We’ve seen some crazy travel pillow designs. There are giant pillows that promise supersized comfort, hand-shaped pillows designed to comfort, and even versatile sleep-anywhere contraptions. The HypNap Trurest, however, has to be among the wackiest we’ve seen. We mean… just look at it.
Billed as a forward-leaning rest aid solution, it offers to change the way you sleep during flights by eliminating the travel pillow completely. Instead, you get a device that mounts to the tray table in front, using it to support your weight while you lean forward and doze off. Yes, that sounds like a flimsy tray table accident waiting to happen, but we’ve seen some sus Kickstarter projects turn out to become impressive final products, so we’re going to wait this one out.
The HypNap Trurest consists of a frame with two padded sections: one for the face and another for the chest. The idea is you lean forward to rest your face and chest on the contraption, then doze off, letting the tray table support your weight while the plane goes on its merry way to wherever you’re heading. The face support is reminiscent of those headrests on massage tables, so it puts padding around your head while keeping your face open. Yes, it’s weird as heck and we can’t wait to see people using this on planes just the see what disasters arise. Heck, maybe we’ll end up being surprisingly impressed. Either way, bring it on.
To ensure a comfortable posture, you can adjust the distance of the supports to your seat, as well as the height positions of the head support, so you can tweak the specific ergonomics to your exact liking. From what we can tell, the design is based on the forward-leaning massage chair, which puts you in a seated position that should be genuinely more comfortable than the typical upright stance we take when sleeping with a traditional neck pillow.
The HypNap Trurest’s forward-leaning position is supposedly great for individuals seeking relief from neck and back pain, as it puts zero strain on those areas when sleeping this way for long periods. Sure, it looks awkward and will definitely prompt some young people to film you while you sleep, but if it gets you well-rested on a long flight, it’s probably worth the quizzical stares. Granted, we still don’t trust the airline tray table to provide the necessary support to let you use something like this without hitch, but it will definitely make for an interesting solution if they manage to make it work.
It’s collapsible, by the way, with a design that allows it to fit in a carrying case measuring 10.5 x 8 x 4 inches (height x width x depth). Yep, that’s probably just slightly bigger than your favorite travel headphones, making this convenient enough to bring to your flights. The outfit claims it’s also TSA approved, so you can pack it in your carry-on luggage and take it to the plane with no problems.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the HypNap Trurest. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $145.