The Best Mattress: One Chiropractor’s Journey! Do you feel like the bruised princess who slept on a pea? Does your mattress swallow you up like a sinkhole? Would a bed of nails be an improvement? Do you spend more time tossing and turning than sleeping? Do you wake up every morning with an achy, stiff back? Are you just as tired as when you went to bed? If so, it’s time to get a new or better mattress! Every week I find myself consulting patients on proper sleep positions and which mattress I recommend. The answers that follow will definitely get you through the night… If you really want a good night’s sleep, take the pressure off! Each night the average person tosses and turns between 80-100 times. When too much pressure is applied to your body where it contacts the mattress, your circulation is restricted and joint position altered. Slight pressure (30mmHg and above) on the blood vessels in your skin can cause irreversible cell damage after 1-2 hours.
The brain must regularly signal a positional change to avoid injury. Restful sleep is lost and the normal repair and maintenance during the night is insufficient. Forget what the Ad’s say. Whether a mattress is soft or firm is not the key factor. The best mattresses are designed to be supportive. By conforming to the body’s contours, the weight is more evenly distributed. The lordotic curves of the neck and lower back are cradled while the convexities of the head, mid back, tailbone and the arms and legs are accommodated during back sleeping. With a lower percentage of the body contacting the mattress during side sleeping, proper support is paramount. When all is in order, pressure points are reduced, proper alignment achieved and blood circulation flows with little interruption. Ahh… a restful sleep is experienced! Typically, halfway through a “best mattress” consultation, most patients will ask me what the best position is for sleeping. (Passing out on the armchair does not count).
Avoid sleeping on your stomach due to the extreme and often one-sided twist of the neck in order to maintain respiration. Lying on your back is the preferred method of sleeping and allows for the largest surface area for the distribution of your weight. Side sleeping would be the next choice. A pillow should support the curve of the neck and not be too high when back sleeping. This would cause the head to jut forward relative to your shoulders.* For some people, a pillow under the knees may add comfort. During side sleeping the pillow must be an adequate height to maintain proper spinal alignment. I have found that most side sleepers have a pillow that is too low and/or they tuck the chin. This causes the head to translate to one side and leads to harmful pressures on the spine and nerves. Side sleepers are also advised to place a pillow between their knees to lesson hip stress. Years ago I embarked on a weary-eyed journey through magazines, catalogues, showrooms and cyberspace in order to find the best mattress.
The first stop on my journey led to a queen-sized memory foam mattress and pillow. This combination felt great initially, but left me unsatisfied within a year’s time. I set out on a new quest. I contacted companies and researched different technologies. After numerous glossy brochures, phone conversations and informational DVD ’s, and completing the below checklist, I found what my bones were aching for! Must be supportive during side and back sleeping. Must have an adjustable firmness on each side. One person can move without disturbing the other person. Must have an excellent warranty. Must come with a 60-90 day in-home trial period (very important!). Is dust mite resistant and easy to clean. Is provided to doctors for free!! With my journey’s conclusion, I was not able to check all of the items off of the list- it was not free for doctors! Beyond my written requirements, it had other benefits that I did not anticipate. The top is made of a removable and washable wool cover.
This natural moisture-absorbing surface combats the existence of dust mites and is comfortable and breathable in all seasons. The bed also is comprised of separate parts including air cylinders that automatically self-adjust when you reposition yourself. The cylinders are covered by a layer of memory foam and padded around all sides. In light of the many people I meet with back injuries caused by lifting a heavy mattress to flip it or change the sheet, I was delighted by the lightness of my new discovery. My wife and I were thrilled… and still are after eight years on it. The mattress I found is the Chiro 9000 Natural Form Mattress. Perhaps your greatest domestic investment is your mattress. One third of your life is spent on it. Your health and wellness depend on it. I can’t stress enough the importance of a trial period. It is nearly impossible to know how you will feel until you have slept on it for at least a month or two. And then, once the love connection is made, it won’t matter how many peas are lurking under your mattress.
You will be lost in your sweet dreams. To receive the discounts and free-return shipping provided exclusively to chiropractic patients (even if you are not a patient presently), mention “Living Well Magazine”. * and review the article Upper Back HUMP = A Slouch in Your Health or a Shortened Life for more information regarding the negative effects of having a forward head posture. < Prev Next > Do it yourself, Great new products and how to'sRecently a friend of mine asked me, “Do you know what is the best mattress for back pain?” She was having a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep because of sciatica and some back problems. I figured the firmest mattress (hard mattress) was probably the best but I really didn't know for sure. To answer her question, I decided to dig into the medical literature to see what was in there about the best mattress for backI went back about 10 years. There aren't a lot of studies on mattresses and back pain.
But there's enough information there to make a And not only was I wrong about what I thought was the best mattress for back pain, but so are a heck of a lot of doctors who deal with back pain. mean better for back pain. In 2003, a study from Spain of 313 adults with chronic low back pain examined the effect of mattresses on their levels of pain while lying in bed...and when getting out of bed. Some of these people got new firm mattresses to sleep on for 90 days and some got new medium-firm mattresses. participants knew which type of mattress they had received. After 90 days, a higher percentage of patients sleeping on the medium-firm mattresses reported: The study states: A mattress of medium firmness improves pain and disability among patients with chronic non-specific low-back A medium-firm mattress provides good support while distributing pressure points on the body when lying in bed. mattress that is too soft is just as bad for low back pain as a mattress that is too firm.
In a 2005 study, The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association pointed out that in a survey, 76% of orthopedic surgeonsAnd most health professionals recommend hard or extra firm mattresses. The problem again is that these types of mattresses decrease the ability of the body to have more contact with the mattress. more pressure on the parts of the body that do touch the mattress. in turn means more pain in bed and getting out of bed. It's a known fact that low back pain significantly affects sleepA study in 2006 (Journal of Chiropractic Medicine) also looked at sleep quality in relation to medium-firm mattresses. The study of 30 women and 29 men showed this: For 28 days, subjects slept in their owns beds. Then they slept in beds with new medium-firm mattresses for 28 days. With this new bedding, there was significant improvement for back pain and stiffness, comfort, and sleep quality. Is it starting to become clear here what the best mattress for back pain is?
A 2008 study in Applied Ergonomics showed that age of and quality of bedding had a major effect on back pain. People sleeping in new beds had significantly less pain and more comfort than when they were sleeping on their older mattresses. The average age of the beds people were sleeping on before getting the new mattresses was 9.5 years. In addition, the study states: It was found that for the cheapest category of beds, lower back pain was significantly more prominent than for the medium and higher priced beds. So let's wrap up this article on the best mattress for back pain with two final studies I uncovered. Below, we'll also take a look at three top choices for where to get the mattress of your dreams. The first study was in Spine. One hundred and sixty people were divided into three groups for a one month test of new mattresses. in group one were given water beds...group two memory foam mattresses...and group three hard mattresses.
People who slept on the water beds and memory foam mattresses had improved back pain symptoms, back function, and sleep quality. mattress types were deemed superior to a hard mattress. were no differences observed between the water bed and the memory foam. Now I don't know about you, but I've slept in a few water beds over the years but never really liked them. I always felt like I was sleeping in a row boat. A 2010 study showed that replacing patients' beds with new medium-firm mattresses, layered with memory foam and latex, provided significant improvement in both back and shoulder pain. Check out this chart below and you'll see what the best mattress for back pain is. As you can see, there is over a 60% drop in back pain and stiffness, resulting in improvement in sleep quality after just one week! And these results continue through week 12. Researchers also mentioned there was a significant drop in the number of days per week that people were experiencing poor sleep and
Obviously, then, if your back gives you fits, the best mattress for back pain is one that has memory foam in it. (Or if you love your water bed, by all means stick with it.) The question then is... Searching around to find a quality mattress is like getting your teeth drilled at the dentist without novocaine. Yes, it's that painful! So I'm going to save you all that trouble. I've searched for hours all over the Internet to bring you three excellent choices of mattress companies. sells America's luxury mattresses for a steep discount. Their prices are unbeatable. And if you don't live in the United States, no problem. Saatva ships their discounted luxury mattresses where you live. After you pick out the items you want on Saatva's website, select International Checkout as your shipping option. They are experts at shipping anywhere in the world. You can read two Saatva customer reviews from Saatva customers in the right column of this page up above. This may be the best mattress company on the Internet.
Click here to go to the Saatva home page. is recommended and was featured on Dr. Oz's TV show and AndersonThey claim to have the world's only truly natural memory foamI must say, these are incredibly pure memory foam mattresses. However, they are expensive. So unless you have a lot of money, I think you can get a much better deal with the third choice below.There’s a new memory foam mattress Loom & Leaf has flipped the world of buying memory foam Now you can get a luxury queen from Loom & Leaf for onlyA similar mattress at Tempur-Pedic would cost you $3,699. Which price would you rather pay? Loom & Leaf mattresses are built in America with American high-grade, non-toxic memory foam. Certified pure by Certi-PUR. They also use a unique medical grade cooling gel. placed in the spinal zone area to keep you cool and comfortable with no When you buy one of these mattresses, you’re not only sleeping well at night…you’re helping to keep the American economy strong.