BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A traditional sleeping pillow having a rectangular sealed bag with loose filling basically has only one height. The height may vary from pillow to pillow. The pillows are used in hotel and at home. Hotel pillows have been a problem for travelers. The pillows may be either too high or too low, and a traveler just cannot do anything if his pillow is too high.

The pillows at home are not ideal either. They may be a little bit too high for shoulder horizontal sleeping posture and a little bit too low for shoulder vertical posture. It is also known that some people need neck support and some don't. A traditional pillow is simply not very flexible in satisfying the different needs. There are special pillows. They have different configurations, however, are not as acceptable as the traditional pillows, and some do not fit in the traditional pillowcase. With minimum change from traditional pillow, this invention is to solve all these problems.

OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION The primary objective of this invention is to improve traditional pillows such that they allow the user to easily choose, during sleep or not during sleep, to rest his head on a more comfortable height.

Another objective of this invention is to improve traditional pillows such that they allow the user to have the choice of various neck supports.

Yet another objective of this invention is to provide improved traditional pillows which can use traditional pillowcase in the market.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1.1 is the top view of a configuration of this invention.

FIG. 1.2 is the 1-1 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 1.1 FIG. 1.3 is the 2-2 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 1.1.

FIG. 2.1 is the top view of another configuration of this invention.

FIG. 2.2 is the 3-3 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 2.1.

FIG. 2.3 is the 4-4 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 2.1.

FIG. 3.1 is the top view of yet another configuration of this invention.

FIG. 3.2 is the 5-5 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 3.1.

FIG. 3.3 is the 6-6 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 3.1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1.1 is the top view of a configuration of this invention. The pillow has a basic construct of a traditional pillow; i. e. a rectangular sealed bag with loose filling of fibers, beans, buckwheat hulls, herbs, feathers, or air except the middle portion of the pillow has a narrow lateral valley [11]. The valley [11] is formed by connecting the middle portion of the upper shell of the pillow and the corresponding portion of the lower shell, e. g. by sewing them together. It may or may not have filling material in the space between the connected area. The valley bottom, i. e. the connected area, has a configuration of a stripe of either in uniform width or non-uniform width; e. g. the middle portion of the stripe is wider. Nevertheless, even the width of the wider area of the bottom is substantially shorter than the length of the bottom. The ratio of the length to the widest width is preferably no less than 2. Basically, to an extent, the pillow with wider valley bottom will provide lower head support. The bottom, as shown in this figure, if it is formed by sewing, can be as thin as a line of straight-stitches. This figure shows that the lateral valley [11] only runs through a portion of the pillow width, i. e. one end of the valley (11] is at a substantial distance, say, at least one inch, from its adjacent longitudinal edge, while the other end is at the opposite longitudinal edge. Therefore, a plateau [12] is surrounding the valley [11] on three sides. When the pillow is in use, the valley bottom may be pressed down to the bed. When the pillow is used in a hotel, the user can choose to rest his head in the valley [11] if he is accustomed to a lower pillow, or on the plateau [12] if he is accustomed to a higher one. During sleep or not, one can also conveniently rest his head in the valley [11] for shoulder horizontal sleeping posture, and on the plateau [12] for the shoulder vertical sleeping posture. One can also choose to get neck support by placing the portion of plateau [12] at the end of the valley [11] under his neck and resting his head in the valley [11]. The height or the firmness of the neck support depends on the density of the loose filling in the plateau [12] at the end of valley [11].

However, to have a different neck support, a lump [121] of soft material, like a small bag with fibers or herbs, foam rubber, or a small air bag, etc. may also be used for the filling in the portion of the plateau [12] at the end of the valley [11]. It is not shown but it is understandable, that the lump [121] may be placed outside of the pillow bag at the end of the valley [11] and serves the same purpose. Besides, the lump located outside of the pillow allows it to be easily replaced. This is especially useful if the lump contains herbs and the user wants to replace it with a lump containing different herbs. It is also understandable that one can shape up a solid soft material, like foam, into a configuration same as the pillow configuration described above and use it with or without a matching shell.

FIG. 1.2 is the 1-1 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 1.1. This figure shows that the valley [11] is formed on both the upper and lower sides of the pillow. It is not shown but it is understandable that the pillow may serve the same purpose if the valley [11] is substantially formed only on the upper side of the pillow.

FIG. 1.3 is the 2-2 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 1.1.

FIG. 2.1 is the top view of another configuration of this invention. This configuration is about the same as shown in Fig. 1 except that a valley [21] is surrounded by a plateau [22] on four sides, i. e. both ends of the valley [21] are at a substantial distance, say, at least one inch, from the corresponding longitudinal edges. This configuration provides neck supports [221] by using the portion of plateau [22] at both ends of the valley [21].

The valley [21] is long enough such that one would not feel an uncomfortable pressure caused by the portion of plateau [22] on the top of his head. Like the neck support mentioned above, this configuration has two neck supports [221]. Therefore, this configuration can provide two neck supports of different firmness instead one as mentioned in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2.2 is the 3-3 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 2.1. This figure shows that the valley [21] is formed on both the upper and lower sides of the pillow. It is not shown but it is understandable that the pillow may serve the same purpose if the valley [21] is substantially formed only on the upper side of the pillow.

FIG. 2.3 is the 4-4 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 2.1 FIG. 3.1 is the top view of yet another configuration of this invention. This configuration has a lateral valley [33] like the one shown in FIG. 1 or Fig. 2 except it has an additional longitudinal valley [31] crossing the middle portion of the lateral valley [33]. The longitudinal valley [31] has the same construct like the lateral valley [33]; however, it may be different in length. It is shorter as it is shown in this figure. However, it can be as long as the length of the pillow. The longitudinal valley [31] can reduce the pillow pressure exerted on the top of the user's head. The valleys [31] and [33] are surrounded by a plateau [32]. The pillow of this configuration will provide more height difference between the bottom of the valley and plateau in the valley crossing area as it is mentioned above for the pillow with non-uniform valley bottom width. This configuration can also provide two neck supports [321] of different firmness like the ones shown in FIG. 2. It is not shown but it is understandable that two or more longitudinal valleys, especially shorter ones, crossing the lateral valley [33] may also help to lower the head support and reduce the pressure on the top of the user's head in the lateral valley [33] area.

FIG. 3.2 is the 5-5 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 3.1. FIG. 3.3 is the 6-6 cross section view of the configuration shown in FIG. 3.1. This figure and FIG. 3.2 show that the valley [33] and valley [31] are formed on both the upper and lower sides of the pillow. It is not shown but it is understandable that the pillow may serve the same purpose if the valley [33] and valley [31] are substantially formed only on the upper side of the pillow.