Your Mattress and Back Pain
Shawn Clark
Many people with bad backs notice that when they lie down and try to sleep, pressure is placed on their lower spine, which causes them pain. What most don't realize is that subtle changes in the way mattresses are made today can contribute to or be the leading cause of their back problems.
Sleep Support and Back Pain
We're told to sit up straight and stand up straight for proper spinal alignment, but what about when we lie down to sleep? How we stand and sit is important because when done properly, it keeps the hips and shoulders on the same level plane. When we "slump," our head moves off this plane, which places pressure (gravitational
pull) on our lower back—that's the way the human body is formed. When we lie down to sleep, it's also important to keep our hips and shoulders in this same relationship. However, the average person carries more weight in the hip area than in the shoulders, which creates a major alignment problem when horizontal. This can only be solved by introducing an element that "pushes" the hips up into alignment with the shoulders, which is why the innerspring was such a major breakthrough in mattress technology in the early 1900s. Before that time, people were sleeping on natural materials, such as cotton and straw or feathers. Adding springs into the mix revolutionized sleep quality and soon all mattresses had them.
Spinal Support During Sleep Is Important
Sleep, like air and water, is required to sustain human life. The human form cannot exist past 10 days without sleep. Most of us will choose comfort over support when it comes to sleep because we can't sleep on a mattress that is too firm. However, after a couple of years of sleeping on a mattress that lacks proper support, the muscles that support our spinal column are weakened. This leads to alignment issues and eventually a bad back. We associate our back problems with what we tried to do but couldn't because we pulled our back muscles ora disc. However, lack of support is what really started the downward spiral. Waterbeds are a perfect example of a too-soft mattress that became known for causing bad backs.
Mattress Types
Our parents slept on mattresses made with steel springs and cotton. These were wonderful products that lasted for more than 20 years. If people developed back pain, their doctor told him or her to put plywood under the mattress for added support. It worked and everyone was happy!
Then came the space race when all kinds of new materials suddenly became available. Plastics and foams replaced cotton and steel, and new kinds of mattresses were born. From waterbeds to air beds, to pillow-top foam mattresses, and finally to expensive and highly advertised memory foam beds, a variable parade of new mattress types have been introduced to the unsuspecting public for purchase without proper testing or government oversight.
Let's take a look at the kinds of mattresses being sold today and see what industry data shows about how they compare to the cotton and spring versions our parents slept on:
• Water and air replaced the springs in beds, but they lack the ability to push the hips up into alignment. After a couple of years, the lack of proper support weakens the muscles supporting the spine and contributes to back problems. The highly advertised "sleep number" bed is an air bed with a number representing the amount of air the person chooses to put into the chamber.
• Pillow tops are mattresses that replaced cotton with a thick layer of foam for cushioning. The foam becomes hard and develops body impressions after only a couple of years.
• Memory foam is the NASA-licensed slow-rebounding foam that replaces springs in high-priced beds. It does not push the hips up into proper alignment, is hot to sleep on, and has a useful wear life of only five to seven years.
• Latex foam is a natural rubber foam that is being used to replace the springs in high-priced beds. Although it is more natural, it does not push the hips into
proper alignment and softens as it wears, which gives these mattresses a useful life of three to five years.
So we see a clear picture of mattress companies using new, supposedly better materials to sell mattresses that in reality don't work properly and make you buy another new type mattress before you want to do so.
Foam Is the Problem
Industry testing shows that foam-based materials change in a predictable manner as they are used; they harden, lose their ability to rebound, and develop body impressions. As they change, so does their ability to provide back support and comfort. This creates the "perfect storm" of bad sleep because it causes sleep movement (tossing and turning), which disrupts the ideal sleep cycle and robs the sleeper sleep stages three and four (i.e., deep, healing-level sleep when the brain is engaged in healing the body). This disruption of the sleep cycle can lead to serious sleep disorders that affect our overall health and our body's natural ability to heal.
What Should You Buy?
For people with back or sleep issues, there are two types of mattresses that medical research show will work well:
• Firm innerspring mattresses use very little foam for cushioning. These products are still available and if the patient can sleep on a "very firm" bed, it will work great for support. Most people, however, cannot sleep on a firm bed because it causes tossing and turning, and eventually hip and shoulder pain
• Pressure-redistributing intelli gel®
mattresses, which are the only mattresses that provide firm back support and soft-pressure relief at the same time due to a hospital-tested intelli gel cushioning grid for sleepers who need a softer, more comfortable sleep surface.
Shawn Clark, EVP cofounder of Advanced Comfort Technologies, Inc., a company founded in 1998 to develop sleep wellness mattresses marketed through wellness professionals under the intelliBED name.
