Why is it that kids (or people who don’t seem to have back problems) can sleep in the strangest, most bizarre positions, but never seem to have any pain? How is that they can sleep in totally unnatural positions and still sleep just fine? And why is it that even when I try to sleep in a perfect position, on a great bed, with tons of pillows, I can’t sleep. What the heck is going on? After many years of sleepless nights, I figured out the answer. Exclusive Bonus: Download a bonus step by step guide here to getting pain free (2 tips not mentioned here). Alright, so you’re going to have to trust me on this next one – your spine wants to be perfectly aligned all day. Standing, sitting, walking, sleeping – your spine really only has one optimal position, although it’s obviously built to accommodate flexibility and constant motion. When you mess up that natural, optimal alignment for too long (like when you sit at work for 8 hours and get terrible lower back pain), pain results.
Here’s a common misalignment of the spine, where the shoulders are hunched and the head pokes out (computer caveman syndrome anyone?): And here’s another common spinal misalignment that is frequent in many of us who sit a lot. Tight hip muscles cause the lower back to overly arch: So what do any of these have to do with your sleep? It’s important to know what proper spinal alignment is versus dysfunctional alignment – so that when you sleep you can quickly remind yourself how to get into a properly aligned position. The real question is how to keep the natural position of the spine while sleeping. Depending on how tight your hips are, if your legs are too straight, it will pull the lower back into an arched position. If your legs are too bent, tight hamstrings will pull the lower back into an overly-rounded position. The key is to find the sweet spot in-between. For many of us with tight hamstrings, tucking the legs up too close to the chest will result in an over-rounding of the lower back.
For those of you with neck/upper back pain, it’s really important to pay attention to your shoulder and neck alignment. Generally, the main problem that people have with back sleeping is that the lower back starts to ache. Usually this can be because of tight hip muscles like the hip flexors & psoas. It’s pretty easy to figure out if they’re tight: Just bend your knees to a 90 degree angle – when your legs are pulled up, is there less pain and does your lower back feel less arched? If so, it’s probably tight hips. The easy fix is to simply add a pillow beneath your knees, which will let the lower back settle a bit. The problem here is very similar to the problem that people have with sleeping on their back – but in reverse. Here, you want to put a pillow or flat towel under your stomach/groin to help push that lower back up into alignment a bit. Usually you can immediately feel the relief. If you’re having problems with your back or neck, I highly suggest sleeping on your back.
There are a number of reasons for this: first – just from personal experience, sleeping on your back is generally the easiest way to aggravate the fewest number of things (well, except for snoring ). When you sleep on your side, you have to worry about your back alignment, neck alignment, your hips twisting, etc. When you sleep on your back there is less than can go wrong and fewer variables to experiment with to get comfortable. Second, when you sleep on your back, you are naturally laying flat which is letting gravity re-align the body a bit. It’s offsetting the fact that you might have just been sitting in a caveman computer pose for 10 hours (here’s how to fix that back pain). Also, if you have neck pain, I’ve found that back sleeping is also easier than side sleeping for some people. People with neck pain tend to have protruding necks (in my case – from staring at a computer screen for 10 hours a day). Usually when they go to sleep the neck continues protruding and stays in the poor alignment, reinforcing the pain.
It took me years of waking up to throbbing neck muscles and spasming trapezius muscles, with a crap night of sleep, to realize this. At the end of the day, deviation from your body’s natural alignment will cause pain in the long-run. The key is to maintain better alignment throughout the day, and while you’re sleeping. If you’re at work, make sure to focus on sitting properly to prevent back pain. If you’re in pain when you’re sleeping (or when you wake up), take the same precautions – for a few weeks, awkwardly force yourself to get into a more aligned position when you sleep. Missed sleep sucks, and I’ve been there with the back pain. You just need to be patient and experiment. I also have a free back pain E-course for you in the private insider’s list. Just click here (or click the image to the right) and it’ll bring you there.After a long night’s rest, you expect to rise feeling refreshed, ready to take on the new day. It can be a real downer to wake up with back pain.
The most common cause of sleep-related back pain is poor sleep posture. Thankfully it’s often simple to correct.Poor sleep posture is typically the result of one of three things:We sleep 1/3 of our lives away. With that much practice you’d think we’d all be really great sleepers. Unfortunately not all of us are getting the best rest we can get.When you climb into bed, you might initially feel comfortable, but after you drift off, your sleep position can inadvertently put unnecessary stress on your back. After a bit, your back might get agitated. Your sleeping brain might do you a solid and command your body to reposition itself so that your back gets a little relief. Alternatively, your lazy sleeping brain ignores the agitation, exacerbating the strain. Presto, you’ve got back pain the next morning.“But I used to sleep so well,” you say… Sleeping twisted up like a pretzel on a futon filled with hay and beer cans might have worked fine when you were 20. Unfortunately, as we age, the padded discs between our vertebrae wear out and we become more sensitive to our sleeping conditions.
*sad trombone*Your spine is best off when it’s straight. It’s simple: unnatural bends and twists in your back can cause muscle strains and put pressure on nerves. Keep your back straight and you’ll potentially eliminate your back pain.In most cases stomach sleeping will cause your upper body to arch upwards. It’s a good bet that this is the root of your problem; try to acclimate to a different sleeping position. Rolling to your side will be easiest for most stomach sleepers—put a dense pillow under your top arm to simulate the feeling of the mattress under your chest.If abandoning your cherished stomach sleeping position is just not feasible, try placing a pillow under your hips so that your back isn’t arched. Read More: Sleeping on Your Stomach: Make the Most of It!Side-sleeping works pretty well for most. It is the most common sleeping position and will help to keep your spine straight and elongated.Most doctors and sleep experts recommend sleeping on your back – if you can pull it off.
For most, back sleeping will help you maintain a neutral sleeping position. There’s little opportunity for twisting or bending the spine, so back sleepers are likely to get better rest and wake up refreshed. Read More: I’ve tried to adjust to back sleeping myself. It was not easy.Already a back sleeper and experiencing back pain? While it’s touted as a great way to sleep, back sleeping can sometimes cause back pain as well. If that’s the case, try putting a pillow under your legs and/or stretching your hip flexors before bedtime. Otherwise, try rolling to your side.If your pillow is too thin or soft, your back will bend downward at an awkward angle. Conversely, if it’s too thick, your spine might bend unnaturally upward. Both situations can cause pain.If your head is supported at the correct level, the muscles in your neck and back will be able to to completely relax. Pressure on your discs and muscles will be diminished and, as a result, your back pain reduced.We westerners are acclimated to traditional “soft” pillows containing down or polyester fibers.
Most of these traditional soft pillows will collapse under pressure and can not support your head adequately throughout the night. In fact, many find themselves using two pillows or folding their pillow in half in an attempt to support their head at the proper level. Fiddling with pillows in the middle of the night is not conducive to good sleep!We are huge fans of buckwheat pillows due to their adjustable and malleable nature. The buckwheat hull fill is really unique—it will perfectly conform to the space between your head and the mattress eliminating potentially pain-causing pressure points in your neck and back. Most buckwheat pillows are adjustable; you can add or remove fill to dial in the loft (height) so that your spine is straight rather than bent upwards or downwards.Your pillow is probably pretty nasty anyway! Toss it out and treat yourself to a new one.Like pillows, your mattress needs to provide proper amount of support to maintain proper sleep posture.Pillow top mattresses have become quite popular in recent years.
They’re not necessarily better than non-pillow top types. Laying on a squishy compressible surface all night long can cause back pain for some, particularly stomach sleepers. They can allow your body to bend too far downward at the waist. This can be a result of the pillow top’s foam:If your mattress is too firm, it won’t compress sufficiently to allow your body to sink downwards in the appropriate locations. This can result in an unpleasant upward bend in your lower back.The large mattress manufacturers are frequently criticized for their marketing practices. They often distribute the same mattress under different names to each retailer intentionally making it difficult for consumers to comparison shop.Your best bet is to ignore the goofy marketing lingo and purchase whatever is comfortable and well-reviewed. Unfortunately it’s difficult to determine what’s genuinely comfortable with online shopping or even a short visit to a brick and mortar location. Ideally, you need to sleep on a mattress to truly know if it’s right for you.