If you wake up tired and lethargic, never ready to leave for work, you might have blamed a lot of things for it. But have you ever wondered that the culprit could be your mattress? The mattress on your bed, which you long for after a tiring day’s work could be causing you more pain and exhaustion without you even realizing it.
Why is your mattress the culprit? There could be many reasons. Let’s take a look at them. But first, let us discuss what back pain is and what its causes are.
What is Back Pain?
Back pain is an under-rated, yet leading cause of disability that can hamper your work and everyday activities. You should get rid of it, and the first and most important step in this direction is to identify the cause. There are many causes of back pain, which can lead to chronic backache and disability. These could be age or orthopedic causes.
A very significant source and aggravating factor for this backache may be the mattress you sleep on. Even if it is not the root cause, it may aggravate and intensify the degree of pain. According to the American Chiropractic Association, 31 million Americans experience some form of back pain. It is important to identify and deal with this cause.
It is medically established that a poor-quality mattress can badly affect the duration and quality of your sleep. In addition to this, it can also be a major cause of back pain, leading you to spend a bad day at work and not letting you catch up on your sleep. If you keep asking yourself these questions and are looking for solutions, you are at the right place. We will tell how your mattress has been betraying you, and what do you need to do to alleviate these issues.
How Does A Mattress Cause Back Pain?
A mattress must provide you with two components: back support and comfort. One that cannot provide back support can cause or aggravate lower back pain. The spine of the human body has a natural curvature that must be maintained at all times, particularly during sleeping. While sleeping, one cannot consciously adjust his posture so the mattress must do that.
However, if it is incapable of supporting and keeping your spine in position, it can lead to a strain on the muscles doing so. This can cause aggravation in age-related back pain, or may even seed fresh back pain, that becomes chronic eventually.
How Can You Tell?
After you have guessed it is your mattress, how can you be sure that actually it was your mattress that caused you to be lethargic and tired? Here are a few ways you can tell:
Is Your Mattress Old?
A mattress you have owned for more than eight years probably needs replacement right now. It undergoes a lot of wear and tear, and probably your mattress is the most used of all your belongings. Eight or more years of usage render it worn out and hardened. It is no longer able to adjust to the natural posture of your body.
A stiff and old mattress cannot support your body weight and is the reason for a disturbed night’s sleep plus all kinds of body aches, particularly back pain. The reason is simple; a firm mattress cannot mold according to the curvature of your spine, and you wake up, disturbed and unrested. This eventually leads to a chronic backache, and disability, if not checked in time.
Do You Wake Up Tired?
If you wake up tired and do not feel the energy to get up and be productive, you have a problem. And the problem is a bad sleeping posture and a fordone mattress. A mattress too firm is hard on your spine and joints. On the other hand, a soft mattress (link with What to Do about a Soft Mattress?) that is dipped in cannot support your body weight. It leads to your joints and spine being unsupported and fatigued. You wake up with aches all over your body, right after getting out of bed, or in the later hours of the morning after you have done little work.
You Toss and Turn All Night
If you think it is the use of the latest mobile phone apps or worries about work that keeps you up all night, you might want to rethink. Your enemy might just be your uncomfortable mattress. When you lie down to sleep, all you want to do is shut your eyes and fall asleep, but you keep on changing one posture to another.
Why does this happen? Your body cannot find a proper sleeping position, the muscles on one particular side are stressed, causing you to change sides automatically, and you end up waking up every time this happens. Hence, a disturbed night’s sleep results in a tiresome morning.
Your Mattress Engulfs You
If you feel your mattress has lost its firmness to the extent that you dip into it when you lie down, you need to consider getting a new one. Such a mattress can never be a good sleeping companion. Its seeming softness only leads to your spine getting the worst curvature, causing chronic back pain.
Your Mattress is Too Hard or Too Soft
As a rule, in its optimum condition, a mattress must not be on the extremes. It should neither be too hard nor too soft. A hard mattress cannot bend with the changing position of your body that you assume as you sleep. A mattress too soft cannot bear the gravitational weight of your body. All individual joints of your body need a minimum level of support to relax when they are not working. If your mattress is not providing that support, your joints are bound to ache due to a strain on the muscles bearing those joints.
Final Words – What Is The Solution?
After identifying the cause, we must work towards a solution. It is vital to get yourself a new mattress if the old one is worn out. You should get a mattress according to your personal preference. Preferably the one that provides comfort and legit support to your back.
Have yourself adequately adjusted in a proper posture before sleep, and let your new and comfortable mattress do the work. You can also opt for a customized mattress, which is especially suited to your needs.
If the problem of your back pain is beyond tolerance now, you must get a medically approved mattress, specially designed to suit the needs of your back.