For most of my 20s, I assumed constant neck tension was just part of adult life. I worked long days on a laptop, half the evening on my phone, and every morning I woke up with the same stiffness at the base of my skull and that dull headache behind my eyes. I tried massages, stretches, even changing my mattress. Nothing really lasted.

‎

Growing up between two cultures made this even more interesting. On the Chinese side of my family, sleep and posture were treated as serious health foundations. My relatives would talk about the curve of the neck, circulation, even which pillow materials were better for long‑term health. On the Dutch side, I saw something very different: people investing in good bikes and good coffee, but sleeping on the cheapest pillow in the store and keeping it for years.

At some point I realised something uncomfortable: I was spending eight hours every night with my neck in the wrong position, on a pillow that was probably doing more harm than good.

‎

I went down the rabbit hole.

‎

I started reading Asian clinical research on cervical lordosis, pillow height, and how different shapes affect muscle tension around the neck. I spoke with manufacturers in Asia about memory foam density, contouring, and pressure mapping. I ordered every ‘orthopedic’ pillow I could find, slept on all of them, and made notes every morning about how my neck felt.

‎

Most of them either looked good on a product page but collapsed under my head, or were so hard and high that my neck felt worse.

‎

So I sketched my own.

I wanted a pillow that would:

▪️Follow the natural curve of the neck, not fight it

▪️Support both side sleepers and back sleepers without forcing you into one position

▪️Use high‑density foam that actually keeps its shape night after night

‎

Working with an experienced factory in Asia, we went through prototype after prototype. Some were too high, some too flat, some perfect for side sleeping but awful for back sleeping. I slept on all of them. Friends and family tested them. Only when I consistently woke up without that familiar morning stiffness did I let myself think: this is it.

‎

That design became the Restign pillow.

‎

It’s shaped using principles taken from Asian ergonomic research, but adapted for real life: people who sit at desks all day, scroll on their phones at night, and still want to wake up feeling like their body actually recovered.

I didn’t start Restign because I wanted to be in the ‘bedding’ business. I started it because I was tired of feeling broken in the morning at 30, and I knew there were thousands of people quietly feeling the same.

‎

If that’s you, this pillow is my way of saying: your neck deserves better than a flat rectangle.