The way in which the headrest assimilated the head with the sun is examined. An analysis of the decoration, shape, material, and colour of a number of headrests, as well as a short survey of the funerary literature, teaches us that the assimilation of the head and the sun is realized in three ways, namely by equating the headrest symbolically to the akhet, to the sky, or to both of them. The symbolism, which is attested from the end of the First Intermediate Period onwards, has to be seen against the background of the funerary beliefs and the conception of sleep.