Is Your Mattress Causing You Back Pain
Sleep Advisor Disclaimer – Nothing on this website is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment… Read more here
There are a lot of different reasons that people experience back pain. Figuring out where your discomfort is coming from can be difficult, especially if you lead an active or challenging life. However, the mattress you go to sleep on at night can play a big part in how you feel in the morning. In other words, its important to find out whether your bed is to blame for your back soreness or not.
What Makes Amerisleep Different
Currently, there are approximately 200 different online brands promising their mattress will be the key to better, restful sleep so we dont expect you to believe were the better option right off the bat however, we believe our proprietary foams and careful design set our beds apart from the rest. Lets talk about the materials in our mattresses to let you decide if were the best choice.
Inside of our beds, we include three primary layers: Bio-Pur®, Affinity with HIVE® technology, and Bio-Core®. Plus, every Amerisleep mattress has a soft, breathable cover to promote deeper, undisturbed sleep.
Use A Mattress Topper
Try a mattress topper like Polysleep’s antimicrobial memory foam mattress topper. This 2-inch ventilated antimicrobial topper helps upgrade any mattress.
It conforms to your body precisely which ensures adequate spine alignment while you’re sleeping.
The foam in this antimicrobial foam topper is also extremely breathable and allows hot air to escape, providing you with a comfortable, cool and deep sleep.
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Which Sleep Position Is Best For Reducing Hip Pain
Whatever your sleep position, there is hope of reducing pain and getting better rest, but its also helpful to know how sleep position affects hip pain. The breakdown below shows how each position either helps or hurts hip pain, and the type of surface thats best for relieving hip pain in each posture.
Side Sleepers
Side sleepers who habitually sleep on one side on an ill-fitting mattress may experience muscle imbalance and pain. When you sleep on your side, most of your weight falls to your hips and shoulders, and if youre not sleeping on a mattress that cushions these spots, you run the risk of placing too much pressure on your hips. This can cause hip pain, which is why its key for side sleepers to rest on a softer surface that alleviates pressure.
Make sure to also alternate between sides as to not aggravate sore hips, and sleep with a pillow between your knees to assist with keeping your spine from sinking out of alignment.
Back Sleepers
Sleeping face-up is your best bet to avoiding hip pain. In this sleep position, your body weight is spread evenly across the mattress surface, thus keeping extra tension off of the lower back and hips.If you sleep on your back, place a pillow under your knees to help maintain the normal curve of your lower back, which ensures proper alignment and decreases the chances of pain spreading from your lower back to your hips.
Stomach Sleepers
Combination Sleepers
Do Memory Foam Mattresses Cause Leg Pain
If youre worried that your memory foam mattress is causing your nightly leg pain, this is unlikely if its still in good condition.Memory foam helps to ease aches and pains by providing a cushioning surface that moulds to your body. If your memory foam mattress is very old and showing signs of damage, this could affect your quality of sleep and should be replaced.
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Look For Zoned Support
Some mattresses like the Level Sleep mattress offer zoned support or zoned firmnesses so that you can experience more support around your lower back and greater pressure relief around your shoulders and head.
This can help to promote better posture and reduce pressure more effectively when compared to a mattress that has the same amount of support/firmness across the entire surface area of the mattress.
How Can I Treat Hip Pain At Home
Another way to reduce pain when sleeping is by icing your affected hip before going to bed. If you have pain that is caused by inflammation such as arthritis, tendinitis, or bursitis, then icing the affected area for 15-20 minutes will help constrict blood vessels. This will help reduce inflammation and pain in the area. Icing for longer than 20 minutes can allow for the blood vessels to dilate and cause the inflammation to return.
Why does my hip hurt while I am sleeping? Why do I keep experiencing hip pain? Learn more about hip pain by reading this ARTICLE.
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Consider Buying A Mattress Online
People who are looking for a mattress online are often surprised by how many affordable options are available. While buying a mattress online might have seemed strange even just 10 years ago, it has become commonplace today and is consistently growing in popularity.
Part of the reason for this popularity is competitive pricing. Most online companies sell directly to consumers, cutting out the middleman and eliminating the overhead of costly retail stores. These savings get passed on to shoppers, reducing sticker prices for most beds sold online. In addition, competition between sellers means that promotions and discounts are available to offer deals below the retail pricing.
Another benefit to shopping online is that you can take your time and fully research your options. In your living room, theres no pushy salesperson looking over your shoulder, so it can be a much more pleasant and low-pressure shopping experience. In this context, its much easier to compare different options and seek out the best mattress for the money.
A common concern when buying online is that you cant lie down on the bed before making a purchase. While its true that you cant feel out a mattress through your computer, detailed descriptions and reviews online give a solid idea of what to expect for any given model.
Shipping the mattress in this way has no effect on its quality or durability, and it eliminates the cost and hassle associated with traditional mattress delivery and installation.
Osteoarthritis Symptoms And Treatments
If you have hip osteoarthritis, youre probably experiencing lots of pain in that area. Other symptoms include stiffness or swelling. Sometimes the stiffness worsens at different times of day, such as in the morning or at night.
If you experience any of these symptoms, see a doctor about possible diagnosis and treatments:
- Limping
TheCDC Verified SourceCenters for Disease Control and Prevention The United States health protection agency that defends against dangers to health and safety.View sourcesays chronic pain is one of the main reasons people seek medical care. Untreated, it leads to decreased mobility, dependence on pain medication, and overall poorer quality of life.
Anyone with chronic pain, whether its in the hips, back, neck anywhere, really knows how hard it is to fall asleep and stay asleep. Astudy published in 2018Verified SourceNational Library of Medicine Worlds largest medical library, making biomedical data and information more accessible.View sourcestudying chronic pain patients found that 38.8% of participants needed more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, 63.6% woke up frequently during the night, 30.6% slept less than five hours, and 60.3% felt their sleep was not restorative .
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Too Firm Prevents Natural Sinkage
A mattress thats too firm can cause hip pain by increasing the amount of pressure on your hip joints and preventing you from sinking far enough into the mattress materials so that you can rest in good posture.
Solution
If your mattress is brand new, then its quite normal for your mattress to feel too firm due to the materials having not yet softened in response to your body weight and physical characteristics.
The solution here is to sleep on your mattress every night for at least 30 nights to allow the materials to break in and adjust to your body type.
If the mattress is still too firm for you, then you should be able to return it under the terms of the sleep trial for a refund or exchange if you bought a mattress online that comes with a generous sleep trial.
Alternatively, if your mattress is too firm and you cant return it, then you could buy a soft mattress topper to help decrease the amount of pressure being placed on your body and potentially experience a reduction in hip pain.
Is Your Mattress Too Soft 5 Signs You Need A Firmer Bed
We all know the feeling of sinking into bed after a long day but if youre sinking too far, you might be doing more harm than good. While theres nothing wrong with preferring a softer sleep surface, everyone needs a certain amount of support to promote healthy spinal alignment.
Beyond just preference, choosing the right firmness level comes down to your unique sleep needs, body type and sleep position. From lower back pain to muscle and joint stiffness, these are some of the signs that your mattress is too soft.
Sign #1: You wake up with a stiff and sore lower back.
The most common symptom of a bed thats too soft is a stiff and sore lower back. This usually happens first thing in the morning, after youve been in bed for a prolonged period of time. While there are plenty of causes for a sore lower back, persistent morning aches and pains are usually a good indicator that your bed is the problem.
Sign #2: You have a hard time getting comfortable.
Tossing and turning every once in a while is commonstress, anxiety and even poor health can be contributing causes to insomnia. That said, your mattress plays an important role in how long it takes to get comfortable at night. If you find yourself constantly readjusting it could be a sign your muscles arent able to fully relaxa key sign your mattress is too soft.
Sign #3: You sleep on your stomach, and often wake with neck or shoulder pain.
Sign #4: You struggle to get in and out of bed.
What to do about it:
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What Are The Best Sleeping Positions For Someone With Hip Pain
A significant amount of research has been done into how sleep positions impact back and hip pain. As it turns out, sleep positions can have a considerable effect on hip and back pain. Sleep positions lead to such pains, and proper utilization of sleep positions can also be used to reduce some of these discomforts. After you determine your sleep position, you can use that information to find the best mattress for back and hip pain for you after you discuss it with your doctor. Here is how sleeping positions will make a difference:
How To Get Relief On A Budget
If youve identified that your current mattress is contributing to hip pain, youre likely ready to make a change. But at the end of the day, you have to be able to afford a mattress upgrade, and some people may worry that its just not in their budget.
Even if you arent able to splurge on a luxury mattress, you can still find relief. You can make the most of your spending with the following tips.
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Sagging Causes Poor Posture
A sagging mattress is one where theres a dip of 1-1.5 inches or more across a significant area of the mattress surface to the point where it causes you to sleep in poor posture which can result in hip pain, back pain, neck pain, and general musculoskeletal discomfort.
You can check to see if your mattress is sagging by placing a broom/mop handle across your mattress, getting down to eye level, and measuring any gaps that you can see :
Solution
If you have a mattress thats only sagging slightly, then you may be able to temporarily fix this issue by placing a mattress topper on your mattress to even out the surface and help you stay in good posture as you sleep.
However, youll need to make sure that you buy a mattress topper thats of the correct firmness and made of the right materials relative to your body type .
But to properly fix a sagging mattress especially if your mattress is more than 5-7 years old then you should buy a new mattress thats well suited to your physical characteristics and dominant sleeping position.
Check out my list of the best anti-sag mattresses for some high quality options.
Helix Midnight Luxe Mattress
The Midnight Luxe is a supportive mattress that’s great for back sleepers. Its thick memory foam comfort layer provides plenty of pressure relief and contouring, which is great for combatting hip and shoulder pain.
Enjoy relief from hip pain with a bed from the Helix Luxe line of mattresses, the Helix Midnight Luxe. This mattress has a medium-firm feel thats gentle enough for those with hip pain, and it features a pillow top that should provide plenty of comfort for different sleeping positions.
This hybrid mattress also offers strong support thanks to pocketed coils. This support is zoned to be softer around the shoulder and firmer around the hip, keeping the hips elevated with the spine and promoting healthy spinal alignment. The coils also give the beds some bounce and mobility, which will appeal to folks who like to move around easily on top of their mattress.
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Best For Pressure Relief: Saatva Classic
Sleepers with hip pain require extra pressure relief to keep the discomfort from worsening. The Saatva Classics soft Euro pillow top cushions around the hips and lower back to replicate a feeling of weightlessness, preventing pressure buildup . Gel memory foam and two coil layers help the Saatva achieve a perfect spine alignment score and assist with the dispersal of body heat . If youre concerned about mattress setup taking a toll on your body, Saatvas included white glove delivery will handle that for you.
- Mattress Type: Hybrid
Limit Exposure To Blue Light
As soon as the sun goes down, your body will begin to prepare for sleep . Your core temperature decreases, melatonin increases and serotonin relaxes your muscles, and your eyelids may begin to feel heavy.
Exposing yourself to bright lights, especially blue light from TV, phone, or other screens, delays your sleep by suppressing the evening rise in melatonin levels and in sleepiness. It can also impact your brain activity during sleep. Power off your electronics within two hours of bedtime and dim the lights in your home.
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Mattresses For Shoulder Pain
When youre asleep on your side, your shoulders bear the greatest portion of your torsos weight , so pressure points in the shoulders are common. On uncomfortable mattresses, people with broad shoulders often experience shoulder soreness or tingling arms from compressed circulation. A side sleeper with shoulder pain will do best on a plush mattress, as opposed to a firm mattress that doesnt provide adequate pressure relief.
Pressure relief can come in the form of a soft memory foam or natural latex mattress. Health considerations aside, both foams can offer great pressure relief, but memory foam has a worrisome reputation for chemical off-gassing with multiple side effects.
Choosing A Mattress For Hip Pain
The right mattress can make a significant difference for folks with hip pain. When shopping for a model that can help to maximize comfort, keep a few terms in mind: firmness, support, and pressure relief. These terms are crucial for mattress buyers, particularly those who experience orthopedic pain.
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Reducing Hip Pain At Night
In addition to choosing the right mattress, there are other ways you can reduce hip pain to sleep better. Some strategies to consider:
- Change your sleep position. Though it may be a bit of a challenge at the beginning, try to start the night on your side or on your back instead of on your stomach. Promoting neutral spine alignment is most challenging if you sleep on your belly, so working to change it up may provide relief.
- Stretch before bed. Try to stretch out your hip before bedtime by crisscrossing your legs while you sit down and pressing gently on either side. You can also try a yoga session right before bed or stretch out throughout the day to improve flexibility and tight areas.
- Elevate your legs. Elevating your legs while you sleep may also help to relieve pressure on your hips and spine. The best way to do this is to make sure the weight of your legs is supported by pillows or a folded blanket.
- Use a pillow between your knees. Similar to alleviating pressure on your hips by elevating your legs, for side sleepers, placing a pillow between your legs can help hip and back alignment.
- Try massage or other physical therapies. You may also want to try using a TENS unit to stimulate the area, relax, increase blood flow, and relieve pain before you go to bed.
We created our list based on these factors:
Sleeping Soundly With Hip Pain
Despite all of thestudiesVerified SourceNational Library of Medicine Worlds largest medical library, making biomedical data and information more accessible.View sourceconducted over the years, nobody is sure yet which comes first pain or sleep deprivation? It doesnt matter, really we know they are connected somehow, and that treating one usually leads to a decrease of the other. If youre reading this article, you probably already experience enough pain to keep you awake at night. Establishing better sleep hygiene habits can help!
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