A Hugging Pillow That Will Change The Treatment Of Anxiety

Written By Connie Hack

Sleep Advisor

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12 October 2023 2 min read

More than 7 million of UK people suffers from anxiety. Though not a highly dangerous condition, it can lead to severe depression and other mental problems. The scientists found a way to treat it conveniently – a hugging pillow that treats the anxiety condition.

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish normal feeling of nervousness and excessive fear resulting from anxiety. Anyway, anxiety disorders are even more common than depression and affect every third person in the Western world at least in some part of life. Anxiety can be the result of stress buildup, illness, different types of trauma, but also certain types of personality.

There are various ways to treat anxiety disorders, including medication. But first you need to try different lifestyle changes that can definitely help. That's not all. Devices designed to help prevent and stop anxiety attacks are increasingly appearing on the market. One such device is the huggable pillow which is still in the prototype stage.

A pillow will mimic the breathing

When you breathe slowly, anxiety decreases and blood pressure drops. That is why it is most important to control your breathing during an anxiety attack. But it has also been proven that breathing of another person can calm you down.

If your partner lies next to you and breathes more slowly, it is likely that your breathing will synchronise. The same goes for pets, so many people like a dog or cat to lie on them. That’s exactly the idea behind this pillow. It should mimic the breathing and thus calm you down.

Alice Haynes, from Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, and her colleagues who created this pillow probably got the idea from the creator of a therapeutic robot called Paro which has the shape of a baby seal. 

Researchers from Saarland University even tested this pillow on more than 100 volunteers and the results were impressive. The pillow provided the same benefits as meditation.

It is super easy to use

Although it is prototype as of March 2022, this huggable pillow is fully functional and very easy to use. Its total length is 36 cm, and it consists of an inner chamber that is inflatable and an outer cover made of very soft fabric. The inner chamber is connected to an external pump and motor that together inflate and deflate the pillow. The tempo is such that it imitates human lungs and slow breathing as accurately as possible. As this is a very simple mechanism, we believe that the pillow will be durable and that the service life will be long even if you use pillow every day. But that remains to be seen.

Wrap your arms around it and forget anxiety

As far as one knows, it is enough to hug this pillow for a few minutes and forget about anxiety. The creators of this potentially revolutionary pillow that mimics breathing say that if you use it regularly in the evening, it is possible that your night's sleep will be significantly improved, because nighttime anxiety is the most common type of anxiety.

Since it has been proven how important breathing is to calm down, then this pillow definitely makes sense. What will be interesting to see is what results it will have on a wide sample once it is launched.

Conclusion

So, what do you think about the Hugging pillow? Would you ever use it to battle anxiety? Let us know in the comment section!

About the author

Connie Hack

As someone who is a combination sleeper, I have found it difficult to get products to suit my sleep style. So, I am always on the lookout for new products to try and have tested my fair share of sleep essentials to make sure you can have the best night’s sleep.