4 Signs Your Mattress Might Be Causing Your Lower Back Pain

There are countless things that can cause lower back pain or aggravate it. If you’re enduring lower back pain, it’s possible that anything from poor posture to a disk injury could be the culprit. One of the likeliest causes is a bad mattress — and, if your mattress is the reason for your pain, there are likely to be some telltale signs that will help you make that determination. Here’s a list of 4 of those signs:

 

1.   Your Mattress Is Old and Worn

It’s hard to get a good night’s sleep on a worn-out mattress — and, even worse, sleeping on a worn-out mattress is quite likely to result in lower back pain.

If your mattress appears saggy, uneven or lumpy, the chances are good that that mattress is no longer your ideal choice of surfaces for sleeping on.

Experts recommend replacing your mattress at least every 8 years. If more time than that has elapsed since you bought your current mattress, it’s probably worth planning to shop for a new one. In that case, you might benefit from having a look at Ecosa’s helpful suggestions regarding the best mattresses for people who have bad backs.

 

2.   Your Back Is Hurting When You Wake Up

The timing of your back pain can provide important clues about what the cause of it might be. Perhaps you go to bed feeling fine, but your back is hurting each morning when you wake up. If that’s your situation, it’s an omen that your mattress is the probable source of your back pain.

 

3.   You Can’t Get to Sleep Easily

If you notice that you’re often lying awake at night in your bed, tossing and turning but not sleeping, there are a couple of likely culprits. Caffeine is one of the likeliest causes of this situation; but, if you can rule out caffeine as not being the problem in your case, the real culprit is quite likely to be a worn-out mattress. A mattress that’s so bad it prevents you from sleeping is also likely to cause, or at least contribute to, pain in your back.

 

4.   The Mattress Is Too Firm or Too Soft

An overly firm mattress will not provide the proper amount of contouring to comfortably accommodate your body. A mattress that’s too soft isn’t ideal either, as it may be bending further than a human back was ever meant to bend. Either situation is likely to result in back pain. A better choice would be a medium-firm mattress  that properly supports the curvature of your spine and empowers restful sleep.

 

If you’ve experienced back pain in conjunction with any of these signs in the recent past, and you don’t have any other reasonable explanation for them, a bad mattress is a likely cause of the problem. In that case, obtaining a new mattress is likely to fix the situation. If obtaining a new mattress fails to make any difference, it’s wise to determine whether you should seek medical care; perhaps your GP could help you discover a solution to the problem.

 

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Written by HealthStatus Crew
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus teams with authors from organizations to share interesting ideas, products and new health information to our readers.

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