When back pain comes about suddenly, it can be both inconvenient and confusing. What is causing your back pain if you haven’t changed anything in your daily schedule? The answer may lie in your mattress. There are so many causes of back pain, so it can be hard to pinpoint where your aches are coming from. However, there are some clues to look out for to see if your mattress is to blame. The first clue is when your back pain occurs. If your back pain is there 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. Also, if you find yourself waking up more frequently or are tossing and turning trying to get to sleep, then that should also be a sign. Even if you are not prone to back pain, you should ideally replace your mattress every eight years. Every one has different sleep preferences, which can make it hard to find the perfect mattress. Look for one that is not too firm or too soft.
If the mattress is too firm, it will push on your pressure points and cause misalignment. Similarly, if the bed is too soft, it will allow your body to sink into the bed causing bad posture while you sleep, which can then lead to pain. The right mattress should make you feel like you are floating on air. Financial times might be tough at the moment, but one should consider in investing in a good mattress. Think about it, you should be spending 7-9 hours on your mattress each night, which makes it an important piece of furniture. You want to invest in something that will give you better sleep and less pain, instead of going frugal and buying a mattress that is not right for your body. It is a very wise idea to get a wellness adjustment from your chiropractor before you go mattress shopping. This can help relieve pain and help you have better posture and body support while you sleep. Ask your chiropractor for advice on sleeping positions, as well as recommendations for mattresses. Not only is your chiropractor a back expert, but he has probably heard a lot of recommendations from his patients who suffered from mattress-induced back pain.
Changing your mattress will most likely do wonders for your back pain, if that was the cause. You can also implement a short stretching routine into your day. Aim to do a few stretches before you go to bed and after you wake up to help with spine flexibility. Also, it is important to learn how to sleep in the best position possible. Many experts recommend sleeping on your side with a pillow between your legs to support the hips and lower back. Certain pillows can also help promote less neck and back pain while you sleep. For sweeter dreams and less back pain in the morning, consider getting a new mattress. Your sleep is essential, so make sure you are getting a mattress that will improve your sleep, not make it worse. When mattress shopping, bring your own pillow and spend a good ten to fifteen minutes on each mattress. It may seem silly, but it is the best way to ensure you get the right mattress for you. Remember to always consult your chiropractor before taking any health advice.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.