If you talk to most people and the subject of sleeping on an air mattress comes up, they will talk about air mattresses as an necessary evil in some circumstances, like moving, traveling, camping and having more guests than your house can accommodate. If you ask them about why they prefer a regular mattress, chances are that among the first arguments you will hear is that a regular mattress provides better support for your back and is better for your back overall. Should you ask why is that, this is where their argumentation becomes vague and it becomes obvious, and let me be blunt here, that they don’t quite know what they’re talking about. Having reviewed dozens (maybe even hundreds, don’t know any more) of air mattresses and knowing the subject inside out I decided to write a short article and make a few things clearer and, frankly, ‘demolish’ a couple of common misconceptions about air beds and a healthy spine. I personally have a history of back problems so I also know first hand that some of the things even doctors told me are not quite right.
Let me first demystify what ‘healthy” means in terms of the position of your back while side sleeping with a graph that explains it a lot better than I ever could with words: So, you see that when sleeping on a surface of optimal firmness, it will allow your pressure points like the shoulders and the hip bone to sink into the mattress just enough so that the spine is properly aligned and there is no pressure on the vertebrae and the spine does not form an arch. Let us now take a look at another image of the optimal position of your neck when sleeping: There is one air mattress that’s proven to be the ultimate solution for any kind of back problems proven in official studies by Dr., but it comes with a price to match. (for the rest of us, I’ll provide you with some cheaper options later on in the text.) I am talking about it’s majesty – the Innomax Medallion. So you see, again, with the pillow we are aiming for natural. Natural straight position of the spine when you are sleeping on your side and a natural curve of your neck when sleeping on your back.
In the third image we can see what can go wrong with the way your pillow aligns your neck vertebrae in side sleeping: I don’t like to dilly-dally so I’m going to give you two lists here – best mattresses for back pain in two price ranges: Let us speak in plainer terms – as you can see in our images, when the bed is too firm your hip bone and your shoulder are not allowed to ‘sink’ into the sleeping surface enough and this forces your spine into an arch. It this happens for one or two nights, you might just be stiff, but over time this can lead to a chronic problem. This was one of the worst advise I personally got from a doctor – to sleep on a surface that is a hard as a board. For a while I thought that how bad I felt was due to that old ‘it will get worse before it gets better’ but since the ‘better’ was not happening I consulted a few more specialists and used common sense to get a bed that will allow me to sleep with my spine properly aligned. This is what I look at when I choose my bed and what I am looking at when choosing an air mattress.
I am not aiming here for medical advise, but looking into what favor you can do to your body by choosing the right surface to sleep on. Our body is not a straight line and sleeping on a surface that is too firm can cause pressure points and cause all sorts of issues with our back and joints. Now we are getting to the bottom of things, that is why air mattresses (if chosen properly) can even provide benefits to a person suffering from back pains. If you read through so many reviews (and I probably read tens of thousands over the years) of some of the best air mattresses on the market you can often see people saying that they thought an air mattresses would be just a temporary solution and then chose it as their main bed. This gets us to the gist of the analysis of how an air mattress can actually help with the back pain. Almost all air beds nowadays offer it and it can be the solution to choosing the right mattress for you. If you sleep on it and feel bad in the morning the next night you try making it a bit sturdier.
Then probably it is to firm and you have to many pressure points that cause the spine to arch as we talked about and as you saw in the images. Next night you make it softer and see how you feel. You do this until you find the firmness that makes your spine straight as an arrow in side sleeping and you get that good night sleep you’ve been longing for. You can’t do this with a regular mattress, even if it’s perfect for you to start with, no doubt it will sag over time. Even with the high-end regular mattresses that you paid multiple times the cost of an air mattress, there is no way around it. If not in 6 months, maybe not even in a year or two, but it will happen. That is where the strengths of an air bed shines through. Adjusting it until you have your optimal support. This did miracles for my back. And the soft foams and finishes on the better air mattresses can provide the same luxurious feeling that you find in an expensive regular bed. In other words, you can adjust your air bed to distribute the weight and relieve the pressure points just right.
That’s all there is to it. This is not something I am just saying, this has been proven over and over again in official studies (Lancet 2003; 362 1599-604 is a good example). So, things are not so simple after all. If something is not paid thousands of dollars for, doesn’t mean it’s not as good for your back or even better than the high class regular mattresses. I think we might have a myth debunked here, don’t you agree? … the myth of air beds being bad for your spine. It simply isn’t true. Ratings > Mattresses and Bad Back Problems Unbiased Comparisons Based on 22,478 Owner Experiences Some mattresses perform significantly better than others in preventing / relieving pain, including back, hip and shoulder pain. Before discussing which are best, three interrelated terms are important to understand: support, conforming ability, and firmness. Support refers to how well a mattress keeps the sleeper's body on a flat and level plane.
Owner experience data shows that support is a key factor in preventing and alleviating pain, especially back pain. Support can be undermined by excessive softness and excessive firmness – but it is most often undermined by sagging of the mattress. Sagging is the top complaint of mattress owners overall with at least 30% reporting a significant problem. Sagging occurs when part of a mattress, usually the middle, becomes compressed and lower than the rest. Sagging often puts a person's spine into an unnatural position – especially for side and stomach sleepers. Consequently, mattress owner experience data shows a clear connection between sagging and pain, especially back pain. The greater the sagging depth the more likely it is that sagging will cause a person to have discomfort or pain in bed and possibly out of bed. * especially for side and / or stomach sleepers. It should be noted that despite the fact that back pain for many people may occur with less than 1.5 inches of sagging depth, many mattress warranties cover sagging only if it has a depth greater than 1.5 inches.
Conforming ability refers to how well a mattress conforms or molds to the contours and curves of a person's body. A mattress has good conforming ability if all of one's body is supported equally by the mattress. A lack of conforming ability means there are gaps in support. The result can be that at least one part of the body – such as the lower back – is placed in an unsupported, unnatural and therefore stressed position which can cause pain. A lack of conforming ability also often results in some parts of the body – namely shoulders and hips of side sleepers – feeling more pressure than other parts because of unequal support. Such pressure can be a source of significant discomfort. Having the right firmness is an important factor in preventing / relieving pain. Learn more: Mattress Firmness Guide & Comparison. The graph below shows the pain-relieving ability of the different mattress types based on actual owner experiences. The types that are better at reducing (back, hip and shoulder) pain are more supportive, less likely to sag and more likely to have effective conforming ability.
Keep in mind that the chart represents what is often but not always the case; model or individual mattress may go against these findings somewhat. Sagging and loss of support (barring mechanical breakdown) is usually less of a problem with airbeds compared to most other bed types. And the air chambers inside an airbed provide at least fair conforming ability and allow for adjustable firmness / support to suit personal preference and sleep position. Airbeds, however, with little or no comfort layer can be too firm on hips and or shoulders of small- to average-sized side sleepers. While memory foam mattresses can develop problems (sagging, excessive softness, and loss of support) these problems tend to not be as common or serious as they can be with innerspring-based mattresses (memory foam's main competition). Memory foam also provides good conforming ability for average- to large-sized people. Firmness levels tend to be mostly medium to medium-firm. Smaller-sized people may experience excessive pressure points as they tend to not exert adequate pressure on the mattress to benefit from the foam's conforming ability.
Latex can develop body impressions and soften to some extent, but these problems tend to not cause widespread pain problems. Latex often conforms moderately to the body. Firmness tends to be medium to firm (but soft varieties are available). Hybrid mattresses often provide above-average support, but such support breaks down for at least 18% of owners within three years due to sagging. Conforming ability tends to be good if at least two inches of memory foam is present. A variety of firmnesses are available. While waterbeds are often highly conforming, their support is questionable. At least 15% of owners claim that their waterbed causes back pain because of poor support. Firmness can be adjusted somewhat by adding or removing water. Innerspring mattresses often provide at least fair support, but such support breaks down for at least 20% of owners within three years due to sagging. Models with a significant comfort layer often provide fair conforming ability, while models with a minimal comfort layer often provide poor conforming ability especially for small- to average-sized people.