Which is the Best Mattress for Back Pain?
With five kids in my family and five kids in my wife’s family growing up, both of us slept on pretty old mattresses. I remember putting a piece of plywood under many of my mattresses over the years, which helped quite a bit in preventing the bed from sagging. When you’re young and healthy it seems like you can get away with sleeping on a poor quality mattress without doing yourself much harm. But unfortunately that is not the case. Sleeping on a good quality mattress is one of the most important things you can do for your own health and the health of your family. When my wife and I first got married we slept on a “Flex Steel” pull out couch. This couch had remarkably good support for a pullout. However we needed to use this pullout as a couch, and making and unmaking it all the time became a hassle, so we decided to buy our first king sized bed. We looked around at quite a few different mattress brands but ended up buying a water bed. I had always heard that water beds were great. I expected them to also be the best mattress for back pain. It just seemed like it would be so comfortable! After reading about all the different styles of water beds, we chose one that was called motionless, or fully baffled. This means it was as motionless as possible for a water bed because it had eight separate long tubes of water instead of one big bag of water that would move all around whenever anyone moved on it. To my great surprise, neither my wife nor I liked the water bed. Even though it was called a motionless bed, we both were disturbed when the other moved in it. After three nights, we knew we would never grow to like it so we sent it back. We went back to the store we bought the water bed from and started analyzing all the types of mattresses. Some were too soft and didn’t seem to give enough support, and some felt too firm to be comfortable. We settled on the “Sealy Posturepedic Firm Mattress” and have loved that model for 24 years. I have had patients who swore by futon beds, water beds, and tempurpedic beds. They swore that each of these was the best mattress for back pain. I have even had patients sleep directly on the floor trying to get the support they needed for back pain relief. I think I would like a tempurpedic mattress, but have loved the 'Sealy Posturepedic Firm' so much, that I never was tempted enough to try something that cost so much more. In my opinion, the Sealy Posturepedic is the best mattress for back pain because they actually have a whole line of mattresses that give the support that your particular body shape needs. If you have large hips and shoulders you would probably be better off with a mattress that is a little softer in order for your body to be supported in between those two areas. Our current Sealy Posturepedic Firm mattress actually has a soft outer layer over the firm inner parts of the mattress which makes it extremely comfortable. So it is really more of a medium –firm mattress which is just about right for most people. Remember, the worst thing for your back is a mattress that is too soft or sagging. This puts harmful stress on your low back and spinal cord. To help maintain the quality of your mattress, reposition it every few months to ensure that it is evenly worn. This includes rotating 180 degrees and flipping the mattress lengthwise on a regular basis. Studies have found that when mattresses older than five years old were replaced with new ones, improvements in sleep quality and comfort were gained. The best mattress for back pain can make a big difference in how you feel and function at work and at home. If your mattress is more than 10 years old, you should seriously consider getting a new one. To Your Best Health, Dr. Cliff
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