Your neck is great for a lot of things. It raises your eyes further above the ground, for a better view. It lets you move many of your sensory organs (eyes, ears, even nose) without having to move your whole body, giving you a wider practical range of sensation.
What it's not good for is lying down. It's great when you're vertical, but bad when you're horizontal. Your head has altered dramatically from your four-legged forebears, and your neck is longer even than your immediate primate ancestors.
A proper pillow can help the neck retain about the same curvature when you're laying down as when you're vertical. This requires some fiddling, since humans can sleep on their front, their sides, or their back. (Most animals sleep in only one position, though my cats manage to be comfortable in an astonishing array of positions.)
A pillow helps keep the spine properly positioned, without a pillow the person will wake up with a stiff neck and shoulders and will get some future problems due to the repetitive awkward positioning of their spine. Now Obviously, when the body is in a correct position the person is feeling comfortable, and physical comfort is very important to fall asleep.
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