Dozing Off on a Plane Is Easy, Staying Asleep Is Not: How to Wear a Neck Pillow

To wear a neck pillow, rest it on your shoulders so padding meets the back of your neck and both sides, and close any clasp or toggle. If your head drops forward, our advice is to turn a U-shaped pillow around so its closed curve sits under your chin. We found no study that compares ways to wear one.

01Why does your head drop when you doze off sitting up?

A neck pillow is a U or ring of padding that rests on your shoulders and, when you fall asleep sitting up, gives your head something to lean on wherever its padding sits. Knowing how to wear a neck pillow starts with knowing why your head goes forward in the first place.

You probably know the pattern. The cabin lights go down and you nod off before the drink cart reaches your row, so falling asleep was the easy part. Staying asleep is not. Your chin sinks toward your chest, the jolt wakes you, and a little later it happens again.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke describes the changeover from wakefulness to sleep as a short stretch of light sleep in which "your muscles relax with occasional twitches."¹ The page says nothing about necks or airplane seats, so the next step is our own reasoning. In bed, the mattress and the pillow carry your head. Sitting up, the muscles of your neck hold it, and once they let go, your head goes wherever nothing stops it.

In a seat, the backrest and the headrest sit behind you, so the way left open is usually forward. This guide takes it in order: what a neck pillow holds, which way the opening faces, how snug it sits, what the seat changes, and what to do when your head still drops.

02What is a neck pillow actually there to hold?

Maybe you bought one for your last trip, wore it the whole flight and still woke with your chin on your chest. It is tempting to call the pillow useless and leave it home next time. The trouble may be simpler.

Your head can tip back, roll to either side or drop forward. A pillow can only hold it where padding meets it; in every other direction, your head moves as if the pillow were not there. That is our reasoning, not a study's.

Worn the usual way, with the opening at your throat, an open U puts its padding behind your neck and along both sides. The front stays empty, and forward is where your head tends to go once you drift off in a seat.

So look past the shape on the box. Which way the opening faces comes down to one thing: whether padding sits where your head goes.

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03Which way should a neck pillow's opening face?

The opening at your throat seems like the obvious way to wear one. Then a fellow traveler swears by turning it around, and you are left wondering who has it right.

Our advice, not a finding: if your head drops forward, turn the U around so its closed curve sits under your chin and the open ends meet behind your neck. Let the seat's headrest carry the back of your head. If your head rolls to the side instead, keeping the opening at your throat may suit you better, because the side padding is what you lean on.

The reason is the one above: a pillow can only hold your head where padding meets it, so the closed curve belongs on the side your head goes. There is a cost. With the closed curve in front, drinking, eating and looking down at your lap get awkward, so take it off for meals and put it back afterward. Plenty of travelers call this wearing a neck pillow backwards; what counts is where the padding ends up.

We call it advice because we read the pages that come up first for this question. They disagree with each other, and none of them cites a test. So we looked for one: while writing this guide, we searched PubMed, a database of medical research, for a study that compares ways to wear a neck pillow, and we did not find one. That does not prove nobody has looked; we found nothing to point you to.

04How snug should a neck pillow sit?

Too loose, and your head still drops. Too tight, and it feels like the pillow is pressing on your neck. Either one can send a neck pillow to the back of a closet.

Our reasoning: any gap between your neck and the padding is room for your chin to drop before anything meets it. So snug means no space between your neck and the padding wherever the padding sits: at the back, along both sides, and under your chin once the closed curve is in front. Snug is not tight, though. You should still be able to swallow, talk and turn your head without pushing against it.

Where it sits matters as much as how snug it is. Let it rest down on your shoulders, not pushed up under your jaw: your shoulders carry it there, and your jaw stays free to swallow and talk. With the closed curve in front, it still rests on your shoulders, just below your chin.

Here is how we put one on, with any neck pillow:

1. Sit down first, with your back against the seat.
2. Rest the pillow down on your shoulders.
3. Set the direction as explained above: the closed curve under your chin if your head drops forward, the opening at your throat if it rolls to the side.
4. Close any clasp, snap, strap or toggle until the padding meets your neck.
5. Check that you can still swallow, talk and turn your head.

If yours is an open U with no clasp, most of these steps still apply. Rest it down on your shoulders, and if your head drops forward, turn it around so the open ends sit behind your neck with the headrest backing them. Still, an open U with nothing to close it can slide when you shift in your seat, so set it back in place when it does.

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05What does the seat do to your head?

With the pillow on, the next move is usually the recline button, and the hope that leaning back will do the rest.

The one small study we could read and check on seat recline and the neck measured short sits, not sleep, and used no neck pillow. In this pilot study, 19 young adults sat in a cushioned business aircraft seat, set at different backrest angles, with no added neck support.² The authors found no significant association between backrest inclination and neck comfort or muscle activation, and they note that their experiment covered only short-term sitting.²

Our reading: a study like this cannot tell you whether to recline when you sleep. So we do not tell you to recline or to sit up straight. Notice where your head goes when you doze, and set the pillow for that.

Where you sit changes what the pillow has to do. Our advice by seat:

• Window seat: the wall gives you something to lean into, so the side padding does most of the work.
• Aisle or middle seat: with no wall beside you, the front of the pillow matters most.
• Headrest side flaps: if your seat has them and they move, fold them in toward your head.

Some travelers skip the headrest altogether and lean forward onto the tray table instead; the advice here is for sleeping back against the seat.

06What changes when the front of the pillow closes?

If your head drops forward, it goes into the gap an open U leaves at the front, which is why we suggest turning the closed curve under your chin. A pillow whose front closes changes where the padding sits, and only that. There is padding in front of your neck as well as behind and beside it, so there is nothing to turn around.

Ours closes in front: the travel neck pillow we make is a ring with a drawstring toggle, in one size. Pull the toggle to tighten the ring so it closes snug to any neck, with no gap for the head to slip through. Four zones sit around the neck: the nape, both sides and the chin. It is natural-rubber memory foam, so there is no pump and no inflating or deflating at the gate. The ring sets where the padding sits; it cannot promise your head stays up, and no study we cite tested it.

07What if your head still drops?

You put the pillow on, settled in and drifted off. Somewhere over the middle of the country, your head still dropped and the jolt woke you.

The order we suggest costs nothing. Make one change at a time and judge it on your next nap in the seat, so you can tell what each one did:

1. Push it down. Move the pillow off your jaw and onto your shoulders.
2. Close what closes. Tighten any clasp, snap, strap or toggle until the padding meets your neck and you can still swallow, talk and turn your head.
3. Turn the closed curve under your chin. If the opening was at your throat, turn the pillow around.
4. Sit all the way back. Slide your hips to the back of the seat so your head starts against the headrest.
5. Lean into the wall. In a window seat, settle toward the wall so the side padding takes your head.

Some heads still drop with everything in place. Short naps in a seat may be what a flight allows, and we would rather say so plainly than promise otherwise.

08What this cannot fix

A neck pillow holds padding where your head goes. It cannot change the seat, how far it reclines, the seat in front of you, a middle seat with no wall to lean on, or how little sleep a flight allows. We found no study that compares ways to wear one, and the seat study in this guide used no neck pillow, so everything here about direction and snugness is our advice. Even a good fit leaves some heads dropping.

After a night flight, see our guide on what to do the morning your neck is stiff: it has a plan for the day and the warning signs that need care right away. Cleveland Clinic lists "sleeping on your neck in an unusual position" among the causes of a stiff neck.³ It also says: "Visit a healthcare provider if you're having trouble moving your neck and the stiffness lasts more than a few days."³ If that describes your neck, see a health professional rather than reaching for a different pillow.

If your neck was already sore from the workweek before you boarded, start with our guide to neck pain at work, which begins at the desk.

09Which pillow is this?

It is our travel neck pillow, made for the seat rather than the bed: a ring with a drawstring toggle and four zones around your neck, at the nape, both sides and the chin. The knit cover is cool and soft to the touch. It measures 28 x 27 x 13 cm, rolls into a phone-size case, and the strap snaps it onto a suitcase handle. The box holds the pillow and the carry case, and the pillow comes in Gray or Black. It has a faint scent at first, so air it out for a day before the trip.

It suits the traveler whose head drops forward in a seat and who wants a front that closes. It puts padding where your head goes and nothing more: it does not change the seat, and it is not meant for a neck that already hurts. For the rest of the trip, browse our Travel guides.