What mattress is best when you have a bad back, suffer from sciatica, lumbar disc herniation, lumbago or other back problems?
Should you go for a Geltex mattress, a latex mattress, a spring mattress or memory foam mattress ?
Is the best mattress really the solution to back problems and inversely a bad mattress is it really the cause? (We think that yes because it’s something we’ve heard since we’re very small, but … what if it was a commonplace ?)
You are probably reading this article because you wake up in pain & your back hurts every morning ion bed and you incriminate your new mattress that costed you like a kidney, while your spouse who sleeps on the same mattress sleeps like a baby, and has no pain.
The truth is that if you have a bad back, lying down causes more back pain, regardless of the mattress you’ll sleep on.
And you need to understand that. You can spend as much money as you can and purchase the all time best mattress for back pain, you will still by lying down and that is the problem, when you’re back is damaged.
Conditions such as lumbar arthrosis, narrow lumbar spine, intra-spinal tumors, lumbar disc herniation, cervical disc herniation, cervicarthrosis, cervico-brachial neuralgia, are aggravated by just lying down and not moving for a prolonged period.
To the point that some people seriously affected have no choice but to sleep seated, or even standing …
Of course, it still helps to have a better mattress than one which offer no support.
How to choose the best mattress for back pain ?
The best mattress for back pain provides sufficient support when the body is lying in a neutral position: the spine, buttocks, heels, shoulders and head must be supported properly.
A mattress that is too firm causes too much pressure on at least one of these parts of the body (which are the most important pressure points when lying down).
A mattress that is too soft does not offer enough support to these parts of the body and tha will cause pain when waking up, if not in the middle of the night.
More than the brand or type of mattress, the quality and firmness of the mattress, the level of support are important, and if a firm mattress is better suited to people with back problems, the best compromise is undoubtedly a mattress offering medium to firm support.
On a scale of firmness level of mattress ranging from 1 to 10, one would be somewhere between 6 and 7.
A study was carried out in Spain, which showed that people with back problems sleep better and have less back pain when they wake up when they sleep in a mattress with a moderately firm support.
