Change Your Sleeping Positions
The next step to be done is bringing a change in the sleeping patterns. The five best positions for lower back pain will be discussed ahead. Till then, one must know that better pillows are always supportive of various and almost all sleeping patterns. So, it is all interconnected. Therefore, be very careful while choosing pillows.
- Opt for better pillows so that they support the sleeping patterns.
- Try lower back pain supportive postures. If not habitual, begin slowly.
- Before depending upon medication, begin with such efforts.
The Best Sleeping Positions To Help With Lower Back Pain
The best sleeping positions to help with lower back pain may surprise you. When it comes to this topic, Information on the internet can be misleading, so weve broken down the best sleeping positions and their benefits so you do not have to decipher fact from fiction. Sleep position modifications and other changes to day-to-day routines can help manage and prevent back pain while promoting restful sleep. Continue reading below for more information on the best sleeping positions for lower back pain, alignment tips, and more.
What can I do?Do you deal with lower back pain? Youre not alone. The Global Burden of Disease study named lower back pain the leading cause of disability across the globe. Whats even more interesting is that most back pain isnt caused by serious medical conditions, like cancer or arthritis. Instead, its often brought on by stress or strain from bad posture, awkward sleeping positions, and other lifestyle habits. Here are the best sleeping positions to try if you have lower back pain, as well as some other things you can do to get a better nights rest.
1. Sleep on your side with a pillow between your kneesIf lying flat on your back feels uncomfortable, try shifting over to your side:
What Is The Best Way To Sit With Lower Back Pain
There are several different ways of sitting that can potentially help improve your posture and relieve lower back pain.
These include the followings:
- Your feet should always flat on the floor.
- Do not cross your legs.
- Always ensure your body weight is positioned evenly across your hips.
- Do not pivot or twist your chair at your waist. Instead, move your whole body around with every single motion.
- Your knees should be even to or slightly above the hips.
- Use lumbar support or rolled up pillow if you cant achieve the above positions on your own.
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Prone Position Pillow Under The Hips
The prone position implies sleeping on the stomach. This position is usually considered to be the worst sleeping position, as there is pressure and tension on all pressure points in the body.
However, if done correctly, sleeping in the prone position can help with lower back pain. The correct way to sleep in the prone position is by placing a pillow underneath the hips. The pillow needs to be soft and low to avoid alignment issues. The pillow needs to be thick enough to lift your hips a little bit and relieve the pressure from the lower back.
In this position, make sure to place your hand next to the head pillow, in a 90-degree angle, to avoid shoulder and neck pain.
Is Sitting Up Straight Good For You
If you have a habit of slouching while sitting, you are putting lots of pressure on your spine as well as the surrounding muscles. Poor posture results in nerve compression and reduced blood flow, neither of which is good for pain sufferers. On the other hand, sitting up straight allows your bones, ligaments, muscles, and disc to align themselves properly hence eliminating extra strain on your back.
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What Causes Lower Back Pain While Sleeping
Your back isanchored by your spine, which is essentially a column of bones stacked atop oneanother. In between each bone is a jelly-like pad called a spinal disc. Whereyou sleep and the position you sleep in can affect your spinal alignment. Whileyou sleep, you can twist and place strain on your spinal column, which cancause discomfort and pain. If you are sleeping on a hard surface or surfacethat does not provide proper support, it can also place strain on your spinalcolumn and muscles.
Pain caninterfere with sleep and lack of sleep can exacerbate pain. The sooner you knowthe best way to sleep with lower back pain, you can change how you’re sleeping,reduce your pain and stop this stressful negative cycle.
Sleep On Your Side With Your Bottom Leg Bent
Its rare for a person to have textbook normal curves and a well-functioning spine. Often, we also have sideways curves, which can be completely normal and healthy but these require us to adjust our sleeping position as well.
Sleeping on your side with your bottom leg bent ensures your spine is as neutral as possible when talking about the forwards and backwards curves on your spine . This position will lessen some of the discomfort from various causes of lower back pain, and keeps your spine in a safe, neutral position regardless of your individual body. The bend in your bottom leg also makes it almost impossible for you to twist forwards and torque your spine. If you roll, you will roll as a unit onto your back, which is healthier than winding up on your front or in a twisted position.
If you have a sideways curve, you may need to be mindful about which side you sleep on and, if you need to, prop with extra support under your sides.
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Avoid Adaptive Syndrome As Much As Possible:
It has been proven that sitting motionless for extended periods causes adaptive shortening syndrome, which is arguably one of the major culprits of lower back pain. Most people who sit for long periods daily have a relatively higher risk of developing back pain. Exercises have been known to counter the effects of the adaptive syndrome, and you can easily do them even in your office.
Alternative Treatments For Back Pain Relief
No two people experience back pain and sleep problems in the exact same way, so its worth exploring a variety of techniques until you figure out what works best for you. You dont have to only treat your back pain before you sleep either.
Other ways to relieve lower back pain include:
- Using a heating pad or electric blanket
- Massaging area with ointment that includes cayenne pepper, which reduces pain
- Practicing progressive muscle relaxation to help with physical and mental tension
- Acupuncture sessions, which has been shown to decrease pain after 12 months
A doctor or other healthcare professional can also make personalized recommendations for sleeping better with lower back pain, and prescribe medication as needed.
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Midsection Support Can Help Stomach Sleepers
There is no medical evidence that shows that sleeping on your stomach is a problem. If your habit is to sleep on your stomach but you have back pain, you may feel more comfortable if you add a small, flat pillow under your lower belly or hips. “When you’re sleeping on your stomach, your spine may sag from its neutral position,” Dr. Griffin explains. “Just a small amount of support in the midsection can help prevent that.”
Stomach sleepers may also be more comfortable with a softer or flatter pillow under their head to help maintain the spine’s alignment.
Fetal Position: Sleeping Sideways
This is another sideways position that can help a person seek relief from lower back pain. As per this position, one can turn over to the side and try to bring the knees towards the chest. The sleeper can also bring in the upper part of the body towards the knees. This curling position is highly recommended in herniated discs.
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How To Position Your Sleeping Pillows To Reduce Back Pain
Its not an exaggeration to say that sleeping is one of the most important components of our lives, and probably most of us are aware of that. Scientific facts have proved that each one of us spends around one-third of our life sleeping and having that in mind, its clear why its crucial that we reserve true comfort for those moments.
Most of us have probably experienced some sort of discomfort or even pain in our backs after we wake up. We usually dont pay too much attention to these, but its a fact that the quality of our sleep is very much tightened to the positions, and, of course, with the quality of our beds, mattresses, and pillows. The combination of these factors determines whether well get our necessary daily portion of eight hours of a quality nap or a bunch of rolling and not so peaceful nights.
Contents
What Should I Look For In A Mattress If I Have Lower Back Pain
The rule of thumb with mattresses for back pain is pretty similar to what you should look for in a pillow, Dr. Slabaugh says. Meaning, you want a decent level of firmness, but dont want to sleep on a rock. Whether you sleep on your back or side, the mattress should give enough to allow you to have a straight spine, he says.
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Dr. Womack warns against soft mattresses. People have more problems with mattresses that are too soft, he says. They get wear points and the areas that you normally put pressure onaround your knees and hipscan sink in deeper and create more trouble.
Overall, doctors suggest looking for mattresses marked medium firmlike one of these expert-recommended best mattresses for back pain.
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How Do You Stop Back Pain From Sitting Too Long
If your job involves long sitting sessions on the chair, the best way to prevent back pain is to practice the best posture, which we have discussed earlier in detail. You can also relieve back pain by incorporating exercises into your daily program. Ideally, you should not sit for too long without standing and walking for a few minutes before sitting again.
Do You Have Neck Or Back Pain Your Sleep Style May Be Contributing
If youve ever woken up with a tingling arm or achy neck, youve experienced the negative effects of sleeping in the wrong position.
The key is alignment: When you sleep with your spine in a neutral position, it reduces the strain on your back and neck. It also helps to sleep on a firm surface.
So which sleep positions should you embrace and which should you avoid? Heres a rundown, from best to worst.
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Other Tips For Better Sleeping With Lower Back Pain
Positions For Back Sleepers
Sleeping on your back can be a great position for your shoulders and lower back. Its an easy position to maintain alignment of your head, shoulders, hips, and knees. Laying on your back also keeps your body weight distributed among a large surface area. Allowing pressure to spread out over your body and reduce the likelihood of low back pain. Here are the best ways to prevent lower back pain for back sleepers:
1. Place a pillow under your knees
Depending on the firmness and fullness of your pillows, you may need to use multiple.
2. Use a leg raise pillow
The key here is to raise your knees and lower legs to a 45 degree angle. You can use regular bed pillows instead of a leg raise pillow, but proper positioning will require multiple pillows and they may shift out of place once you fall asleep.
3. In a reclined position using a bed wedge
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Best Sleeping Positions For Neck Pain
The best sleeping positions for the neck are on your back or your side. The back in particular is recommended just make sure to use a pillow that supports the curvature of your neck and a flatter pillow to cushion your head.
If you sleep on your side, use a taller pillow under your neck so your neck aligns with your head. This will relieve any strain on your neck and keep your spine straight.
The trouble with sleeping on your stomach is that you have to twist your neck to keep your head on its side, which puts pressure on the nerves. You can try to retrain yourself to adopt another position, using pillows to coax yourself and to support you in a side or back-lying position. If you must sleep on your stomach, use a thin pillow or no pillow, trying to keep awkward angles at a minimum.
For all sleep positions with neck pain, you should use a pillow under your neck that provides support, such as a rolled towel or cervical pillow.
There is also such a thing as neck pain from sleeping wrong. Sometimes you wake up with neck pain. Sleeping at an awkward angle, sudden head or neck movements during sleep or neck strain from injury may cause neck pain. In addition to utilizing treatments to relieve this neck pain, make sure that future sleep includes a good pillow for neck support.
On Your Stomach With A Pillow Under Your Pelvis
Sleeping on your stomach has a bad rap when it comes to back pain. It can cause excessive curving of your spine, Dr. Womack says. But, he adds, this position is doable if you place a pillow underneath your pelvis . You can even skip the pillow under your head if youre comfortable with it, to further keep things in alignment.
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What Is The Best Pillow Positioning For Back Pain
Sleep posture can exacerbate or alleviate back pain. Sleeping on your back is often considered the best positioning for back pain. This position is most likely to encourage sleepers to maintain a neutral posture, which keeps the spine aligned and reduces pressure on the lumbar region. Sleepers can use pillows strategically to relieve back pain.
Stomach sleeping is one of the worst sleeping positions for back pain, as it puts pressure on the lower back and often leads to spinal misalignment.
The following sleeping positions, along with their potential benefits and drawbacks, should be considered:
Nighttime Exercises To Alleviate Back Pain
A few hours before you go to bed incorporate a back exercises to strengthen and stretch the back before you settle in for sleep. Each exercise is gentle on the spine and only takes a few minutes to do to experience the effects of working out before sleep. Choose the ones you enjoy most and see how they help you achieve better sleep.
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Best Sleeping Positions To Fight Lower Back Pain
To make sleeping more comfortable during the lower back pain problems, here are some of the best sleeping positions you should try out. We must point out that you need to consult with a medical professional about these sleeping positions regarding a particular lower back condition you may have.
A medical professional will advise you whether or not you should sleep in these positions. We do not want you to create more problems for your back, so be careful when trying these out.
Sleeping On The Back But With A Twist
The twist says to insert a pillow beneath the knees while sleeping on the back. Many find it the most relaxing state of sleeping. It works wonders for many when they let the back interact with the mattress.
- While one adds a pillow under the knees, it helps to maintain the natural curve of the spine.
- It helps in the alignment.
- This helps the body to relax as pressure or strain isn’t felt at one single point.
- The weight is evenly spread across the body and one particular area of the body isn’t targeted.
- One can also roll a bed sheet or light AC quilt or a towel and keep it beneath the back only if it feels comfortable.
- Maybe this rolled up fabric and pillow combine to make it a perfect sleeping position for back pain.
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