WO2012083352A1

WO2012083352A1 - A sleeping headrest device

Info

Publication number: WO2012083352A1
Application number: PCT/AU2011/001641
Authority: WO
Inventors: Paul Bryant
Original assignee: Paul Bryant
Priority date: 2010-12-23
Filing date: 2011-12-19
Publication date: 2012-06-28
Also published as: AU2011349115A1

Abstract

A sleeping headrest device to accommodate a user's head without the compression of the user's ear and also at the same time provide structural support for a good night's sleep with minimal contact between the side of the head of the user with the device. The device includes a main body having a cone shaped tapered body with a flattened top surface having a smaller coverage area to the base surface area, said top surface defining a hollow recess, wherein a bordered region of said recess provides structural support for a side of a user's head, with said user's head's ear being accommodated within said defined recess so that no or undue contact of the user's ear with the device is made. The cone shaped tapered body includes a part scalloped indent terminating at the base surface of the device so that in use the user's shoulder rests within the scalloped indent.

Description

A SLEEPING HEADREST DEVICE

TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD

This invention relates to a unique and improved sleeping headrest device.

More particularly, it relates to an improved headrest and/or pillow device that can improve the comfort of its use to the sleeper by eliminating or substantially reducing the pressure on a person's ear when resting the side of the head upon the pillow and also to minimise the actual side of the head of the sleeping person's contact with the pillow in order to reduce or ameliorate some of the overheating effects that are created when the side of a head is in full contact with the pillow.

BACKGROUND ART DISCUSSION

Conventional pillows are well recognisable to most of us and for the most part can be best described as a rectangular, slightly centrally raised, padded sack to which for the most part allows a user's head to be raised or held in line as close as possible to the spinal cord for comfort during sleeping for better blood circulation and body posturing.

Most people would be well aware of the discomfort felt from sleeping in a configuration which sees the head either unsupported or incorrectly raised relative to ones shoulder and spinal cord, as the interrupted flow of blood and undue pressure placed upon the muscles of the neck often results in, not only a poor sleep, but also considerable discomfort created in the pain within the neck and so forth of the overnight jarred movement of the head.

Often to overcome this problem pillows have been made of greater size and include additional cushioning within so that should the user's head no longer remain central to the pillow there still remains a degree of cushioning and support from the pillow even at the edges and so forth. Nonetheless in such an arrangement the user's head literally becomes immersed withinside the pillow and while the cushioning provides a degree of support the fact remains that the head is now in full contact with the pillow, at least a complete side of the head which may result in overheating, again because the purpose of a pillow should in fact be simply to raise and support a person's head relative to the remaining body structure rather than simply encapsulating a person's head for comfort.

Still further these conventional type pillows by their very nature of presenting a flat resilient surface to which a person's side of the head will rest upon, means that given the contour of the side of a person's head is not even, in that it includes a very important protruding ear, this ear in a sense is compressed upon the pillow so that the remaining side of the head can then be supported appropriately thereon the pillow, achieved for the most part by the certain amount of resiliency offered by the cushioning material used withinside the pillow. .

Therefore while conventional pillows for the most part offer, or attempt to offer, some support to a person's head while sleeping, there are significant downfalls not least the ability of being able to accommodate a person's ear so that it is not compressed upon the pillow unnecessarily which will lead to significant discomfort, but also the ability to be able to provide cushioned structural support to the side of the head of a user, but to do so adequately without the simple requirement of having the full side of the head in full contact with the pillow thereby avoiding the overheating of the head while it is in contact with the pillow. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a sleeping headrest which is able to present a device which will have the structural configuration that will be able to accommodate a person's ear without unnecessarily compressing it against the structure of the pillow in order to accept the complete contour of the side of a head and also at the same time again provide adequate structural support to a user wishing to rest and sleep upon the device without the requirement for the user's head to have the complete side of the head in full contact with the device in order to get adequate appropriate posturing of the head relative to the ^"remaining part of the body for not only a comfortable night's rest but also a pain free awakening after the interval of rest. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide such a sleeping headrest device which is adapted to comfortably accommodate and rest thereupon a side of a user's head without the compression of the user's head with the device and also at the same time still provide necessary structural support to correctly align the head for a good night's sleep with correct posturing but to do so also with a minimising of contact between the side of the head of the user with the device per se.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly in one form of the invention there is provided a sleeping headrest device adapted to comfortably accommodate and rest thereupon a side of a user's head without a user's ear being substantially compressed upon device and wherein adequate structural support is provided for within the device in order to support a user's head for a comfortable rest or sleep upon the device without the requirement of the side of the head of a user to be in full contact with the pillow thereby being able to reduce any potential overheating of the side of the head being in contact with the pillow, said device including; a main body having a cone shaped tapered body with a flattened top surface having a smaller coverage area to a base surface of the cone, said top surface defining a hollow recess, wherein a bordered region of said recess provides structural support for a side of a user's head, with said user's head's ear being accommodated within said defined recess so that none or undue contact of the user's ear with the device is made when in use, said cone shaped tapered body includes a part scalloped indent terminating at the base surface of the device so that in use the user's shoulder rests within the scalloped indent.

An advantage of such an arrangement is that for the first time a sleeping headrest and/or pillow device is being made available which, not only can provide a comfortable rest or sleep to the user by the fact that the person's ear is not compressed upon the pillow, but also conveniently is able to establish the appropriate posturing support of the user's head through the structural feature of including the scalloped contour upon the looped tapered body whereby once the user places their shoulder within that deliberately designed scalloped configuration, this then allows the head to be orientated such that the ear can then be placed withinside the recess without contact with the device, but also then allows the side of the person's face to then simply just rest upon the region that borders about the recess. Advantageously as the side of the head is only for the most part being supported by that bordered region about the recess, means that the contact area between the side of the person's head and the pillow is kept to an absolute minimum thereby reducing significantly the full contact area of the side of the head with the pillow substantially ameliorating therefore the overheating of the side of the head when in contact with the pillow.

In preference the cone shaped tapered body provides a cross sectional configuration substantially of the form of the letter 'IT with the two upright sides of the letter 'IT inclined inwardly and the base of the letter 'IT horizontally flat wherein the base and the two upright sides are made of resilient material of thickness and depth to support the side of a user's head upon the device during rest and at the same time allow enough depth in the hollow recess to accommodate a person's ear during use.

In preference the cone shaped tapered body provides a cross sectional configuration substantially of the form of a letter 'IT with two upright sides of the letter 'IT inclined inwardly and base of the letter 'IT horizontally flat wherein the base and the two upright sides are made of resilient material such that the upright sides do not collapse inwardly towards the other to close off the recess.

The resiliency strength of the main body is such that when the user's head rests on the device, the sides will not collapse in to any great degree that would take away the recess to accommodating the user's ear when resting.

The angled letter 'U' shaped cross-sectional configuration is providing effectively a cone shape to which the apex has been rounded off to provide a recess to which the user's ear can be positioned therein. In preference the border region about the recess also represents the outer periphery of the top surface of the device.

An advantage of such an arrangement is that the top surface is simply made up of the bordered region which preferably would be either tetrahedral or circular or any combination there in between, defining a complimentary recess of similar visual orientation.

For example, a border region of a closed loop tetrahedral or square

configuration would then define a recess of the same orientation albeit the recess would then preferably ingress into the device in a tapered configuration leading to a flattened apex withinside the main body of the device. In preference the sleeping headrest and/or pillow device resilient material is reinforced cushioned foam or a non toxic synthetic based polymer.

In preference the device further includes an external cover adapted to encapsulate the main body, wherein the external cover includes a fastening means to retain an outer sheet that substantially covers the device, such that when the outer sheet requires removal for cleaning or replacement the fastening means allows the outer sheet to be removed. In order now to more fully understand this invention preferred embodiments will now be described with the assistance of the following illustrations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the use of a retaining clip arrangement in order to secure both the external cover as well as the outer sheet for the device.

Figure 2 is a similar exploded view to Figure 1 however looking from the bottom upwards on the alternative side to Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a perspective view that includes a series of dashed lines to be able to show the fastening arrangement of securing the external cover as well the outer sheet to the device.

Figure 4 is a top view for the most part of Figure 1 with the retaining clip in place.

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of Figure 4. Figure 6 is a schematic view of a user of the sleeping headrest and/or pillow device in a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view focusing on the most part of the retaining mechanism for securing the external cover as well as the outer sheet in place within a preferred embodiment of the invention. Figure 8 is a cross-sectional view of a further preferred embodiment of the invention wherein only part of the retaining clip or tab illustrated in Figure 7 is used with this particular further preferred embodiment. Figure 9 is a cross-sectional view of a further preferred embodiment of the invention using an additional retaining means in which to secure adequately in place the external cover along with the outer sheet.

Figure 10 is a cross-sectional view of a further preferred embodiment of the invention utilizing a different retaining mechanism in order to fasten in place the external cover and associated outer sheet.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring to the drawings now in greater detail where there is provided a sleeping head rest device referred to generally as 10. The device includes what may be best described as a closed loop main body 12 made of resilient foam type material in the preferred embodiment.

The main body 12 includes a tapered incline such that the peripheral edge 20 of the top surface 18 presents a reduced coverage area than the bottom surface 32 confined by the peripheral edge 26. The introduction of the tapered looped main body 12 means that while the top surface 18 presents a reduced contact coverage between the device 10 and the side of the head of the user resting there upon the device, the greater coverage or contact area produced by the backing or base surface 32 maintains a rigid and supportive enough construction to be able to raise and maintain the head comfortably when positioned upon the top surface.

An inner ridge or skirt 22 defines an internal recess or cavity shown generally as 24.

The peripheral edge 20 of the top surface 18 also defines the border or support region 21 which provides the general support platform which as best seen in Figure 6 is adapted to allow a user's 50 head 54 to rest thereupon. The recess 24 provides an open cavity to which the user's 50 ear 52 can be positioned therein.

The main body 12 of the sleeping head rest and/or pillow device also includes on at least one side, a scalloped shape indent shown generally by the extreme edges 30 and the actual ingress itself shown generally as 28 in the illustrations.

This scallop type cut from the main body 12 of the device 10 enables the user's 50 shoulder to be comfortably positioned thereby providing appropriate body posturing whereby the shoulder is supported in part within the device

arrangement and with the recess 24 being able to accommodate the user's 50 ear 52 there is no interruption of the contour lining of the side of the head 54 of the user 50 when resting upon the main support or border region 21 on the top surface 18 of the device 10.

Wherein the past a user's 50 ear 52 would protrude out from the general curvature contour of the side of the head 54 of the user 50 resulting in the User's ear being compressed onto the pillow this problem is now avoided that the creation of the recess 24 will allow the ear 52 to comfortably position itself therein without any contact or undue contact with the spacing provided for by that cavity or recess shown generally as 24 in the illustrations.

Once again advantageously through the unique tapered body arrangement with the scallop indent on at least one side of the device 10, means that the problems introduced precedingly have been overcome in that contact between the sleeping head rest and/or pillow device and the side of head of the user is minimized in that the top surface 18 of the device 21 has defined a platform 21 to which the user's head can rest there upon and contact is then avoided with the ear so that overall the head is only in partial contact with the device eliminating or substantially ameliorating any overheating effects that one would traditionally associate with conventional full head contact with a pillow. In the preferred embodiment a unique fasting or obtaining mechanism has also been included as part of the design wherein an upper clip 34 having a general circular disc portion 36 and a cylindrical extended portion 38 is designed to mate with a corresponding base portion having in its preferred embodiment also a flat disc base 42 and a cylindrical extension 40.

As seen in Figure 2 the bottom or base surface 32 of the device includes a circular recessed groove 44 with an aperture 46 to allow the cylindrical portion

40 of the base part 42 of the retaining mechanism to interengage with the upper piece or member 34 for a snap or clicking engagement between the respective cylindrical extensions 38 and 40, which as best seen in Figures 5 and 7 sees the top cylindrical extension 38 of a slightly greater diameter than the base cylindrical extension 40 so that in the mating relationship between the two extensions 38 and 40 a tab 39 is able to clip or snap into a corresponding slot

41 on the base cylindrical extension 40. The purpose of the retaining clip made up of the upper and lower portions 34 and 42 is to secure or encapsulate thereabouts the device an external cover which as seen by virtue of slightly thicker and darker dash lines in Figure 3 as inner cover 50.

An important characteristic of the retaining clip also includes the hook member 44 on the top member 38 which is adapted to hook in place what best could be described as an outer sheet 48 providing a pillow case or slip type coverage over and above the external cover.

While not completely shown in the illustrations but best seen in Figure 3 the inner cover can be adapted to encapsulate the entire device in that the disk portion 43 of the lower of base part member 42 of the retaining clip as long as the disk portion 36 of the upper member 34 of the containing arrangement is able to press down and hold in place the inner cover. Nonetheless it is the hook that is able to retain the pillow case or slip over device and again while perhaps not necessarily clearly shown the best to be understood when viewed in Figure 3, the outer sheet, pillow case or slip would include some type of elastic means in order to secure itself about the base or bottom surface 32 of the device 10.

Advantageously this retaining means is designed to hold both the external cover 50 (device cover) and the outer sheet 48 (pillow slip) in place while at the same time permit the easy removal of the outer sheet 48 (pillow slip) as required during washing and replacement. In the preferred embodiment shown in Figure 8 there is only the upper member of the pertaining element discussed in the previous preferred embodiment.

In this preferred embodiment the cylindrical extension 38 is of a comparable dimension to a bore hole 58 which extends into the base portion of the main body 12. As the material making up the main body in itself is quite resilient the peripheral skirt or shoulder shown by the numbers 60 and 62 in Figure 8 allow for the cylindrical extension 38 of the retaining piece to engage in a frictional fixing in place with inside the device.

The remaining features of the positioning in place of the outer sheet 48 as described precedingly remain the same in that a hook 44 upon the top surface 36 of the top member 34 is designed to hook in place the outer sheet 48 (pillow case or slip) but also more importantly the disc shaped 36 is also designed to push down upon the external cover 50 to hold it in place about the sleeping head rest and/or pillow device 10. Figure 9 represents a further preferred embodiment of the invention associated with the retaining device designed to hold both the pillow cover and the pillow slip in place while at the same time being removable to allow the pillow cover and the pillow slip to be removed for washing and replacement as required.

In the preferred embodiment shown in Figure 9 the retaining device includes a kind of buckle or perhaps even better described button type clicking

arrangement where the external cover 50 which will encapsulate the entire device 10 has attached to it a retaining device which includes some type of buckle or button configuration.

One part of the buckle or button would be included on the retaining device 65 which includes a clip to capture the outer sheet 48, and the other upon the internal base surface 67 with inside the main body 12 of the device 10.

The retaining clip or button 65 still includes the hook 64 to which again is designed to be able to capture the pillow slip or case for easy securing of such a feature over the device 10 which as discussed precedingly would also for the most part have the pillow slip or cover including some type of elastic means in order to secure itself about the main body 12 of the device 10.

The embodiment illustrated in Figure 10 for the most part remains faithful to other embodiments discussed precedingly however again there is a further option and embodiment provided for in relation to the pillow cover and pillow slip retaining device. In the embodiment shown in Figure 10 the use of 'hook and loop' fabric technology allows the placement of this fastening mechanism shown generally as 66 and 68 to the respective portions of both the external cover 50 which will encapsulate the entire main body 12 of the device 10 but also additional use of hook and loop 69 upon the outer sheet 48 for the engagement of that particular outer sheet 48 to the main body 12 of the device 10.

Claims

1. A sleeping headrest device including; a main body having a cone shaped tapered body with a flattened top surface having a smaller coverage area to a base surface of the cone, said top surface defining a hollow recess, wherein a bordered region of said recess provides structural support for a side of a user's head, with said user's head's ear being accommodated within said defined recess so that none or undue contact of the user's ear with the device is made when in use, said cone shaped tapered body includes a part scalloped indent terminating at the base surface of the device so that in use the user's shoulder rests within the scalloped indent.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the cone shaped tapered body provides a cross sectional configuration substantially of the form of a letter 'U' with two upright sides of the letter 'IT inclined inwardly and base of the letter 'IT horizontally flat wherein the base and the two upright sides are made of resilient material such that the upright sides do not collapse inwardly towards the other to close off the recess.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein the bordered region defines the outer periphery of the top surface of the device.

4. The device of any one of claims 1 , 2 or 3 further including an external cover adapted to encapsulate the main body, wherein the external cover includes a fastening arrangement to retain an outer sheet that substantially covers the device and makes contact with the user's head, such that when the outer sheet requires removal for cleaning or replacement the fastening arrangement allows the outer sheet to be removed from the device.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein the fastening arrangement also secures the external cover to the main body of the device.

6. The device of claim 5 wherein the fastening arrangement includes an upper portion with a top plate and a longitudinal extended portion configured to frictionally engage with a corresponding longitudinal portion of a lower portion of the fastening arrangement.

7. The device of claim 6 wherein the longitudinal extended portions are cylindrical.

8. The device of claim 7 wherein the longitudinal extended portion of the lower portion is integral with the base.

9. The device of claim 7 wherein the longitudinal extended portion of the lower portion includes a cylindrical extended portion supported on a base plate that is adapted to protrude through a bore hole in the base of the device to engage the corresponding cylindrical extension of the upper portion of the fastening arrangement.

10. The device of any one of claims 6, 7, 8 or 9 wherein the top plate includes a clip for retaining the outer sheet, and the top plate secures the external cover over the device when engaging the lower portion of the fastening arrangement.

1 1. The device of claim 4 wherein the fastening arrangement includes a buckle arrangement, wherein a first portion of the buckle arrangement is secured to the base of the device and a second portion is pressable onto the buckle so as to securely encapsulate the external cover about the device.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein the first portion of the buckle

arrangement is attached to the external cover, and the first portion further includes a clip adapted to hook and engage the outer sheet.

13. The device of claim 4 wherein the fastening arrangement includes hook and loop fabric strips as a fastening means to secure the external cover and/or outer sheet to the device.

14. The device of any one of claims 2 to 13 wherein the resilient material is reinforced cushioned foam or a non toxic synthetic based polymer.