JP7087057B1 - pillow - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve a groove for deforming a pillow in order to further enhance the sleeping effect of the pillow. SOLUTION: The pillow has a groove formed in the width direction in the head support area supporting the user's head, and the groove becomes narrower as the depth becomes deeper, and the groove becomes narrower from the neck to the crown side of the user. Suggest a sloping pillow. [Selection diagram] Fig. 1

Description

The present invention relates to pillows.

Pillows are generally made of a deformable material, and when used, they are deformed by the weight of the human body (head, etc.) to make the shape follow the human body. As a result, the resistance given to the human body at bedtime is alleviated, and a good sleep effect is produced.
In order to obtain a further restful sleep effect, the hardness of the pillow described in Patent Document 1 is partially changed.
As a measure for changing the hardness, a pillow having a groove on its surface has been proposed (Patent Documents 2 to 4).

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2019-110966 Registered Utility Model Gazette No. 3155517 JP-A-2002-85230 Japanese Patent No. 4124424

The present inventor has been diligently studying the groove that deforms the pillow in order to further enhance the sleeping effect of the pillow. As a result, the present invention having the following configuration was conceived.
The first aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is,
A pillow with a groove formed in the width direction to the head support area that supports the user's head.
A pillow in which the groove becomes narrower as it gets deeper and is inclined from the user's neck toward the top of the head.

According to the pillow of the first aspect defined in this way, the elastomeric material (flexible material such as urethane foam) constituting the head support region is greatly deformed on the surface to which the load from the head is applied. As the stress is absorbed there, the amount of deformation decreases as it gets deeper. Therefore, by narrowing the groove, when the user puts his head on the pillow, the entire groove can be easily closed. As a result, the head support region is easily deformed three-dimensionally. Compared to the case where a part of the groove is open when the head is placed here, when the entire groove is closed, the stress distribution in the head support region can be made uniform. In other words, in the latter case, the durability against repeated use is improved as compared with the former case.

Further, in the present invention, the groove is inclined in order to make it easier to close the groove. This is because the vector of the weight of the head acts in the direction of closing the groove. This groove is inclined from the user's neck to the parietal side. When the groove is tilted in the opposite direction, that is, from the crown to the neck, the tip of the groove turns to the lower side of the neck, and the groove is sufficiently under the neck, which is lighter than the head. It may not be blocked.

The pillow of the second aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the pillow defined in the first aspect, a first groove having a first depth and a second groove having a second depth shallower than the first groove are arranged in the head support region.
The head of the user is spherical, and therefore, by arranging the first groove and the second groove having different depths in the head support area, the head support area is deformed along the shape of the head. It becomes easier to do.
Here, the difference between the first depth and the second depth can be such that the second depth is 1/4 to 2/4 of the first depth. In the example described later, the difference between the two is approximately 1/2. Here, the depth refers to the vertical linear distance between the upper surface of the head support region and the bottom of the groove.

The pillow of the third aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the pillow specified in the second aspect, the first groove and the second groove are repeatedly arranged.
According to the pillow of the third aspect defined in this way, the deformation of the head support region is equalized.

The fourth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the pillow specified in the second or third aspect, the first groove is formed in the portion of the head support region continuous with the neck support region that supports the neck of the user. An inclined surface is formed on the side of the cervical support area.
A relatively deep first groove is formed in a portion continuous with the neck support region in the head support region to facilitate deformation of this portion. This makes it possible to respond to changes in weight from the human neck to the head. Further, by providing the inclined surface, the opening of the first groove is widened, and the deformation there is promoted. This is because the head is easy to move with respect to the neck and the deformation resistance to the movement is reduced.

The fifth aspect of the present invention is defined as follows. That is, in the pillow specified in any of the second to fourth aspects, the second groove is continuously formed on the crown edge in the head support region.
According to the pillow of the fifth aspect thus defined, a relatively shallow second groove is continuously formed on the parietal margin in the head support region, that is, on the veranda away from the neck support region. .. This is because a large deformation is not required on the veranda side of the crown.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the configuration of a pillow according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view of FIG.

Hereinafter, the pillow of the embodiment will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the pillow 1 includes three support portions 10, 20 and 30.
The first support portion 10 exclusively supports the head and neck of the user (human), the second support portion 20 exclusively supports the shoulder portion of the user, and the third support portion 30 exclusively supports the torso of the user. That is, it is designed to exclusively support the part below the armpit.
The side surface of the first support portion 10 is rectangular and is formed to be the thickest in the pillow 1. The second support portion 20 gradually becomes thinner from the first support portion 10 and continues to the third support portion 30.

In this example, the thickness of the first support portion 10 is 100 mm, the thickness of the tip of the third support portion 30 (left end in the drawing) is 10 mm, and the second support portion 20 and a part of the third support portion 30 following it are used. The thickness is gradually reduced. The width of this pillow was 900 mm (in the thickness direction of the paper), and the length was 700 mm (in the left-right direction of the paper). The proportions of each of these parts can be designed arbitrarily. The boundary line between the second support portion 20 and the third support portion 30 depends on the body shape of the user.

In this example, the entire pillow 1 is made of a flexible material. Here, flexibility means that the material is deformed with respect to the pressing force and returns to the original shape when the pressing force is extinguished. It should be noted that a repulsive force corresponding to the pressing force may be generated, or a substantially constant repulsive force may be generated regardless of the pressing force.
Urethane foam or the like can be used as such a flexible material.
In the example of FIG. 1, the whole is integrally formed of the same material, but each support portion may be formed of a different material. Further, each support portion can be connected as a separate body with a pillow cover or the like.

The first support portion 10 is provided with a head support region 101 and a neck support region 103. The boundaries of these areas 101 and 103 depend on the physique of the user.
A first groove 11 and a second groove 13 are formed in the head support region 101. These grooves are continuously formed in the width direction of the pillow 1. As shown in FIG. 1, all of these grooves 11 and 12 are tapered in width in the depth direction. In the head support region 101 made of a flexible material, the surface side thereof is more likely to be deformed with respect to the weight of the head. In this way, by narrowing the widths of the grooves 11 and 13 as they become deeper, the entire groove is likely to be evenly closed.

These grooves 11 and 12 are inclined from the user's neck toward the top of the head. In other words, the inclination direction of each of the grooves 11 and 13 is the direction in which the bottom of the tip is lifted as the distance from the neck support region 103 increases. By inclining each of the grooves 11 and 13, the weight vector of the head acts in the direction of closing the groove.

If the inclination directions of the grooves 11 and 13 are directed toward the neck support region 103, the first groove indicated by reference numeral 11a in FIG. 1 wraps around to the lower side of the neck support region 103, which is not preferable. Because the neck is light, the groove cannot be sufficiently closed, and the formation of the groove may be wasted.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the head support region 101, the first groove 11 and the second groove 13 are alternately arranged from the neck support region 103 side. As a result, the head support region 101 is likely to be deformed along the head. This is because when the head is placed, the wall of the deep groove 11 sinks greatly, while the wall of the shallow groove 13 sinks shallowly, so that a curved surface is likely to be formed there.
The second groove 13 is continuously arranged on the crown edge side (right end side in the drawing). This is because it is rare that the head is applied to the end side, but it is preferable to increase the rigidity of the end portion.

In this example, the pitches of the first groove 11 and the second groove 13 are made uniform, but the pitch of each groove can be changed.
In this example, the widths of the openings of the first groove 11 and the second groove 13 are made uniform, but the opening widths may be changed between the first groove 11 and the second groove 13. Further, the opening width may be changed between the first grooves 11 and the second grooves 13.
In this example, the depth of the second groove 13 is half the depth of the first groove 11, but the difference in depth can be arbitrarily designed.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a boundary region between the head support region 101 and the neck support region 103.
In the first groove 11a installed close to the neck support region 103, the inclined surface 111u is formed on the upper edge side of the slope 111t continuous with the neck support region 103. As a result, deformation of the portion facing the inclined surface 111u (upper edge portion of the inclined surface 111s) is promoted, so that even if the user moves the head at bedtime, the head is supported following the movement. The region 101 is easily deformed.

In FIG. 2, the outer (parietal) slope 111s in the first grooves 11a and 11b and the same outer slope 113s in the second groove 13 are formed in parallel. The opening widths of the first groove 11b and the second groove 13 are the same. As a result, the inclination angle is different between the slope 111t on the neck holding region side of the first groove 11b and the slope 113t on the neck holding region side of the second groove 13.
When the head is placed, the outer inclined surfaces 111s and 113s fall toward the inner inclined surfaces 111t and 113t. By making the inclination angle of the inclined surface on the side that is greatly deformed uniform in each groove, the repulsive force with respect to the head is made uniform.

Returning to FIG. 1, in the second support portion 20, a third groove 21 having the same depth, that is, having the same height at the bottom of the groove, and having the same width is formed at the same pitch. The depth of the third groove 21 is deeper than that of the first groove 11 and the second groove 13. That is, it is assumed that the height of the bottom portion of the third groove 21 is lower than the height of each bottom portion of the first groove 11 and the second groove 13.
By forming the third groove 21 in the second support portion 20 that supports the shoulder of the user, the second support portion 20 is more easily deformed than the first support portion 10 and the third support portion 30. Here, "easy to deform" means that it can be deformed with a small pressing force and a large amount of deformation can be obtained.

By making the second support portion 20 that exclusively supports the shoulder of the user easily deformed in this way, the user can easily turn over.
The sleeping user may move in the left-right direction shown in the figure. At that time, the shoulders often move in the left-right direction shown in the figure, starting from the head. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, it is preferable that the third groove 21 is formed in the vertical direction to reduce the movement resistance in the left-right direction.

In the above example, in order to make the second support portion 20 more easily deformed than the other support portions 10 and 30, third grooves 21 having the same depth and the same width are formed in the vertical direction at the same pitch. However, the shape of the groove is not limited to this.
The depth, pitch and width of the third groove 21 can be arbitrarily designed according to the shape of the second support portion 20, the molding material, and the like.

Since the third support portion 30 is continuous with the bed and the futon, it is not preferable to provide a groove here.
One purpose of the pillow groove of this embodiment is to make it easy to block the entire pillow. Therefore, it is preferable not to provide protrusions or ridges on the inner surface of the groove that hinder the obstruction.

Although the embodiments and examples of the present disclosure have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the description of each aspect of the above disclosure, the embodiments (examples), and variations thereof. Various modifications are also included in the present invention to the extent that those skilled in the art can easily conceive without departing from the scope of claims.

11a, 11b 1st groove 13 2nd groove 101 Head support area 101 Region 103 Neck support area 111u Inclined surface

Claims (10)

First support section with a user's head support area,
A second support portion that is inclined from the first support portion to support the shoulder portion of the user, and a second support portion that continuously supports the torso portion (the portion below the armpit) of the user to the second support portion. With 3 support parts, a groove is formed in the head support area in the width direction.
The groove becomes narrower as it gets deeper, and is inclined in a direction from the neck of the user toward the top of the head with respect to the surface in contact with the user.
The groove is closed by the weight of the user's head, a pillow. The pillow according to claim 1, wherein the first support portion, the second support portion, and the third support portion are integrally formed. The pillow according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a first groove having a first depth and a second groove having a second depth shallower than the first groove are arranged in the head support region. The pillow according to claim 3, wherein the first groove and the second groove are repeatedly arranged. A claim that a first groove is formed in a portion of the head support region continuous with the neck support region that supports the user's neck, and an inclined surface is formed on the neck support region side thereof. The pillow according to 3 or 4. The pillow according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the second groove is continuously formed on the crown edge in the head support region. Claims 1 to 6 , wherein the third groove of the second support portion is formed deeper than the groove of the first support portion, and the second support portion is more easily deformed than the first and third support portions. Pillows listed in either. The pillow according to claim 7 , wherein the third groove of the second support portion is continuous in the width direction . The pillow according to claim 8, wherein the third groove has the same depth, the same width, and the same pitch. The pillow according to any one of claims 7 to 9 , wherein the third groove is formed in the vertical direction.

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