The Best Mattress For Back Pain Matches Your Needs

What should you consider when looking for the best mattress for back pain? Does what Grandma or Mom taught you about mattresses still hold true?

You’ve heard that saying, “Take a load off your feet,” right? The load is the weight of your body along with the emotional load and stressors of living. Where and how you distribute that load when resting is critical, and that’s why mattresses make a big difference in your body’s rejuvenative powers.

Michael Decker, PhD, RN, associate professor at Georgia State University and spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine notes that when you lie on any part of your body for an extended period of time, the flow of blood through those blood vessels on that body part is disrupted. This ends up depriving the skin on top of that body part of oxygen and nutrients. It’s the same reason why some people who are disabled get bedsores.

Finding the best mattress for back pain is more than just a trip to the mattress store. It’s more like a big event because the results of it will affect your self-care and life management. Everyone has different needs for a mattress; different body types and different body injuries to contend with; and therefore, no one mattress type, style or brand will be right for everyone. Testing a mattress to see if you can sleep on it along with research to give you direction is extremely helpful.

Here are some important considerations when seeking the right mattress for your body.

1. Firmness Check

A mattress that is quite firm supports your body weight. The mattress rests on a few specific points on your body, such as the sacrum, knee, shoulder, elbow, hip and ankle. Thus, your entire weight impacts these points of contact on a firm mattress. This can cause further pain, sleepless nights, and misalignment issues along with other secondary medical problems. Ironically, a mattress that is too firm for you may increase back pain, which we’re trying to alleviate, not exacerbate.

One study in Lancet, a British medical journal, noted that a medium-firm mattress provides a better balance between back support and comfort for lower back pain than a firm mattress. Surprising, huh? Your back needs support, and needs your body weight distributed evenly on the mattress. Studies show that the best mattress for back pain overall, is a medium-firm mattress.

You may have slept on a soft mattress and believed it helped your back pain. While softness is relative and depends on your needs, generally what’s considered a soft mattress is one that offers very little resistance at any point where your body contacts the mattress. Your spine gets thrown out of alignment with a soft mattress, which also places extra stress on the joints, muscles, and ligaments of your spine. This is because a very soft mattress lets the lower back sink too far into the mattress. So go medium-firm for your best mattress, and eliminate your back pain.

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