How Does a Memory Foam Mattress Causing Back Pain?

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The memory foam mattress is famous for offering a peaceful sleep by maintaining the spinal alignment in an intact position. Still, we have heard many people complaining regarding memory foam mattress causing back pain.

The only reason behind these complaints is because people don’t know which suits their body most. If they had used the right mattress with the exact firmness level, they would definitely not have faced any such issues.

Certainly, one will not want to compromise with anything that will disrupt their peaceful sleep. As only a sound sleep can relax our body from all types of tiredness, distress, and body soreness such as back pain, neck pain, etc.

That’s why you must choose the ideal mattress with the accurate firmness level to give your body exactly what it needs. Go through this article to discover many unknown things that will be valuable in choosing the right mattress, along with the causes, types of back pain, and solutions for relieving oneself from back pain.

Memory Foam Mattress Causing Back Pain

How you sleep affects your entire day. A good night’s sleep can make your day. Similarly, a bad night’s sleep is enough to ruin your day. It is because sleep is one of the essential things in our life, without which not even a single person on earth can function properly.

The most important thing that plays a direct role in sound sleep and back pain is the mattress you use to sleep. Check out our below headings to know about all vital things that you need to know regarding the mattress and the back pain caused due to using the wrong mattress:

How Different Mattress Types affect Back Pain?

Every mattress has a unique and different sensation to offer. In fact, you will find each mattress with a different feature and contouring abilities. This ability is vital for providing a proper backbone placement while you are in a sleep state. Have a look at the different types of mattresses types that affect back pain:

Memory Foam Mattress

This mattress keeps the backbone in the neutral alignment and releases the pressure points to offer a relaxing sleep. You just need to find the accurate firmness level that is perfect for your body. It is also great at supporting the natural curving of the spinal column. Besides, if your partner twists and moves a lot while sleeping, it will not affect your precious sleep.

Latex Mattress

These mattresses are made of natural material latex or synthetic latex. Among these two, the natural one is good, while the synthetic one crumbles or breaks after some months of use.

It provides much comfort and relieves back pain but lesser than the memory foam mattresses. The latex mattress is kind of bouncy and hard for which it can be a problem for those who have back pain. These beds are the most costly ones among all the mattresses available. Hence, a natural latex mattress is ideal for people looking for an organic mattress with moderate hardness.

Innerspring Mattress

This type of mattress consists of a steel coil layer at the ground, which is further layered by a top-thin comfort layer to make the bed cool. It also contains cotton, wool, foam, etc. many also comes with a plush quilted cushion. However, it is less comfortable compared to the latex or memory foam mattress.

Hybrid Mattress

It is a combination of innerspring with memory foam or latex beds, including the coil layer at the base and the polyfoam in the comfort layer. It is slightly harder and is bouncier than a latex or memory foam mattress. But it is still less comfortable than the mattresses mentioned above.

How Sleeping Position affect Back Pain?

Your sleep position determines your backbone’s neutral position and is directly involved in affecting your back pain. Hence, maintain your spinal column arrangement properly to ensure that you wake up pain-free in the morning. Certainly, you will not want to wake up with any pain in your body.

If you regularly wake and sleep at the same position, then you are a side, back, or stomach sleeper. But in case you wake up in a different position, then you are a combination sleeper.

Back Sleepers

It is one of the best positions for back pain sufferers as it keeps the backbone neutral. But it can make the snore worse, and the soft tissue tends to fall back, blocking the air routes. Hence, if you face any such issues, then a side sleeping position is ideal for you. Try to use a mid-loft cushion ranging from 6-7 inches to support the head while sleeping on your backbone.

Side Sleepers

It is one of the most common positions for sleeping, but it also increases paresthesia chances. It is a disease that limits limb circulation, causing difficulty. The ideal mattress for these sleepers is moderately hard and tries to use the cushion at the head, shoulder, and hip to get support and comfort while sleeping.

Stomach Sleepers

It is highly not suggested for those who suffer from back pain. As it doesn’t support the spinal column and puts you in a more risk y position of having back and neck pain. However, if you can not switch, then use a hard mattress to reduce the pain.

Combination Sleepers

Those sleepers tend to change their position regularly between side, back, and stomach positions. The ideal one for these sleepers is a medium mattress as it offers softness and hardness. The softness lessens the pressure points, and the hardness keeps the backbone aligned through varied changing sleeping positions.

Types of Back Pain

Back pain is one of the pain that can even make you miss out on your work. However, these pain can be classified into 2 types based on the duration of your suffering:

Acute

Generally, acute back pain lasts for a few days or weeks and can be cured if you just make some lifestyle changes, like maintaining a healthy posture and some workouts. However, it may remain for some months to be cured entirely in some cases, but once gone, you will no longer feel any pain anymore.

Chronic

Back pain is regarded as chronic when it lasts for more than 4 months. At first, the pain is in an acute state, and when it remains untreated, it slowly converts into a chronic state. The treatment of this pain is either physiotherapy or surgery.

Furthermore, it is categorized by the location affected:

Lower Back Pain

It affects the lowest 5 vertebrae of your backbone in the lumbar region and is the most common kind of back pain.

Mid Back Pain

It is the most uncommon kind of back pain and happens between the rib and lumbar areas.

Upper Back pain

It affects the thoracic backbone, runs from the area above the rib cage to the lower neck, and often moves to the shoulders.

How does Back Pain Affect Sleep?

Back pain can largely and directly affect sleep quality due to various reasons. Below is a list of the factors that prevents sleep quality:

The pain is more severe at night as the brain remains idle while sleeping.
It is tough to find the ideal sleeping position.
The pain intensity often increases after waking from sleep.
Frequent and extended use of painkillers may also affect your sleep.
It also affects physical activities, which indirectly hurts your sleep.

Can Sleep Help with Back Pain?

A peaceful sleep has the power to heal one’s body and mind. That’s why one needs to sleep at least 7 to 9 hours without any disruption to avoid or lessen back pain. Here’s what sleep does:

Causes of Back Pain

Several factors can play a role in causing back pain:

With age, the spinal column may get affected
Damage on the backbone
Any crack on the spine
Muscle stress
Arthritis
Osteoporosis
Metal tension

Other Sleep Accessories to Prevent or Relieve Back Pain

Back pain can be avoided to a great extent if we just make some changes in our lifestyle. Such as avoiding carrying any heavyweight objects. Most importantly, the mattress you sleep on plays a crucial direct role.

Except there are some other accessories that can help you in preventing or relieving back pain:

Cushions

Cushions play a crucial role in keeping it under your head, neck, and backbone to keep it aligned when you sleep. Hence, if you have back pain, then you must definitely use it. In fact, it is the number 1 thing that can lessen your back pain as it acts as additional support for your head. The ideal is to use a mid or low-loft cushion of 2-3 inches.

Adjustable Base

It offers you the option to raise your head and feet to designated angles while you are asleep. Also, it can increase movement and release the pressure points. Moreover, it also improves the lumbar support and decreases the muscle stress in the spinal column. For these reasons, memory foam mattresses with adjustable bases are regarded as ideal for relieving back pain.

Mattress Toppers

Generally, mattress toppers are made of top-quality memory foam, gel, or latex and are available in standard sizes. They are about 2-4 inches thick that are placed on the top of the bed to soften or hard. If you find yourself waking up with back pain, then you need to adjust its firmness level.

If your soft memory foam mattress is causing back pain, then add more pillows. And if your firm memory foam mattress is causing back pain, then add more support to increase your comfort.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Mattress for Back Pain

The ideal mattress for the use of back pain is the one that acts as a support and offers the best comfort by maintaining the spinal column neutral arrangement. Memory mattresses can provide both comfort and support, but there are still some crucial factors that you need to consider while buying a memory foam mattress.

Nowadays, there are plenty of mattresses with varied types, and features are available in the market. So it is pretty normal to get confused about which mattress will be the right one to buy. That’s why you must know what features you should look for while choosing a mattress for yourself.

Hence, go through the below factors to know what makes a mattress the best so you can check all these key points while buying:

Firmness

The firmness of the mattress means the feeling that you sense the very first moment when you lie on your mattress. For measuring the mattress firmness, the manufacturers use a scale ranging from 1-10 level. Generally, the number 1 indicates the softest one, and the number 10 represents the toughest one. the range of the scale measurement is written below:

1: Softest

2, 3: Soft

4: Moderate soft

5: Intermediate

6: Moderate hard

7, 8: Hard

9, 10: Hardest

In a recent study, it is found that a moderate hard mattress encourages backbone arrangement. In contrast, based on the general opinion, a strong mattress also does a similar thing.

On the other hand, a moderate hard mattress is within a scale of between 6 to 7. It provides sufficient comfort support to the back with lessening one’s pressure points.

Any additional push on the back can promote the spinal column’s pressure points, which in turn can worsen one’s back pain. Inadequate push back causes the mattress to descend underneath the back, resulting in mispositioning the spinal column, which in return can activate pain and stiffness.

The most usual weight back sleepers suffering from back pain tend to feel more comfortable on a moderate hard mattress. Still, one’s comfort depends on the weight of the body and the sleeping position. Such as, an overweight person weighing more than 220 pounds will apply more force on the bed. Hence, they require a harder bed to avoid the misplacement of the spinal column.

On the other hand, a person with a normal weight of fewer than 130 pounds may require a soft bed to balance their pressure-point release along with their body. How you tend to sleep (your sleeping position) also plays a massive role in determining your body’s comfort level.

Hence, back sleepers tend to feel more comfortable on a moderate hard mattress and side-sleepers on a moderate level. Lastly, side and combination sleepers need more cushioning below their shoulders and hips to avoid affecting the pressure points on those specific areas.

Zoned Support

Another leading reason for back pain occurs when the body-weight is not appropriately dispersed on the sleeping surface. Such as the head and backbone weighs more, applying more force on the mattress in these areas. The higher the force is applied, the more it will cause the mattress to sink, which will increase your back pain due to your spinal column’s misplacement.

That’s why it is ideal to buy a memory foam mattress that comes with zoned support for solving this vital issue of sinking. It provides more pushback under your backbone and offers support underneath your shoulder and hip. It thus avoids the mattress from sinking, thus keeping your spinal column in its intact position. This zoned support is specially designed to balance the comfort and support so that one can sleep comfortably without worrying about anything.

Materials

Generally, the memory foam mattresses are made to support the body and discharge the pressure points. These mattresses usually contain a memory foam at the top layer above the polyfoam base layer to offer a more comfortable level. Furthermore, this layer increases the durability along with preventing the mattress from getting wilted.

But all mattresses are not made using the same and quantity of materials. That’s why many people have faced severe back pain. Moreover, these layers may contain traditional memory foam, gel memory foam, plant-based or mattresses with cooling extracts.

The traditional one can sometimes avoid airflow. But in most cases, it traps the body heat and warms the mattress. Hence, if you are a hot sleeper, it’s better to avoid sleeping in a traditional foam mattress. Otherwise, it will get overheat, which will disrupt your peaceful sleep. And the disruption in your sleep is enough to worsen your back pain.

A recent study shows that sleep disruptions exaggregates any pain, and sound sleep helps lessen the pain level by allowing the body to heal.

On the other hand, gel, plant-based, and memory foam with cooling additives aids in offering a sense of coolness to the body while you sleep on that bed. These additives are either churned or included at the comfort layer to dispel heat. That’s why it is better to go for a mattress with cooling additives to get a relaxing sleep.

Conclusion

Our body is a very delicate thing that only can relax when you give it the exact comfort and gets affected when something not suitable is done. Although memory foam mattresses are well-known for offering comfortable sleep, they can still cause back pain or joint pain.

The only reason behind this problem is that people don’t know which is the ideal mattress for them, which firmness level suits their body. Hopefully, by going through the entire, you now have a complete idea about the memory foam mattress causing back pain.

So instead of experiencing back pain anymore, find the ideal one and buy to give your body the exact comfort and relaxation it needs to function properly.

FAQ

We have received plenty of questions regarding the memory foam mattress that causes back pain. That’s why we have included a FAQ section to get your answer to the question you are looking for. Check out the below answers:

What Is the Best Overall Mattress for Back Pain?

The best overall mattress for back pain is Amerisleep AS2. It comes with a 12 inches tall, durable, and moderate-hard mattress to support your spine so you can have a sound sleep throughout the night.

What Is the Best Soft Mattress for Back Pain?

The best soft mattress for back pain is Amerisleep AS3. This mattress is 12 inches tall, robust, and ideal for combination sleepers as it consists of a soft and hard mattress.

What Is the Best Combo Sleepers With Back Pain?

The best combo sleeper with back pain is Amerisleep AS4. It consists of 4 inches of ultra-light cushioning to resists the sinkage and to offer you a more comfortable and relaxing position. It is ideal for side sleepers with back pain.

Is My Memory Foam Mattress Topper Causing Back Pain?

Memory foam toppers are soft and comfortable and are used at the top of the mattress to increase comfort. However, if you place a thin topper on a tough mattress and a topper on a bed that sinks, then it will certainly cause back pain. The ideal topper to use is a thick one with 3 inches.

Is My New Memory Foam Mattress Causing Back Pain?

Yes, definitely it can cause back pain. Hence, if you purchase an extremely soft or hard memory foam mattress, your whole body will certainly ache, especially in the joint and back areas. Only the exact mattress and the sleeping posture will not hurt your back. Hence, buy the right one to get the exact peace of sleep.

Is Your Memory Foam Mattress Causing Upper Back Pain?

If your memory foam mattress is too hard, it will affect your pressure points and will cause your spinal misalignment. Similarly, if it is too soft, your body will sink into the mattress, causing a lousy body posture which indirectly leads to upper back pain. Only the right one will give the right comfort without causing any pain.

Is Your Memory Foam Mattress Causing Lower Back Pain?

Yes, your memory foam mattress will cause lower back pain if you don’t buy the precise firmness level that is ideal for your body. The ideal one only keeps your backbone in neutral alignment while relieving the pressure points while you are sleeping.