Back Pain & Sleep
Approximately 80% of adults have to deal with back pain at one point or another of their life. It’s a common symptom of nerve and muscular concerns, spinal stenosis, arthritis, and degenerative disc disease, amongst other conditions. As a result, back pain is the most common contributing factor in both sick days taken from work and job-related disability.
The sheer variety of potential causes is one of the reasons that back pain is as common as it is. Chronic back pain can result from lifestyle factors, such as obesity, while it can also be caused by physical injuries like accidents and muscle strains. A lack of sleep has also been shown to greatly exacerbate or cause back pain.
Despite the wide range of causes, treatment tends to be much more consistent. Changes to the diet and lifestyle, medication learning how to manage the symptoms, physical therapy, and sometimes surgery are most often recommended.
When it comes to the treatment of back pain, sleep plays a significant role. A lack of sleep can cause or exacerbate back pain, to begin with. Back pain can interrupt and prevent sleep, however, leading to a vicious cycle where pain and sleeplessness continue to contribute to one another. A new mattress might just be the best way to break that cycle.
What type of mattress is best for back pain?
Air mattress
One of the biggest benefits of an air mattress is that you adjust the firmness levels on either side of the mattress. This allows you to alter how soft or firm it feels, but that’s not all. The latest models use modern tech that uses air chambers, allowing pressure on the body to be relieved. Most commonly used for medical purposes, it’s largely considered the best choice when selecting a mattress for Back Pain, Degenerative Disc Disease, Hip Bursitis, Arthritis, & more.
Memory foam mattress
One of the biggest benefits of an air mattress is that you adjust the firmness levels on either side of the mattress. This allows you to alter how soft or firm it feels, but that’s not all. The latest models use modern tech that uses air chambers, allowing pressure on the body to be relieved. Most commonly used for medical purposes, it’s largely considered the best choice when selecting a mattress for Back Pain, Degenerative Disc Disease, Hip Bursitis, Arthritis, & more.
Memory foam mattress
One of the most popular modern mattress designs, memory foam is designed to do exactly as described. Ultimately you can sink into this mattress, so it perfectly hugs your form. It can even adapt to different shapes and temperatures while also being great for people who suffer from allergies. Reducing pressure on joints or muscles, the sinking design can also help people maintain the correct posture and sleep straight.
Latex mattress
Filled with foam, these mattresses are breathable, so they are perfect if you have allergies, asthma or issues with overheating. These mattresses are durable too and are great if you need solid support for your back. However, like the pocket spring mattress, they are also heavy enough that turning is difficult.
Pocket spring / hybrid mattress
This is a more advanced spring mattress and can once again be suitable for a wide range of different individuals. You can get a pocket spring mattress designed for a range of different needs including medium, firm or soft varieties. The design of this mattress also ensures that they are breathable, ideal for hot summer evenings. You will however, have trouble turning these mattresses due to the weight, and they are often filled with natural materials. Worried about weight issues?
Open spring mattress
This is a budget-friendly choice that could certainly provide a fantastic bed for the kids or even guests, but may not be something that you want as your main mattress. Often known as a continuous-coil or even an open-coil mattress, they have a clever design. The metal pieces are coiled into springs while there is also a rod/wire to make sure that they stay the right shape. They’re even easy to turn over when necessary.
How back pain prevents sleep
It’s not difficult to imagine that severe pain can get in the way of sleep. However, even those with somewhat lighter kinds of back pain can find a lot of trouble settling in for the night. This is, in part, due to the increased awareness of pain. When you’re in bed at night, you don’t have as many stimuli distracting you from the pain. Because there is no distraction, you become more aware of the pain, which can make it feel worse.
What’s more, back pain and sleeping position are very much interlinked. As your experiences of back pain worsen, you may not be able to sleep comfortably in the same position you once could and might have to try a variety of positions. Lying in new positions, however, can be awkward and uncomfortable, to begin with, preventing sleep as you try to get used to it.
Other lifestyle factors related to back pain can play role. Back pain can make it hard to engage in physical exercise, which also leads to trouble with sleep. Medication that has been prescribed as a treatment for back pain might also be a factor. Pain management medication, such as opioids, can negatively impact sleep, such as causing sleep apnea.
Key factors to look for regarding back pain relief
As mentioned, your individual needs may be very different from other people suffering from back pain. However, there are some key factors that should be considered when you’re considering a new mattress. Here are the six you should be concerned with.
Support & spinal alignment
Posture is important to sleep. When you sleep, your muscles and connective tissues must be able to rest and heal naturally. A bad mattress can get in the way of this by failing to provide the proper support for the spine if it’s too firm or too soft. The right choice of mattress can change from person to person. For instance, someone with wide hips may need a slightly softer surface with more give to let their hips sink in and keep the spine in alignment. If you have narrower hips, too much give can take your spine out of alignment, leading to pain.
Support & spinal alignment
Adjustability can come in 2 forms, your mattress and/or adjustable bed. A mattress that allows firmness adjustability (typically an air bed) can allow you or your partner to adjust the firmness on their side of the mattress. Making it customizable to an individuals weight, pain or sleep issue and firmness preference. On the other hand, an adjustable bed can elevate the top half of the bed or the lower half by six inches or more, to help with both back pain and acid reflux issues.
Pairing both together will provide you with the highest amount of comfort and pain relief from your back pain. Please note: If you choose to purchase an adjustable bed as well, you make sure that the mattress is compatible. For instance, most mattresses thicker than 13 inches aren’t flexible enough to work with adjustable beds.
Clinically proven trials
Testing it yourself can help you see the results in person, but if a bed is either hospital tested or clinically proven, it means it has most likely been used by medical professionals in settings such as hospitals. Often, such mattresses are used to prevent bedsores in long-term patients, but the prevention of bedsores is achieved by body weight displacement, which also relieves the pressure that can cause pain on the back and joints throughout the body.
Finding a mattress that fits all of the categories mentioned above is your best bet for being able to achieve a good night’s sleep with back pain. When researchers from Oklahoma State University randomly assigned 62 people to sleep in a variety of new beds for 28 days, they found that almost everyone started to sleep better. That was true regardless of which model they were given, though people who slept in the cheapest beds did report more lower back pain than those in the medium- and higher-priced beds.
Available for sleep trials
To know whether a mattress works or not, you naturally have to test it. Some people find the right mattress for them by copying the product number they find on a hotel bed. However, you can test mattresses from providers by taking advantage of trials they have that allow you to see whether it works or not. For instance, Natural Form has a 100 Night Sleep Trial Guarantee. If you still find that the mattress you have chosen isn’t right for you within 100 nights of sleep, you can receive a 100% refund.
Types & causes of back pain
Back pain can apply to several different concerns and conditions but is often divided into two categories. Acute pain is sudden, very sharp, and often has a single direct cause but rarely lasts longer than six months once the initial cause heals or is treated. Chronic pain lasts much longer, often manifesting even when the underlying cause, if one of found, is no longer a concern.
Both acute and chronic back pain can arise out of a range of injuries and conditions. Some individuals suffer chronic pain even without an apparent cause such as a visible injury. Other causes are more routinely identified as causal factors, however, such as:
Arthritis
Swelling or inflammation of the joints that can cause high levels of joint pain and stiffness. There are over 100 forms of arthritis, and many cases where no cause is found. These types include rheumatoid arthritis, where the synovium (a material lining the joints) is affected, and osteoarthritis, during which the bone cartilage deteriorates
Fibromyalgia
A consistent, chronically painful syndrome. Muscle pain and fatigue across the body characterizes fibromyalgia, but back pain is one of the most common symptoms, presenting in over half the people suffering from the syndrome.
Degenerative Disc Disease
Intervertebral discs of the spine can naturally break down over time, due to minor injuries, age, and wear and tear.
Herniated Disc
Also known as a slipped or ruptured disc, this most commonly affects the lower back.
Spinal Stenosis
Characterized by when the bone channel in the spine narrows, which can cause pressure on the spinal cord and nerves.
Sciatica
Though these conditions are far from a comprehensive list of causes of back pain, they re some of the most common. What’s more, they can all be improved with a change of your mattress.
