When you are sleeping, eating, working, standing, and doing other things, your spine is one of the most important things that supports your body. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you are getting ready to sleep? Most people think of mattresses and pillows. People make use of mattresses and pillows so that they can sleep peacefully by supporting the head, neck, and body.
Is Your Mattress Causing Back Pain?
When there is sudden pain in your back, one of the reasons could be your mattress. If you haven’t changed anything in your daily routine schedule then pain could be coming from an uncomfortable mattress. Think of the times you’ve been to a hotel and woke up with a bad back– it was probably the mattress!
How do you know if your mattress is to blame for pain? The very first clue is “when” your back pain occurs. If you feel back pain when you first wake up, but you can stretch to get rid of it within 15-30 minutes, then that is a major sign that your mattress is doing more harm than good. If you generally find yourself waking up more frequently or tossing and turning to try to get to sleep, then that’s also a sign. A piece of advice that everyone should follow is that you should ideally replace your mattress every eight years.
People suffering from chronic back pain usually have trouble while sleeping/finding comfort at night. They improve their sleeping patterns by replacing their mattress.
How Does A Mattress Affect Your Spine And Cause Back Pain?
The average innerspring of a mattress has a service life of about seven to eight years, even if it has proper rotation and care. After the service life ends, the mattress loses its response quality and does not provide the required support and comfort. The coils that support the mattress lose their full structure, the foam can succumb due to pressure, and there’s deformation of the overall structure of the mattress. A deformed mattress affects the spine of the body adversely.
The Link Between A Mattress And The Spine – What Researchers Say:
Various studies and surveys conducted by researchers state that during sleep neuromuscular activity operates at a minimal level. The main factor influencing posture is then gravity, which is sufficient enough to cause deformation in the body’s soft tissues while stretching out on a bad and deformed mattress. A good mattress helps in distributing body weight uniformly.
Checking The Firmness Of The Mattress: People who are prone to stomach sleeping or back sleeping might experience morning back pain or a sore back. They must look at the firmness level of the mattress. For stomach sleepers and back sleepers, having a firm mattress will help them recover from back pain while sleeping.
If a person suffers from stiff lower back pain, regardless of the sleeping position, then the mattress is too soft. Having too soft of a mattress causes the spine to fall out of alignment and forces muscles to contract rather than relax. On the other hand, if joint pain and stiffness are your main problems, your mattress may be too firm and could even be restricting blood flow to your joints. Always choose soft to medium-firm mattresses as they can better cradle pressure points due to their more contouring foam layers. They offer a unique buoyancy that lifts away tension.
Your Pillow Isn’t Cutting It
Even when people are adopting good sleeping habits, having “the wrong pillow” under the head can cause major issues with the spine, neck, and back. It can literally aggregate the pain you are already feeling! You must have a good pillow while sleeping because your pillow is just as important as your mattress when it comes to proper spinal alignment.
The best trick that you can follow is to choose a pillow with the right amount of loft for your sleep position. It is observed that side sleepers tend to need more supportive pillows with a higher profile, while stomach sleepers should search for a pillow with a lower profile. In the case of back sleepers, they can actually sleep on both high and low loft/profile pillows, depending on personal preference.
Summary: There are a lot of different reasons that people experience back pain. Figuring out where your discomfort is coming from can be difficult, especially if you lead an active or challenging life. However, the pillow and the mattress you use while going to sleep at night can play a big part in how you feel in the morning. In other words, it’s important to find out whether your bed is to blame for your back soreness or not.
