Chronic back pain is one the most challenging medical conditions to treat and/or cure – and yet it sends more people to the doctor than sore throats. Sitting all day at a desk or standing in heels wreaks havoc on spinal alignment and most of us don’t exercise enough to undo that damage. Sleep can help heal the abuse we throw at our backs but most of us don’t sleep on a mattress that adequately supports our backs and joints. And when we don’t give our backs the rest they need, mornings can be painful. If you and your mattress have lost that loving feeling, let’s talk about the ways a mattress can hurt your back – and the types of mattresses that can help back pain management and support. Mattress support refers to how well a mattress can maintain an equally level surface for the lighter (head, hands and feet) and heavier (hips and torso) parts of your body. A very soft mattress may be supportive initially buy may fail to support your body equally as time goes on.
In extreme cases, a soft mattress that begins to sag (which often occurs in the center third of the mattress) can result in lower back pain in and out of bed. An important thing to note is that some degree of dipping (in that middle third of your mattress) is a natural occurrence as areas that support the heaviest parts of the body compress over time. While a supportive mattress is important, pay attention to how it conforms to your shape as well. Conformability describes how a mattress molds to the unique curves of your body. A mattress with good conformability attends to heavier and lighter areas equally, which relieves pressure point pain and protects your back from pain. A mattress that lacks conformability can result in lower back pain by forcing it into an unnaturally flat position. Your body is in alignment when the spine is (mostly) straight when lying on your side. When you lie on your back, your spine naturally forms an “S” shape. A supportive, conforming mattress allows your back muscles to relax, which improves healthy blood circulation and reduces tossing and turning.
Mom always said the firmer the mattress, the better and for many years I slept on a mattress that felt more like the sidewalk than a bed. Thanks to those years, my chiropractor and massage therapist enjoy job security. In general, mattresses fall into three categories: Does your mattress offer you the support, conformability and firmness you need to reduce your back pain? Many people confuse firmness with support when they’re shopping for a new mattress – and conformability often never enters the conversation. To minimize pain and discomfort and help your body relax into healing, regenerative sleep, you need a mattress that conforms to your sleeping position while supporting all areas of your body – not an easy task. So how do you find the best mattress for you? Grab your partner (if you don’t sleep alone) and start mattress shopping. By shopping, we mean lying on a lot of mattresses. Talk to lots of sales people – this is their business after all – but be prepared to test mattresses for yourself.
You know how your body feels on a bad mattress, so it makes sense that you’ll also know what feels good. Try these 3 simple rules when shopping: What’s the true cost of a good mattress? If you spent $2,000 on a new mattress and slept comfortably on that mattress for 7 years, the cost of healthy sleep would be $1.27 per night – less than the cost of Starbucks coffee in the morning… If you’re ready for a new mattress, we’d love to help you find the right one for you. Visit our Find a Retailer page and we’ll locate a store close by where you can lie on our mattresses and talk to a trained sales professional.When the time comes for your toddler to graduate from a cot to a bed, the range of options can be bewildering. Should you buy a toddler bed or a single bed? An innerspring mattress or a latex one? Should you place it on an ensemble or a slatted base? And what kind of pillow is right if your child sleeps on his back, side or stomach? Here we consult the experts on how to choose a bed that will best support your child's growing body and spine.
Follow these golden rules to ensure a great night's sleep for them (and you). So says Dr Havard Bergby, a paediatric chiropractor at Sydney's Inner West Spinal and Sports Injury Centre. 'As with most things in life, you get what you pay for,' Dr Bergby says. 'When buying a bed for a toddler, parents have to consider the weight and age of the child. The transition from cot to a normal bed should happen between 18 and 36 months, after which a toddler should be in a proper bed with a proper mattress.' Sealy Posturepedic, the world's number-one bedding brand, recommends mattresses with an innerspring system. 'Innerspring mattresses, as opposed to pure foam mattresses, will provide the best skeletal support and conformance to the body while sleeping, and will not degrade with moisture,' says Sealy Australia spokeswoman Kim Bennett. Dr Bergby agrees that innerspring mattresses are better for kids than ones made of foam or latex. 'Foam simply does not have the same supportive properties as a sprung bed and latex has a tendency of shaping to your body over time,' he says.
'This is not recommended for children due to the fact that their body is constantly changing. So, memory foam beds are definitely not good for children.' Dr Bergby says children do not necessarily need an ensemble - a slatted base can be fine, as long as the slats are no further than five centimetres apart. Dr Bergby generally does not recommend bunk beds, 'mainly because of the many injuries I see as a result of kids either falling from or jumping from the top of a bunk bed. Boys, in particular, tend to love this.' Although they're all the rage, a toddler bed - which is essentially a frame that makes sure a child does not roll out of it at night as well as giving them a similar snug feeling to their cot - is something they will quickly grow too big for. 'A toddler bed can be a good alternative for children who are finding the transition to a ''big'' bed difficult,' says Dr Bergby. 'What mattress you use on the toddler bed is what matters. Between 18 and 36 months a child's spine is rapidly developing and growing, particularly at night.
It's imperative that the mattress provides sufficient support to ensure this growth happens naturally. I frequently encounter families where the mum and dad have a $4000 bed, whereas their toddler sleeps on a thin foam mattress.' 'When it comes to sleeping, what matters for a child's spine is support,' says Dr Bergby. 'Both their spine and neck have to be in a neutral position, which minimises stress and allows the spine to grow without any restrictions. A toddler's spine can grow as much as 1.5cm during the night, which mainly comes from the intervertebral discs in between their vertebrae filling up with water. So the mattress has to be soft enough for them to be comfortable, yet firm enough to prevent them from completely sinking into it.' Dr Bergby says the potential consequence of children sleeping on an unsupportive foam mattress is that their growing spine is placed under stress for prolonged periods of time. 'A growing spine is very flexible and can adapt to stressors in daily life such as falls,' he says.
'However, this flexibility makes the growing spine more susceptible to more permanent deformative issues when placed under a certain load over long periods of time, such as 10-12 hours of sleep per night.' Dr Bergby says it is hard to predict what type of short-term problems might arise from sleeping on a foam mattress in the early years, 'However, there is no question that sleeping on a spring mattress allows for better and more natural development of a growing spine.' For parents who can't afford a good-quality innerspring mattress, Dr Bergby advises buying a second-hand one no more than two years old. 'I suggest to parents planning on having more than one child to buy a good-quality spring mattress and pass it down. If you buy good quality there is no reason why three kids can't spend two to three years each on it.' By law, all new beds must be treated for dust mites before being sold. However, this does not mean that over time dust mites will not develop - especially given that every night a human body loses up to one litre of body fluid through the skin and mouth, as well as millions of skin flakes.
Sealy Australia spokeswoman Kim Bennett says special mattress protectors are a good way to add additional anti-allergenic and moisture-barrier properties to mattresses. 'Most sprays, such as Glen 20, are not recommended as the risk (inhalation of a cocktail of chemicals) versus the benefit (possible removal of bacteria, dust mites etc) is just not feasible,' says Dr Bergby. As such, the best way to avoid worsening a child's asthma and prevent the build-up of dust mites is to: In general, a clean and tidy home (and bedroom) is a good way of controlling the spread of dust mites. How frequently should mattresses be replaced? 'It comes down to the quality of the bed and the size of your child,' Dr Bergby says. 'As long as they haven't grown out of it, a good-quality sprung bed can easily last as long as five years. As a general rule of thumb, change the bed every three years between the ages of 0 tand 10 years, and every five years between the ages of 10 and 20. Latex beds, however, have a tendency of shaping to the body of a child after about one year, so I do not recommend these for anyone under 18 years old.