Skip directly to content You are hereHome » Injury Prevention » Choosing the Best Mattress for Your Back SLEEP POSTURE AND SPINAL ALIGNMENT Why we believe The DUX Bed is the best mattress for back pain. Good quality sleep forms the backbone of good spinal health. That’s good news — after all, acquiring the best mattress for back pain is well within your control. When you consider the constant stress your spine endures every day you owe it to yourself to protect it at night. We feel The DUX Bed is the best bed for back pain, not only because it aligns your spine through dynamic contouring support, but also because it can be customized to the exact requirements of your body. With this, your back muscles not only get the relief they need, but a consistent opportunity to heal. TRANSCEND FIRM OR SOFT When selecting the best mattress for back pain, most people equate firmness with support, and softness with comfort. However, the best method for evaluating a mattress is to examine how it supports the spine.
Maximum comfort and health can only be achieved if your muscles can completely relax and your spine is supported in proper alignment. FIRM Studies show that if a mattress is too firm it forces your body to conform to it. DUX is just the opposite – it conforms to you. SOFT When a mattress is too soft, your body sinks into a hammock position, causing your spine to curve unnaturally. THE DUX BED DUX contours to your body, supporting the entire length of your spine so it can rest in the most natural, healthiest position possible. WE'VE GOT YOUR BACK Your muscles work to protect your spine all day - they deserve a break at night. According to medical research, over 80% of us will experience back pain at some point in our lives. The chairs we sit in, the shoes we wear, the sports we play, the stress in our lives — all contribute to back pain. And back muscles don’t necessarily go to sleep when you do — they can stay tense if your mattress doesn’t provide proper, continuous support.
PASCAL: OUR CUSTOMIZABLE CASSETTE SYSTEM The best mattress is the one that fits the exact needs of your body. Our Pascal Cassette System allows every DUX bed to be customized to the individual needs of you and your partner. Simply arrange the components in accordance with your size and weight. And if your body changes due to injury, pregnancy or aging, just reconfigure the cassettes to match your new needs. LEARN MORE ABOUT PASCAL >> Should you require a little extra lumbar support — either permanently or due to a temporary condition like a sports injury or pregnancy — the DUX 818 model includes a removable hand crank so you can increase the bed’s lumbar support to your exact need. THE DUX 818 SPECS >> Why is sleeping on your side the best position? "Side sleeping is the best position and here's why. It's the only position that allows the spine to straighten out. There's also very little pressure on the spine when you lay on your side. If you sleep in a fetal position, it takes even more pressure off your lower back."
DEEP SLEEP - THE ULTIMATE GOAL Researchers at The Karolinska Institute, the prestigious medical university that awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, performed a study investigating the effect different types of mattresses had on the body and sleep quality. Their results showed that those who slept on a DUX bed not only fall asleep faster, but remained in deep sleep longer – a good thing since deep sleep has been proven to be the only sleep stage where muscles can heal and repair themselves. * READ MORE >> In an independent sleep study conducted by the Karolinska Institute of Sweden, the sleep patterns of individuals using a variety of innerspring mattresses were measured using an EEG to record the electrical activity in the cerebral cortex of the brain. The study demonstrated that DUX users not only reached the Deep Sleep stage of sleep faster, but remained there longer. This is especially beneficial since it is during Deep Sleep that the body and immune system recovers and repairs itself.
* BRL, 1985, 1989 (Bed Research Laboratory, Associate Professor Evert Knutsson, Associate Professor Sven Engdahl)There are many causes of back pain and it is important for serious or chronic back pain that you see a qualified medical professional for treatment or advice. This article is not meant to replace professional medical advice. Suffer from back pain? You are not alone! According to the Medical Journal of Australia (2009) up to 80% of Australians will suffer some form of back pain and 10% suffer a serious disability as a result of it. The term ‘back pain’ covers a huge spectrum of disorders, from very serious spinal degenerative conditions, to nerve issues, to the vague ache of your back letting you know that the mattress might be getting a bit long in the tooth (maybe like oneself!). It is a very complicated and personal thing with pain levels ranging from slight to excruciating. There is no single solution for back pain, be it medical treatment or mattress, so we set out to find what type of mattress would be most likely to alleviate typical non-serious lower back pain that many Australians experience.
Traditionally the espoused remedy from orthopedic surgeons and others has been a ‘hard’ mattress. Well, there’s only one problem with that. For most of us, a hard sleep surface is a contradiction in terms of our ability to sleep, regardless of how much good it might be doing elsewhere. Even if it’s helping alleviate back pain, if the hard surface is uncomfortable, you won’t be sleeping anyways! We are by nature creatures of comfort, regardless of what’s ‘best’ for us. We all know our personal choice of comfort foods aren’t strictly following doctors orders! So do we really have to take to the ‘plank’ so to speak and sleep on a girder to help that lower back pain? Well there’s good news, some research around from properly designed medical tests shows that medium-firm mattresses rather than firm mattresses improved back pain symptoms. Phew that’s lucky, no concrete slab required after all! One such test concludes that medium firm mattresses improved pain and disability outcomes among people with chronic non-specific lower back pain.
Research also shows that in addition to a medium firm mattress, the next best thing you can do is to buy a new mattress! The issue here is that for many of us its decades between mattress purchases and quite simply the current mattress isn’t doing the job it once did or should do. Some research shows the average age of mattresses is 9.5 years! Hang on, just think about that – to get an average of 9.5 means for every 1-year-old mattress there’s an 18 year old one, and on average we’ve spent 38 cumulative months on the one mattress! The same research showed that just replacing the old mattress increased sleep quality and reduced back discomfort. The study in question replaced the subject’s current mattress with a medium firm spring mattress. According to scientific research, getting a new mattress, even if your current one is a medium firm feel, is likely to improve back pain and discomfort outcome. So there you have it, a lot of things may cause back pain, but non specific lower back pain in particular can be improved by buying a new medium firm mattress…which begs the question: what are you waiting for?