inventions.
[0018] The structure described in the `embodiments` section of this
specification and drawings are just given in an exemplary way, and
do not represent all of the technical concepts of the present
invention. Accordingly, it can be understood that there may be
various equivalents and modifications at the time when the present
application is filed.
[0019] Hereinbelow, preferred embodiments of the invention will be
described in detail with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
[0020] In order to understand the structure of a pillow according
to the present invention, it is necessary to be aware of the
definition of a correct sleeping posture. The correct sleeping
posture is a sleep position in which the musculoskeletal system of
the body maintains its natural arrangement. That is, lying down on
the back with shoulders being loosened and the jaw being slightly
lifted and leaned backward causes the least strain in the spine. In
order for the body to achieve this position, the cervical spine
needs to be supported so that a proper angle of the cervical spine
may be maintained while the cervical spine maintains a C-shape. At
this point, the jaw should be placed slightly higher than the
forehead. When the body is placed in the correct sleeping posture,
the body pressures of the head and the cervical spine are smallest.
From this point of view, a pillow according to the present
invention will be described below with reference to the
accompanying drawings.
[0021] The material of the pillow will be described first. The
material of the pillow is a memory foam material with low density
and high elasticity which is currently actively used as the
material for many functional pillows. This is because, according to
a scientific report, memory foam is advantageous over other
materials. According to the report, when using a pillow made of
memory foam, the pressure of the head is high compared to when
using a pillow made of a typical material, but the pressure of the
cervical spine is low. A Latex pillow sufficiently absorbs the
weight of the head, thereby lowering the pressure of the head.
However, the Latex pillow cannot function as a support, without
firmly holding the cervical spine and the head in place.
Accordingly, the pillow of the present invention has a specially
designed pillow structure and is made of the memory foam material
which can lower the pressure of the cervical spine, and addresses
the problem of the high pressure of the head which occurs when
using typical memory foam pillows.
[0022] Next, the structure of a functional pillow according to one
embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the
accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a
functional pillow according to one embodiment of the present
invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating the functional pillow
of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3A and 3B are cross-sectional views taken
along a line IIIA-IIIA' and a line IIIB-IIIB' in FIG. 1,
respectively. As illustrated, the functional pillow of the present
embodiment includes three main portions: A shoulder protecting
portion 10, a cervical spine protecting portion 20, and a head
protecting portion 30. The bottom surface which comes into contact
with the base surface is a flat surface, and the top surface is
rounded and inclines upward toward the top from the bottom. The
shoulder protecting portion 10 includes two portions provided at
both side ends of the functional pillow respectively. Each portion
of the shoulder protecting portion 10 inclines upward toward the
top from the edge. The shoulder protecting portion 10 is provided
to support both shoulders because outer parts (parts relatively far
from the cervical spine) of the shoulders are naturally suspended
when a body is placed on its back according to a study of
ergonomics. The shoulders are highest at inner parts (i.e. parts
relatively near the cervical spine) and slope downward toward the
arms. Accordingly, the shoulder protecting portion 10 is made to
have an upward inclination toward the top from the edge, by taking
the ergonomics into consideration. The shoulder protecting portion
10 supports the shoulders, thereby lowering the resistance of the
pressure of the cervical spine by cooperating with the cervical
spine protecting portion 20.
[0023] Next, the cervical spine protecting portion 20 will be
described. The cervical spine protecting portion 20 includes a
space portion 22 provided between the two portions of the shoulder
protecting portion 10 and a cervical spine support 24 which is
provided behind the space portion 22. The space portion 22 forms a
concave shape at large when viewed from the rear side of the pillow
(that is, from the top of the head) so that the space portion 22
becomes deeper toward the center in the side-to-side direction.
Owing to the space portion 22, the inner portions of the shoulders
(adjacent to the cervical spine) come into close contact with the
cervical spine support 24 when the shoulders are placed on the
shoulder protecting portion 10. The cervical spine support 24
inclines upward in a rounded manner, with a slope which becomes
steeper as it goes toward the rear side, up to the highest point,
and then inclines downward in a rounded manner from the highest
point so that the cervical spine support 24 can support the users
cervical spine when the user lies on his or her back. The structure
of the cervical spine support 24 differs according to the use of
pillows, for example, in the pillow for use on a hard surface like
a floor and the pillow for use on a soft surface like a bed. That
is, the angle of the cervical spine of the body differs between
when the user lays down on the bed and when the user lays down on
the floor user because of the soft mattress of the bed. This will
be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIGS.
4A and 4B are side views of pillows of the present embodiment. FIG.
4A illustrates the pillow for use on a hard surface and FIG. 4B
illustrates the pillow for use on a soft surface. FIGS. 5A and 5B
are side views illustrating states where the pillows for use on a
hard surface and for use on a soft surface are being used. As
illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B and 5A and 5B, the spine and the
pelvis are at the same height when the user lays down on the hard
surface because the hard surface (floor surface) supports the
pelvis, but the pelvis is lower than other parts of the body and
the spine is also slightly lower when the user lays down on a bed
because of the soft mattress of the bed. That is, the angle of the
cervical spine of the body differs between cases where the user
lays down on the floor and where the user lays down on a bed. When
the user lies down on a bed, the angle of the cervical spine is
steeper and the neck is lifted more. Accordingly, taking this
difference into consideration, as illustrated in FIG. 4B, a total
vertical height of the cervical spine 24 from the bottom to the
highest point is set to be differently for both cases. In the case
of the pillow for use on a bed, the total height is set to 140 to
145 mm which is slightly higher than that (for example, 135 to 140
mm) of the pillow for use on the floor. The rear portion of the
cervical spine support 24 ranging from the highest point to the
rear end inclines downward in a rounded manner. Even for this rear
portion, the inclination angle is also differently set depending on
the use of the pillow because of the difference in the angle of the
cervical spine of the body. As illustrated in FIGS. 4A and 4B, the
inclination angle of the rear portion of the cervical spine support
24 is 38.degree. to 42.degree. when the pillow is for use on a bed
while it is 28.degree. to 32.degree. when the pillow is for use on
the floor. As described above, by differently setting the height
and inclination angle of the rear portion of the pillows for
different angles of the cervical spine of the body with respect to
the surface on which the pillow is placed, it is possible to
suppress the strain of the cervical spine to the minimum and causes
a user to sleep in a correct sleeping posture in terms of
maintaining good arrangement of the musculoskeletal system. Next,
the head protecting portion 30 will be described.
[0024] The head protecting portion 30 is formed to extend from the
cervical spine support 24 and has a sufficient area on which the
head of the user can be placed. As illustrated in FIG. 3B, the head
protecting portion 30 includes a recess 30a where the user's head
is to be placed. The recess 30a has the shape conforming to the
users head so that an increase in the body pressure attributable to
the weight of the head can be suppressed as much as possible. The
inside surface of the recess 30a also has a gentle slope so that
the surface of the pillow may not contact with or block ears. That
is, when the user lies down, the pillow elastically contracts by
the weight of the head to lower the pressure of the head.
Generally, the pressure is highest at the right center of the back
of the head. When the right center of the back of the head is
placed in the recess 30a, the pressure of the head is uniformly
dispersed. If the surface of a portion of the pillow where the ears
are placed is flush with a center portion of the pillow, the ears
may come into contact with the pillow and are even likely to be
blocked. Even though the ears are not associated with the
musculoskeletal system, the user is likely to feel discomfort.
Accordingly, in order to prevent the pillow from causing discomfort
to the user, the top surface of the pillow has a rounded surface so
that the ears may not come into contact with the surface of the
pillow even when the pillow is contracted.
[0025] Although the structure and operation of the pillow of the
preferred embodiment which enables a proper arrangement of the
musculoskeletal system so that the cervical spine of the body can
maintain its proper angle and the pressure of the head is
suppressed to the minimum is described above with reference to the
drawings, those are just given in an exemplary way, and do not
represent all of the technical concepts of the present invention.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various
modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without
departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed
in the accompanying claims.
* * * * *