Do you suffer from chronic back pain? Is your pain keeping you from a good night's sleep? William Deardorff at Spine-Health.com says that chronic pain is a term used to describe any pain caused by injury or illness that persists for more than three to six months. Even if you only suffer from occasional aches in your back, it can be disruptive to your REM sleep cycle, which can drastically affect how you feel throughout the day and interact with others.
Figures provided by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke state that an estimated 80 percent of all adults experience some sort of lower back pain over the course of their life. Meanwhile, of this group, 20 percent of these people will suffer from chronic back pain as a result. While some back pain can be effectively treated by therapy, other more serious cases can only be addressed through surgery or other medical treatments. Unfortunately for some, none of these options alleviate their chronic back pain completely.
The precise cause for this chronic pain could be due to a variety of a factors. Some of which include "ongoing pain signal input to the nervous system even without tissue damage, physical deconditioning due to lack of exercise, a person's thoughts about the pain, as well as emotional states such as depression and anxiety," according to Spine-Health.com's Talbot Sellers .
Though you may believe that because of your back problems no mattress will be the right fit for you, you would be wrong. Sleeping on the wrong kind of mattress for your body and sleeping style can not only cause you to lose sleep, but could actually worsen your existing back pains!
When searching for a new mattress, here are two important areas to consider before making your final decision:
Sagging is a likely culprit
A large percentage of those complaining about their mattress complain about a problem with sagging, which is caused by a lack of support. For those with back pain, the more a mattress sags, the greater the chance that their back pain will increase. A mattress sag of more than an inch and a half is shown to have the most damaging effects.
"Sagging occurs when part of a mattress, usually the middle, becomes compressed and lower than the rest," Sleep Like the Dead, a highly rated online sleep-related product reviewer, explained. "Sagging often puts a person's back into an unnatural position, especially for side and stomach sleepers. Consequently, mattress owner experience data shows a clear connection between sagging and pain, especially back pain."
Be sure when shopping that you understand what type of support system ; i.e. coils, memory foam, gel-foam, air, etc., is being utilized and if it will be sufficient for your body type, health concerns and sleeping preference for many years not just the short-term.
What's your firm-to-soft ratio sweet spot?
Though every sleeping preference and body is different, the exact firmness of the mattress is important. While extremely firm mattresses provide significant support but they provide no comfort for certain pained pressure points and do not conform to the sleeper's shape. On the other end of the spectrum, soft mattresses are equally bad for your back.
"Soft mattresses, on the other hand, can also be problematic," Harvard Health Publication explained on its blog. "While a soft mattress that conforms to your body's natural curves may help the joints align favorably, you might also sink in so deeply that your joints twist and become painful during the night."
What then do sleep experts claim to be the best option for those with back pain? The answer is medium-firm mattresses.
Studies consistently that subjects experienced significantly less pain while sleeping on these mattresses, unlike soft or firm choices. Keep in mind, that any mattress is a very personal decision and should not be taken lightly by anyone, but especially someone dealing with chronic back pain, so allow yourself plenty of time to shop for the right combination of comfort, to help you fall asleep, and support, to help you stay asleep.
If you suffer from chronic back pain or simply want a better night's sleep, come to Arwood's Furniture & Mattress, Missouri's LARGEST Furniture Store, today! We are a proud, family-owned business that wants to help you find the best of today's top sleep products and the most comfortable mattresses.
