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How To Know If Your Bed Is Causing Back Pain

The Bed Feels Unusually Flat

Is your mattress causing your back pain?

Whether its a couch or a pillow, any cushioning surface should not feel flat. Instead, it should contour to your body. Even an innerspring mattress should noticeably sink in under your weight. While a substantial amount of firmness is necessary for support, theres a difference between a mattress being properly firm and feeling like a slab. Make sure that your mattress is the right amount of firmness to support your body in all the right places, while also feeling comfortable. If youre looking for the perfect amount of comfort and support, try Lull, the mattresses with a 95% customer satisfaction rate.

How To Stop Mattress Sagging

While there is no way to completely stop mattress sagging you can do a few things to extend the life of your mattress. It is important to do all you can to alleviate back pain from your mattress.

  • Using a topper can make a sagging mattress more comfortable but can also extend the life of a new mattress.
  • Turning your mattress as often as you can, if you have a turn mattress, can even out the wear and tear over years and delay your mattress from sagging.
  • Rotating your mattress does likewise and can be done on both turn and non turn mattresses. This may not be possible on certain zoned mattresses.
  • Buy a good quality mattress with a reputable supplier is always recommended. Check out their reviews and make sure their warranty covers every part of the mattress.

Can A Bad Mattress Cause Body Aches Get All The Facts

The study says that a bad mattress can cause body aches and back pain due to its lack of support, incapable of holding your spine, back, hip, and other joints perfectly, over sinking & sagging, etc. A bad quality mattress can also cause body pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, stomach pain, chest pain, lower back pain, leg pain, foot pain, joint pain, hip pain, side pain, arm pain, neck pain, sciatica pain, tiredness, stiffness, etc. Read the full article to know more negative issues about the bad mattress.

Having enough sleep is beneficial from the health point of view. A person spends significant time in bed. In fact, if you do your math well, you find that an average, sleep takes a third of all time in human life. To have sufficient sleep, one needs to have excellent bedding, especially mattress and pillows. It is not once or twice that people wake up with aching bodies. But, the majority doesnt have the answer to why they wake up tired and having body pain. This leads us to one of the questions that people do ask can a bad mattress cause body ache?

Well, there are doubts that the bad mattress usually causes body pain. However, what contributes these pains differs from one sleeper to another. What might sound a bad mattress to an average sleeper might turn to be the best for the heavy sleeper and vice versa. Therefore, what is essential is to know your mattress category.

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Waking Up With Joint Stiffness And Lower Back Pain 4 Reasons Why It Happens

A full nights sleep should help you feel rejuvenated when you wake and are ready to face the day. So why do you sometimes wake up with stiff joints and a sore lower back? Unless you have known back issues or an injury that contributes to poorer sleep, morning aches and pains are both confusing and frustrating.

There are plenty of reasons for sore joints and lower back stiffness. Its important to drill down to what the root cause is for you. Luckily, we know a thing or two about mattresses and quality sleep. Below are the four most common causes for morning sorenessand what you can do about them.

Your Sleep Position is Out of Whack

We tend to fall asleep in roughly the same position every nightand each sleep position has a different effect on your body. Simply put, not all sleep positions are created equal, which may account for some of your pain.

People who sleep on their stomachs are most prone to experience back and joint pain since this position pulls the spine out of alignment. Additionally, the twisting and contorting that stomach sleepers do to get comfortable can put extra pressure on the neck, lower back and jawwhich can even lead to poorer circulation. Most sleep experts recommend that stomach sleepers try to train their bodies to sleep on their sides, usually by propping their trunks up with a pillow.

Your Pillow Isnt Cutting It

Your Mattress is Too Soft, Or Too Firm

You Need to Switch Up Your Bed’s Foundation

How To Prevent Back Pain In Bed

How Do You Know If Your Mattress Is Causing Back Pain

6 min read

Back pain can keep you up at night, it prevents you from enjoying a good nights sleep and saps your days energy. But youre in luck, not only are there solutions, but weve spoken to Hashim Saifuddin, Director and Osteopath at Atlas Osteopathy, to get the best and most thorough information to help you on your way to understanding back pain in bed, and how to combat it.

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How To Know You Are Sleeping On A Bad Mattress

Basically, the wrong mattress is due to various factors. Of course a comfortable mattress, it should offer proper cushioning and protect the body from strains. The appropriate way to get an indication that you are sleeping on a bad mattress is how you feel in the morning when waking up. If you experience any pain in the body, it means that there is something not adding up well in your bed. Either the mattress is too stiff or too soft and facilitating a lot of sinking and motions.

Buy A Firm Mattress Topper

If your old mattress is too soft and/or has body impressions/indentations in the upper comfort layer then you may be able to fix this by buying a firm mattress topper to place over the surface and stop you from sinking too far into the mattress.

You could use this strategy in isolation or in conjunction with the plywood/floor techniques but again, I wouldnt really consider this as a viable long-term solution if the fundamental integrity of the mattress has been compromised.

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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.

Quality Of The Mattress

Back And Hip Pain: Caused by your Bed?

It makes sense that the quality of your mattress isdirectly related to back pain. Dr Smycz explains that how well you look after the mattress is a major factor. You need to make sure the mattress is protected and looked after.

If your mattress is in good condition in terms of quality, age, and treatment you should not be waking up with back stiffness, said Dr Smycz.

Youll know its time to replace your mattress if you feel chronic back pain thatgreets you in the morning.

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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 to switch 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.

How To Tell If Your Mattress Is Causing You Back Pain

Linda Nguyen | May 8, 2019

While there are many things that can throw your back out of whack , assessing your mattress as a potential culprit to your back pain is step one. After all, we spend one-third of our lives sleeping.

Spine alignment is key when it comes to a quality mattress that will reset your body and allow you to wake up well-rested. A telltale sign that your mattress is the reason for your back pain is going to bed feeling fine, but waking up in the morning to pain, which can suggest that your spine fell out of alignment as you slept. Although you may be able to stretch out the pain within 20-30 minutes of waking up, letting this pain become consistent can lead to chronic back pain.

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Additional Sleeping Accessories For Sleepers With Back Pain

Besides a mattress, other accessories can play a part in making your bed conducive to quality, pain-free sleep. Upgrading your pillows and your bed base can be done as a lower-cost way of improving your sleeping surface, or you can purchase these along with a new mattress as part of a complete overhaul.

Pillows

Pillows play an important role in preventing and reducing back and neck pain. Pillows that provide proper support to the neck can improve spinal alignment because the spine extends into the neck . In addition to supporting the head, pillows can be strategically placed to provide cushioning and comfort to other parts of the body.

Numerous factors affect which pillow can best help any individual fight neck and back pain. The amount of loft of your pillow should fit your personal preference and body shape. The right loft level is also largely determined by the firmness of your mattress and your sleeping position, as outlined in the following tables.

Sleeping Position
Medium Firm Firm High

To reduce back pain, pillows can be used to support other parts of the body besides just the head and neck.

Bed Platforms and Bases

The base of the bed can contribute to a supportive overall sleeping surface for people with back pain.

Some people opt for an adjustable bed, which allows for the upper and lower body to be raised at various angles. Many adjustable bed frames also include a heat or massage feature that can be a nice bonus for back pain sufferers.

How To Exercise To Relieve Back Pain

How To Tell If Your Bed Is Causing Back Pain Symptoms

In the morning and evening, it is beneficial to warm up and warm down. To achieve this:

  • Some gentle stretching will help in general, but particularly for pain in the lower back.
  • For the neck and lower back, gentle stretching in all vectors of movement will help, ensuring you engage the core muscles at all times to strengthen them and stretch the other muscles.
  • Tight hamstrings can place stress on your lower back. To stretch your hamstrings, place one leg up on the bed and gently stretch forward until you feel the tension down the back of the leg. This will help, particularly if you have been sat down all day as the hamstrings will have been contracted and shortened for that whole period, they deserve a stretch!

Any exercise that strengthens your core will help prevent back pain in the future, so consider hitting the gym or park more often, or taking up a yoga class or similar.

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Your Bed And Back Pain

When it comes to managing your back pain, you should first take a close examination of the type of mattress you are currently using. Your mattress should offer optimal support to your spine and encourage the right sleeping posture. Typically, a mattress that is relatively harder may exert excessive pressure on your bodys pressure points thus making you feel uncomfortable. Consequently, a mattress that is too soft may offer the much-needed support to areas that need it, but will eventually force your spine to spend many hours in poor and unhealthy sleeping positions. This only implies that due diligence should always guide you into purchasing a high-quality mattress that supports the recommended sleeping posture. You can see the list of our selected 10 high-quality mattresses for back pain.

Each one of us has totally different sleep preferences, a factor that somehow makes it difficult to find a general perfect sleeping mattress. However, experts all agree that you should look for a mattress which is neither too firm nor too soft. If your mattress is too soft, it will encourage your body to sink into it hence resulting in bad posture. On the other hand, if the mattress is extremely hard, it pushes on your pressure points leading to misalignment.

Best Mattress For Side Sleepers With Lower Back Pain

Helix Midnight Luxe

  • Type: hybrid
  • Height: 14 inches

Helix made our list again with its Midnight Luxe mattress, which offers relief to side sleepers experiencing low back pain. Layers of CertiPUR-US certified memory foam are designed to provide pressure relief in the hips and shoulders and proper spinal alignment. Zoned lumbar support coils offer additional cradling and comfort right where you need it.

With an added pillow top, this mattress offers plush comfort and overall medium firmness.

You can try the mattress at home for 100 nights. It ships free in the United States and has a 15-year warranty.

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You Seem To Be Immersed In Your Mattress

As experts say, a great sleeping mattress should be able to maintain its shape regardless of the amount of weight exerted on it by the owner. If you notice that the central part of your mattress often dips down while you are sleeping, you should seriously consider purchasing a new one, especially if you have developed back pain. Typically, such type of mattress will affect the spine and hip flexibility, subsequently forcing you to adopt a bad sleeping posture hence causing back pain. You can see the most popular Ashley Chime 10 Inch Hybrid Mattress and Ashley Chime 12 Inch Hybrid Mattress which are perfectly fit for relieving back pain.

How To Select A Good Mattress For Your Back

Choosing a Mattress for Back Pain

Though different people have different features that theyd prefer their mattress to have. Still, a mattress should neither be too firm nor too soft.

The ideal mattress is somewhere in between. When your bed is more delicate than it should be, it can make your spine to fall out of alignment. Too soft beds also make you sink into the bed and make you sleep in a terrible posture.

Thus, you wake up feeling body pains. When its too firm, it causes joint pressure in your hips which also lead to pain in your back. On the other hand, an ideal mattress should make you feel so utterly relaxed and comfortable that sleeping on it feels like floating in the air. However, the best things dont often come cheap.

Therefore, if what you want is a mattress that will give you sweet dreams and quality sleep, then you have to be ready to invest a good amount of money into it.

A bed is not just any piece of furniture. Your mattress is your key to good health and productive days. When you think about it, quality mattresses are well worth the investments.

The fact that youll be spending around 7-9 hours on it each night is another reason to not go frugal. No matter how expensive a qualitative bed may seem, always keep in mind that its an investment into your health and life.

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Dont Sleep On A Mattress Thats Too Soft Or Too Hard

Goldilocks was onto something when she picked Baby Bears just right bed.

A mattress thats too soft will cause your back or hips to sag and your spine to fall out of alignment, which can lead to significant pain. A mattress thats too firm will put too much pressure on your joints, especially if you sleep on your side or your back.

Thats why if you want to reduce your back pain in bed, you need a mattress that offers support but that also contours to your body to provide pressure relief and relieve pain.

That being said, theres no one-size-fits-all-best mattress for back pain. Plus, there are plenty of different materials to choose from. So be sure youre investing in a mattress made from suitable materials for your unique needs.

Here Are Some Other Signs To Look Out For To Tell If Your Mattress Isnt Treating Your Body Right:

  • Youre tossing and turning throughout the night to get comfy.

  • You feel increased pressure on parts of your body when sleeping in certain positions.

  • Your bed is unforgiving to the natural curve of your body.

As a general rule of thumb, we should be switching out our mattress every 8-10 years. However, if you experience back pain sooner than that, tackle the problem sooner than later.

Medium-firm mattresses are reliable for being the Goldilocks of options when it comes to providing amazing comfort and quality support. If youre thinking of transitioning from a spring mattress, take a gander through this article so you can shop with all the right criteria in mind.

Looking for a place to start? Check out the Endy Mattress. We offer a 100 Night Trial so you can figure out if were a match made in your dreams.

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