Millet Pillow

A millet pillow is stuffed with the seeds of one of a variety of small pod bearing plants, such as pearl millet, foxtail millet, or finger millet. The classification of a plant as millet is not a familial one, as plants from wildly divergent evolutionary descent have earned this classification. Rather the functional use of the seeds as either a food source or padding is the requirement that binds the different forms of millet together.

A millet pillow has a very different feel from the fibrous pillows, and it is one that some people much prefer to the springy feel of a stuffing like cotton or polyester. Millet was used as a food source long before it made the transition to a stuffing, primarily in the Indian peninsula. India is still the world's top producer of millet, followed by the sub-Saharan African nations.

The first applications for a millet pillow were travel pillows, before the advent of synthetic substances such as memory foam. The C shaped neck pillow is a perfect example of the type of pillow that originally featured ball like substances rather than fiber stuffing. While millet retains an application in this field, it has also spread to traditional pillows, as well as other applications such as oversized bean bags.