Not a business plan. A side-sleeper problem that had to be solved.
Pillowblox grew from my own experience: losing half of one lung, being able to sleep on only one side, and being unable to find a pillow that provided stable support throughout the night.
Dwi Christanti · Founder & Hardcore Side Sleeper
I started in the bedding industry.
In 2017, I worked as a Product Manager for an international bedding company. My focus was research and development for new pillows: understanding materials, testing shapes, and finding ways to make sleep products more comfortable.
At the time, I never imagined that I would one day use that knowledge to solve my own sleep problem.
Professional life before the medical crisis
One Sunday after Chinese New Year.
One Sunday after Chinese New Year, I suddenly began coughing up blood. The day had felt completely normal. Then, without warning, I was rushed to the hospital, lost consciousness, and spent one month in intensive care. In total, I was hospitalized for approximately three months.
During that period, I had an experience that remains vivid in my memory. I felt as though I had died and dreamed that a guardian was guiding me through several places while offering words of comfort.
To save my life, half of one lung was removed.
I understand that the medical decision was made during an emergency. However, because the procedure was performed without my consent, I emotionally felt that my body had been violated. That feeling was difficult to explain and did not disappear when I left the hospital.
From that point on, I lived with half a lung. I stopped working so my body could receive the rest it truly needed.
Breathing, moving, and sleeping no longer felt the same.
My breath became shorter, my stamina decreased, and I tired more easily. The problem I felt most strongly every day was sleep.
I could sleep only on my left side. Spending eight hours in one position created many of the challenges side sleepers commonly experience: shoulder pressure, a stiff neck, poor head-and-spine alignment, frozen-shoulder symptoms, and occasional breathing discomfort.
Recovery changed the way I slept every night
I tried many pillows, including products from the company where I had previously worked.
None fully addressed the problem. A pillow that was too low allowed my head to drop toward the mattress. A pillow that was too high pushed my neck upward. Pillows that felt comfortable at the beginning of the night often changed shape after several hours.
I realized that the answer was not simply a more expensive material or a softer pillow. A side sleeper needs a shape that fills the shoulder gap and support that remains stable throughout the night. Pillowblox.
The design question became: how do we fill the shoulder gap consistently?
I returned to research, this time for my own body.
Together with my then-boyfriend, who is now my husband, I experimented with nearly every part of the design: height, shape, density, firmness, materials, and how the pillow maintained support during side sleeping.
After many trials, we arrived at a block shape that worked for me. It filled the distance between the head and mattress without relying on loose fill that could easily shift. That was how Pillowblox began.
Pillowblox Original · built from a real side-sleeper need
Better sleep should help us become better versions of ourselves.
Today, Pillowblox supports side sleepers facing similar challenges. My hope is simple: through better sleep, we can be more present as parents, leaders, partners, and children in our everyday lives.
Welcome to the side-sleepers’ family,
Dwi Christanti
Founder & Hardcore Side Sleeper
