Sleeping on a firm mattress is NOT helping your bad back!
A recent study showed that sleeping on hard mattresses did not help lower-back pain like most people thought.
This study was released by Lancet, one of the world's oldest and best known general medical journals. This is the first substantial study that assessed the effects a mattress has on lower-back pain.
The study overview
The study was conducted in Spain on 313 adults that had unexplained chronic lower-back pain. The patient's pain was not related to any specific condition.
In general, all of them had previously complained of:
lower back pain, when lying in bed
lower back pain, when getting out of bed
The Assessment
The assessment was done clinically at baseline and at 90 days.
Each patient was given a new spring mattress; half was given a firm mattress and the other half was given medium-firm mattress.
However, each patient was not told what type of mattress they received or that it would be compared.
The primary endpoints were to find out whether each patient had:
improvements in pain while lying in bed,
improvements in pain on rising
improvements in disability
The results
Throughout the study, patients that slept on medium-firm mattresses had:
less daytime lower-back pain
less pain while lying in bed
less pain on rising, than patients that slept on firm mattresses.
At the end of 90 days, patients that slept on medium-firm mattresses had:
less pain in bed,
less pain on rising
lesser disability
The data gathered at the end showed that patients that slept on a medium-firm mattress were twice as likely to improve lower back pain than patients that slept on firm mattresses.
Medium-Firm better than firm mattress
A reason why a lot of people thinks that sleeping on a hard surface, like the floor, reduced their lower-back pain is because it prevented their backs from moving.
That was why orthopaedic mattresses were the safe choice for a long time, even for doctors. However, this study revealed three significant points:
The mattresses were new and therefore more supportive; it kept back movement minimal
medium-firm mattress relieves stress on the back over the entire night
a firm mattress does not allow your body to curve naturally, especially around your shoulder and hips
Natural Latex Mattress
Natural latex mattresses provide responsive support that conforms to your body shape. It reacts instantly to every body movement to ensure the right amount of support, therefore preventing back or spinal movement.
A latex mattress is also plush and provides you that pin pointed relief on those areas where your hard mattress is pressing upon.
Natural latex cores maintain its elasticity for a long time, usually more than 10 years.