Sleeping: Lower back pain makes it hard to fall asleep, and the pain can awake anyone any hour of the night.

To help reclaim your sleep schedule, here are some simple guidelines to sleeping with lower back pain:

Sleeping With Lower Back Pain Guidelines

Sleep On Your Side To Relieve Pain

One of the most common causes of lower back pain is a pulled back muscle. This occurs when a muscle in the lower back is strained or torn as a result of being over stretched. Symptoms typically resolve within a few days, but the intense pain can make it difficult to fall asleep. The longer you lie in bed, the more unconditioned the body becomes, the worse the symptoms become.

No single sleeping position works for everybody with a pulled back muscle. But a good place to start is to test sleeping on your side. When sleeping on your side, try the following:

• Avoid a tight curled-up fetal position (knees pulled in toward the body), and instead sleep with your body slightly elongated.
• Slip a slim pillow between your knees to support the natural curvature of your spine.
• Find a head pillow that holds your head midway between each shoulder. If your pillow is too thin or too thick it can bend your neck at an uncomfortable angle.

There is benefit from wearing a disposable heat wrap to bed, which can help alleviate the pain from a pulled back muscle. These wraps deliver muscle relaxing, low-level heat over the course of several hours. They may help to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Soothing Audio Relaxes The Mind & Body

When the lights go out, almost all of the stimuli that held your attention during the day dissipates. People tend to focus more on their back pain, and as one pays more attention to the pain, the anxiety can rise, which, makes it harder to fall asleep.

Listening to various soothing audio can relieve anxiety and the experience of back pain by redirecting the focus away from symptoms. Nighttime audio options include:

• Audio Books For Children
• Classical Music
• Relaxation Podcasts

Regardless of what kind of audio chosen, make sure it is free of harsh sounds or intense plots. Otherwise there won’t be any sleep.

Mattress Quality Matters

On the internet one can discover all sorts of suggestions for extending the life of a sagging mattress. These methods include

• Sliding Plywood Under The Mattress
• Ditching The Box Spring

These tricks can work for some, but the best approach is to replace a worn out mattress.

It is important not to neglect the mattress because a sagging mattress can exacerbate lower back pain by placing additional stress on the spinal structures. This can make it harder to fall asleep.

When sleeping with lower back pain, the most expensive mattress is not always the best. Instead, the best mattress is ultimately one that provides the best sleep.

Here are a few tips to help get you started for a proper mattress:

The mattress needs to support the natural curvature of the spine. This means the spine should look similar when lying on you’re back or side as when you’re standing with good posture.

Visit the local mattress store and try out various mattresses. After 15 minutes on a mattress, one can tell if it is a good fit.

Don’t be afraid to take your time.

Sleeping with a partner, consider a larger-sized mattress. This will allow both room to sleep without startling the other.

Hopefully, the aforementioned advice will help you find relief from lower back pain and enjoy more restful sleep.

Chiropractic Clinic Extra: Back Pain Treatment