Traveling by airplane is one of the most preferred means of transport because it’s secure and faster. That’s why most people prefer using airplanes for long-distance travel. The airplane also enables you to travel everywhere in the world. However, traveling by it can be a bad experience, especially if you’re uncomfortable. That’s where a travel pillow comes in.
What is a Travel Pillow?
A travel pillow is a neck pillow that travelers use to support their necks and heads. Most travel pillows are u-shaped to fit around the neck of a traveler. That’s why sometimes a travel pillow is also referred to as a travel neck pillow or neck pillow. Travel neck pillows aren’t used only when traveling. Some people use them when sleeping.
Although you might think that travel pillows are new inventions, it’s not. They’ve been in use for many centuries. The first travel neck pillow was used in Mesopotamia before the 12th century. These pillows were made of stone and, therefore, couldn’t provide a perfect comfort or experience.
Travel pillows have evolved over time. Today you can get various travel pillows in texture, size, weight, and much more. You can always be assured of getting the one that best fits your travel needs. For more information about travel pillows, check out.
How Can A Pillow Improve Your In-Flight Experience?
Traveling by airplane is one of the biggest dreams among most people. It’s fun and is always associated with prestige. However, if not careful, you might hate traveling by airplane. Find effective ways to boost your travel experience. You can achieve this by carrying and supporting yourself with a travel neck pillow.
Below are the main benefits of using a travel neck pillow and how it can be helpful during your flight:
1. Improved Comfort
One of the major reasons you need a travel neck pillow is to boost your comfort. This involves obtaining a state of physical ease.
Boosting your comfort is important, especially if you’re going to sit on economy seats. These seats are always placed close to each other. This gives you little or no room to move or even stretch your body. In such a case, you might want to use a travel neck pillow.
A travel pillow supports your head and neck. It ensures your body is perfectly aligned to the seat. This helps boost your comfort, thus increasing your in-flight experience.
2. Boosts Sleep
Are you looking to sleep at some point when traveling by airplane? If yes, you should add a travel pillow to your carry-on luggage.
Sometimes, traveling long distances can cause more harm, especially if you stay awake for several hours. It can lead to extreme fatigue and other cognitive issues like losing focus and poor concentration. Such conditions can cost you a lot of time and money. You’ll need to spend several hours searching for medication and pay for your medical bills, which can harm your finances. Avoid this by making a pillow your best companion when traveling by airplane.
Most travel pillows can mimic your home sleeping pillow. This enables you to sleep as you could do at home. Besides, a travel pillow enables you to rest in your preferred position. It can help you lean forward, backward, or by the side. It’s one of the best ways to boost your comfort, allowing you to sleep for long hours.
3. Prevents Back Pains
Back pains are a major problem among most long-distance airline travelers. It occurs when a traveler sits in an incorrect position.
Back pains can affect your physical, social, and emotional well-being. When it comes to physical, back pains can cause you not to perform your daily tasks adequately. Also, back pains are one of the major causes of insomnia or lack of sleep.
Emotionally, back pains can affect your cognitive well-being. You might develop anxiety, stress, and depression.
And lastly, if you’re experiencing back pains, you might not socialize well as before. For instance, you might not attend social clubs and societies. This causes you to feel isolated, thus affecting your mental health. Avoid back pains by supporting yourself with a pillow when traveling by airplane.
Utilizing a travel pillow helps keep your posture well. It helps align your body, thus preventing back pains.
4. Warmth and Breathability
When an airplane travels for long distances, it must fly up several miles from the ground where the humidity is too low. This causes the air inside the airplane to feel so dry.
Low humidity can consume your energy and make some of your body parts like the skin, eyes, and nose feel weird. Besides, low humidity can dehydrate you and raise your stress levels. This causes you to have a poor travel experience. The solution to this is using a pillow when traveling.
Although you might be provided with a travel pillow when boarding the airplane, such a pillow might fail to provide a better or maximum experience. Most of them are made of plastic and other non-breathable materials. Be sure to carry your own travel pillow.
Most travel pillows are warm and breathable. They allow moisture to circulate through them, thus cooling the environment. With a travel pillow, you won’t be worried about your skin, nose, and eyes becoming too dry.
Are you traveling through high-temperature zones? If yes, you should also carry your own travel pillow. The breathability feature of these pillows allows air to circulate through them. This helps regulate temperature. Therefore, you won’t experience any extreme temperature changes. This goes a long way in boosting your overall in-flight experience. Choose the warmest and most breathable type of travel pillow.
5. Prevents Neck Pain
When you travel by airplane for long distances, you’re likely to develop neck pains. This occurs when you sit for prolonged hours in an incorrect posture. Some of the major symptoms of neck pains include headache, muscle tightness, and inability to move your head.
While you can take some painkillers and relieve yourself of the neck pain symptoms, this could be avoided by using a travel pillow when on the airplane. A travel pillow helps provide support to your neck. This ensures you’re not straining your neck, thus preventing back pains.
Besides, a travel pillow lets you keep your head in your desired position. It helps minimize the amount of pressure exerted on your neck. This also helps prevent any chances to develop neck pains.
6. Minimizes Snoring
Minimizing snoring is another reason you need to support yourself when traveling by airplane. Snoring is the act of producing a grunting sound when asleep. This sound can embarrass you, especially when traveling with other passengers. Several factors can cause snoring. These include taking alcohol, feeling cold, and being overweight. However, most airline travelers snore because of sitting in the wrong posture.
Sitting in the wrong posture can partially block your breathing system. This causes air not to flow freely to and from your body, thus causing snoring.
While snoring can be a nuisance to others, it can also affect the quality of your sleep. You won’t sleep for too long as you could wish. This affects your in-flight experience. A travel pillow can help solve this problem.
A travel pillow helps align your body to the seat. This boosts your sitting posture, allowing air to flow freely through your nose. Using a travel pillow is one of the best ways to prevent you from snoring.
7. Prevents Fatigue
A travel pillow is a must-have item if you want to prevent the chances of developing fatigue. Fatigue is a feeling of lack of energy. It can occur when you sit uncomfortably on the airplane seat for too long. Some symptoms of prolonged fatigue include dizziness, headache, blurry vision, and weakened muscles. You can avoid this by using a pillow when traveling by airplane.
A travel pillow enables you to straighten your posture. This helps improve your comfort, thus reducing the chances of getting fatigued.
8. Prevents Spinal Cord Injuries
Preventing spinal injuries is another major benefit of utilizing a pillow when traveling by airplane. Spinal cord injury is any damage to any part of your spinal canal.
The main cause of spinal injuries is staying in an incorrect position when traveling by airplane. When you sit in the wrong posture, it causes you to strain your back or spinal cord in general. This can cause damage to your spinal canal.
Some of the health complications spinal injuries might cause include difficulty breathing, loss of movement, altered sensation, and coughing. If you want to prevent such problems from occurring in the future, be sure to add a flight travel pillow to your carry-on luggage.
A good travel pillow helps straighten your spinal cord and body in general. This ensures you’re not straining your back. Supporting yourself with a pillow when traveling is one of the best ways to prevent spinal cord damages.
How Can You Pick the Right Travel Neck Pillow for Your Flight Needs?
As explained above, a travel pillow can boost your in-flight experience in various ways. However, you might not enjoy these benefits if you select the wrong pillow. Ensure you’re choosing the right pillow for your airplane travel needs.
Some factors to consider when picking a flight travel pillow include the following:
1. Size
As earlier noted, one of the major reasons to use a travel neck pillow when on an airplane is to boost your comfort. You can achieve this by picking the right size.
Travel pillows come in different sizes. That’s large, medium, and small. Some are designed to support adults’ bogies, while others are for small children. Choose a travel pillow size that can best support your body.
2. Weight
Going for long flights involves carrying a lot of luggage. Sometimes, you might want to carry foodstuffs, clothing items, electronic gadgets like laptops, and other essential items. That’s why you must consider the weight of various available pillows before purchasing. It’d be a good idea to select a light-weighted travel pillow.
A light-weighted pillow ensures you can carry or lift it with ease. This ensures you’re not getting tired. Besides, a light-weighted pillow ensures that it can easily fit into your other carry-on items.
3. Fabric
Fabric is another important factor you need to consider when selecting a flight travel pillow. It is the type of material used to make specific travel pillows. It’s the one that determines the comfort the travel neck pillow will provide.
If your objective is to boost your comfort, you might want to avoid travel pillows made of plastic. Such pillows can cause an itching feeling, especially in hot weather conditions. Travel pillows made of cotton materials are the best fit for hot weather.
Before buying your flight travel pillow, you first need to determine whether you’re traveling through cold or hot climates. From there, you can select the best fabric.
4. Cost
Although the various available travel pillows can provide almost similar services, their prices might differ. If you aim to minimize your travel expenses, you might buy a low-priced pillow. However, ensure that your pillow selection can help boost your in-flight experience.
5. Quality
Selecting a flight travel pillow within your budget is a good idea. However, you shouldn’t compromise the quality with low prices. Always strive to find a high-quality flight travel pillow.
The quality of the pillow can determine its durability. High-quality pillows can last several months or years compared to their low-quality counterparts.
Buying a high-quality flight pillow is important, especially if you’re a frequent traveler. It ensures your pillow can serve you for the longest time possible without the need to replace it. This can enable you to save a lot of money in the long run.
Takeaway
Traveling by plane can be a fantastic experience. It’s one of the best means of transport for anyone who wants to travel and explore the world. It enables you to see the word from above. Always find ways to boost your in-flight experience. You can achieve this by utilizing a pillow when traveling by airplane. A travel pillow helps support your head and neck, thus enabling you to avoid future health complications. Hence, pick the right pillow for your travel needs.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Is a neck pillow useful in flight?
Yes, neck pillows are useful in flight as they provide support to the neck and head, improving comfort during long flights.
What are the benefits of using a travel neck pillow?
Using a travel neck pillow offers several benefits, including improved comfort, better sleep, prevention of back pains and neck pain, warmth, breathability, minimization of snoring, prevention of fatigue, and reduction of the risk of spinal cord injuries.
How to Pick the Right Travel Neck Pillow for Your Flight?
When choosing a travel neck pillow, consider factors like size (select one that fits your body), weight (opt for a lightweight option), fabric (choose materials suitable for the climate), cost (balance between price and quality), and quality (prioritize durability and support).
