Warning Signs Your Mattress Is Causing Back Pain
Sleeping on the wrong mattress can actually cause or worsen back pain. Read on to know how your mattress impacts your back health.
Can a mattress cause back pain? Yes, a wrong one can. Our mattress plays a big role in enhancing our sleep quality and controlling the way we feel every morning after waking up. Continuously sleeping on the wrong mattress can cause the spine to lose its natural alignment and strain the muscles resulting in back pain. On the other hand, a supportive mattress can help your spine maintain a neutral position and prevent back soreness. People who fail to understand the delicate science behind choosing the right sleep surface as per their sleeping habits are more likely to develop not just chronic back pain but neck stiffness and shoulder aches.
Lower back pain is not only the leading cause of disability worldwide but in India alone, nearly 60% of Indians suffer from lower back pain at some point in their lives. The exact cause of back pain is tricky to diagnose in cases there hasnt been a recent sudden stress or strain due to a pulled muscle or tendon. So how to tell if your bed is causing back pain? How to be sure that your mattress is the main culprit behind your back problems?
Why Your Mattress Matters For Back Pain
If youre waking up with back pain, you may be sleeping on the wrong mattress. However, your bed is typically not the cause of back pain. In any case, a good mattress can help relieve issues that cause back pain.
A good mattress that is well suited to your needs will help to align your spine. This alignment can alleviate aches and pains. People who suffer from lower back pain should look for a mattress that doesnt put pressure on pain points, particularly the shoulders and sacrum. These beds are typically firm enough that your shoulders dont sink, but soft enough to feel comfortable. Look for a 5-7 rating on the mattress firmness scale .
Use A Pillow To Keep Your Spine In Alignment
Waking up with lower back pain often means your spine was rotated throughout the night. If you sleep on your side, try placing a pillow between your knees. If you sleep on your back, place a pillow behind the backs of your knees. And if you sleep on your stomach, try placing a pillow under your hips and lower abdomen and another thin pillow under your head.
The right pillow can go a long way in helping your back pain. But it can also help you reduce neck pain too, as long as you choose the right pillow.
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What Are The Common Body Aches Associated With Bad Mattresses
What are the effects of a bad mattress?
Typically, what one sleeper will suffer as a result of wrong mattresses is going to be different from another. Mostly, the pain emerges from the mattress being too firm, thereby preventing the body from proper alignment. Furthermore, if the mattress is very soft, the body tends to sink thus causing extreme pressure on the spine and neck region. Sleeping on a bad mattress may cause your various pain and aches. A bad mattress may has the following effects below.
Recommended Fixes For Mattress Sagging Didnt Work Now What
Unfortunately, in the case of extreme sagging the only way forward would be to replace your mattress. Its important to know how to choose your mattress. A cheaper stop gap which may help extend the life of your mattress would be to user a mattress topper.
Our Juno range includes quality pocket spring units at their core. We then combine these with a variety of filling combinations to suit different budgets. All mattresses can be turned too offering great support, comfort, and longevity at a fair price. You may view our range of pocket spring mattresses for more information about our range.
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What Are The Bad Mattress Symptoms
A bad mattress has few common symptoms such as-
- Body Aches: It causes body aches.
- Sagging: A bad mattress always sags.
- Health Problems: It causes various health problems.
- Allergies: Bad mattress creates an allergy.
- Joint Pain: It causes pains on the different joints of your body.
- Poor Sleeping: You cant sleep comfortably on the bad mattress.
- Back Pain: Most bad mattresses cause back pain due to the lack of back support to the different joints of your body.
- Skin Diseases: It occurs in various skin problems.
- Tired and drowsy: You feel tired sleeping on it.
- Bad Smell: You may feel less or more smell.
Try Changing Up Your Sleeping Position
Changing your sleeping position is one way to try to get back pain relief.
If you are a back or stomach sleeper with a soft mattress and you dont have the budget for a new bed, you can try switching to a side sleeping position that will receive more support from your existing mattress. In general, experts recommend that stomach sleepers try to adjust to side or back sleeping because its easier to get appropriate support in those positions.
For people with acute pain, temporary changes to your sleeping position may help to reduce stress on already sore or achy parts of your back. For example, people with lumbar pain might try a period of side sleeping to avoid the excess bending of that area that can happen on your stomach or back.
While changing sleeping positions is worth a shot, its often not a long-term solution because the change can be hard to stick with. Some people just cant get comfortable in a different position or they may quickly revert back to their old sleeping position during the night. In these cases, other approaches are more likely to be beneficial over the medium- to long-term.
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Reduce Inflammation Through Diet And Exercise
When your joints are already inflamed from your daily activity and eating habits, youre sure to experience pain during the night. To help eliminate your back pain in bed, try reducing or eliminating foods that cause inflammation, such as refined bread and other carbohydrates, fried foods, sugary beverages, and red meat.
Instead, aim to eat foods that help you sleep and that fight inflammation, such as fruit, tomatoes, olive oil, leafy greens, almonds, and fatty fish like salmon and tuna. You may be surprised at how your morning back pain is improved after just a couple of weeks of eating well.
Muscles and joints that are stretched regularly can also improve pain levels when youre lying in bed, so try doing yoga several times per week.
Your Mattress And Back Pain
When it comes to picking the right mattress, it is important to get the correct support for your spine. A mattress that is too hard can put too much pressure on the areas where you feel discomfort, whereas a mattress that is too soft will not provide support for the areas that need it, allowing the spine to spend long periods in poor and unhealthy positions.
People who suffer from lower back pain generally benefit more from a mattress erring on the firmer side of neutral. This is because of the shape of the spine, meaning that the lower back is often in need of more support. Most people cant go wrong with a memory foam-type mattress, as this will provide support where support is needed, and allow for adjustment to the body where that is also required.
It is always a good idea to test any potential mattress first to check it supports you in the right way, the best way is to pop into one of our stores and try a bed. You may also like to see our Guide on Picking the Best Mattress for Your Sleeping Position.
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#reason : Your Mattress Cant Give Enough Support
Another reason for creating back pain is that your mattress cant provide you adequate support to your back, spine, hip, and other joints of your body.
Solution: Choose The Mattress That Provides Perfect Support
Support is an essential part of all kinds of sleepers such as heavy sleepers, light sleepers, side & back sleepers, stomach sleepers, etc. The memory foam mattress that gives you a lack of support can cause lower back pain. You must choose a mattress for the right support. If you are a heavy sleeper like over 200 lbs, you must sleep on a mattress that has high-density base foam. It will give you the highest support and prevent sinking and safe your spine and back.
Most memory foam mattresses use multiple layers for different purposes such as top foam layers for comfort or feel, the base support foam layer for providing adequate support, etc. When you choose a new mattress that has high-density support foam, it will give you more support than others. If you feel your mattress sinks, you should change it quickly and get a good high-density supportive mattress. So, I recommend you choose a mattress that will give you enough support. You can check my researched list of top-rated highest supportive memory foam mattresses.
Prevention Of Back Pain In Bed
In order to prevent back pain in bed, taking care of your posture is essential. A great start is to sleep on your right-hand side, with knees bent up slightly. Laying on the right-hand side is good for blood flow, as you have the smaller and lighter left lung resting on the heart in this position, maximising blood flow.
Ensure that the gap in between the shoulder, neck, and head is filled with a pillow, so that the spine and neck remain in good alignment. Imagine how your neck sits vertically in line with the rest of the spine when you are sitting and standing when you are laying on your side, you want to maintain that. Pillow depth is key here, and firmness or softness is a personal preference.
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How To Get Relief On A Budget
When youre struggling with back pain, you may feel like youre willing to give anything to get relief, but the realities of your budget can mean that you have to think about the impact of any mattress purchase on your bottom line. The good news is that there are multiple wallet-friendly ways to improve your bed, enhance your sleep, and give your back a rest.
Best Mattress For Back Pain
When it comes to the best mattress for back pain, theres no one-size-fits-all solution. Ultimately, the best mattress for back pain is one that provides you with the perfect mix of softness and support. It relieves pressure points and keeps your spine neutrally aligned.
But heres a reason to justify mattress shopping: Research shows that upgrading to a new mattress is likely to improve your sleep quality no matter what. The same study also showed that people sleeping on the cheapest mattresses saw less pain reduction than those who slept on mid- to higher-priced ones. Quality counts!
When in doubt, upgrading to a high-quality medium-firm mattress could be the best option for easing back pain so youll wake energized and restored.
The Casper Wave Hybrid Mattress with Zoned Support Max provides continuous ergonomic zones with gel pods designed to help give you perfect spinal alignment.
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What Are The Memory Foam Mattress Problems And Solutions
The memory foam mattress is highly comfortable than other types of mattresses in the market but it may cause few problems due to the wrong choice while buying it. Most people do wrong in the following points such as wrong firmness, lack of support, cool or hot foam. The medium to firm range memory foam mattresses are good for all sleeping styles. The high-density support foam mattresses are great for better back support. The gel foam mattresses are good for cool.
How To Tell If Your Mattress Is Giving You Back Pain
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.
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Your Back Pain Starts At Night
In addition to waking up with back pain, if your back starts hurting shortly after you get into bed then this again points to your mattress being part of the problem because it suggests that youre lying down in bad posture, or the mattress is causing painful pressure points.
If your back pain goes away when you lie on a firmer mattress, then this indicates that the mattress is too soft for you.
Pillow Use For Back Sleepers
Sleeping on the back or supine is the most recommended sleep position to get rid of upper middle back pain after sleeping. It does not only promote good neck and spinal posture at rest, but helps relieve pain related to a muscle strain or injury. These conditions include a stiff neck, rotator cuff tear injuries, adhesive capsulitis, and ankylosing spondylitis. Unfortunately, no matter how healthy this sleeping position is, only 8% of the worlds population sleeps in this pose. Like all the sleeping positions, sleeping on the back can also use a little bit of padded support. In this case, its the knees that will benefit a lot from a pillow. When you sleep with knees, spinal cord, and neck muscles extended straight you also risk creating lower back strain. That is because when you sleep, you are pulling your pelvis out of its neutral alignment and into an arched lower back.
By propping a memory foam or regular small pillow under your knees, your legs will bend in a more natural sleeping posture. This sleeping position can also help get rid of severe shoulder pain and upper-middle back pain after sleeping, as it places your body in a more neutral position. If you feel like this position is too uncomfortable, you can prop your head and neck with a memory foam pillow against the mattress. That can ensure that your body is straight while its natural curve is supported.
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How Do I Know If My Bed Is Causing Me Back Pain
It can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing you to experience back pain, but a good indicator is if youre struggling the most early in the morning after youve woken up. If youre ever staying in a hotel or a different bed for whatever reason, make a mental note of how youre feeling after a nights sleep to compare it to how you feel after sleeping at home.
If you dont experience the same stiffness, aches or strains then theres a good chance your bed could be part of the problem.
What Causes Back Pain
The main cause of back pain in bed is poor posture, either from how a person sits at work or how they sleep at night.
Between the vertebrae in the spine are intervertebral discs, which rehydrate at night . Poor posture can prevent the discs from rehydrating.
Read more: The NHS Guide To Back Pain
Attached to the vertebra are smaller muscle groups such as the erector spinae, and large muscles such as the trapezius. Poor posture can put the muscles into awkward positions that can cause irritation over a prolonged period of time, resulting in aches or pains. Lower and middle back pain tend to be the common culprits when sleeping. While there are several causes of back pain, a small number of which can be more serious underlying health issues. NHS Live Well gives us a list of common indicators of poor posture:
- Slouching in a chair
- Sticking your bottom out when standing
- Standing with a flat back
- Leaning on one leg
- Hunched back and text neck when focusing too much on your phone
- Poking your chin out when at a computer
- Rounded shoulders
- Cradling your phone in between your head and shoulder
These points are developed with images and solutions on this helpful NHS web page.
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Consider Your Pillow If You Are Experiencing Back Pain
Back pain is a common problem that can interfere with your daily activities. While there are many potential causes of back pain, one often overlooked factor is your pillow.
If you are experiencing chronic back pain, it may be time to consider switching to a pillow that better supports your spine.
A good pillow should support your neck and head while cushioning your pressure points.
It should also be adjustable to find the perfect level of support, regardless of your sleeping position.
Its worth finding a pillow that will help you get a good nights sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and pain-free.
Ways Your Mattress Could Be Negatively Affecting Your Health
Sometimes theres no better feeling than getting into bed after a long, exhausting day. The goal: Burrow into your cozy haven, clock a solid seven to nine hours of sleep, and wake up refreshed and ready to have an excellent day. But sometimes your mattress can make achieving this goal impossible in various ways, all of which can ultimately affect your health. Read on for ways your mattress could be harming your health, plus what to do about them.
Ever heard of dust mites? These microscopic creatures, distantly related to ticks and spiders, live in humid climates and feed off the dead human skin found in household dust, according to the Mayo Clinic. Unfortunately, they can make their home in your home even if you keep your place as spotless as possible, Rita Aouad M.D., an assistant professor of sleep medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. Dust mites do especially well in warm, humid spots like your bedding, mattress, and upholstered furniture.
If youre allergic to dust mites, your body has a sensitivity to their feces and decaying bodies. Coming into contact with this debris can cause symptoms of an allergic reaction like coughing, sneezing, a runny nose, and itchy eyes. If you have asthma, it could also trigger symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, coughing, and wheezing . Whether youre dealing with allergies or asthma, having dust mites in your bed can translate into restless nights full of symptoms.
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