Do you constantly suffer from lower back pain? If so, you should know that chronic back pain is extremely common and millions of adults in the U.S. deal with it. However, you do need to figure out the root cause of your back pain and rectify it soon because back pain is the leading cause of disabilities across the globe.
You may think that your lower back pain may be caused by medical conditions like osteoarthritis. But the truth can be a lot simpler than that — back pain is often caused because of poor posture or sleeping position and the incorrect use of bedding.
When you sleep, your spine should be in perfect alignment and it should maintain its natural curvature. The lower back, for example, should naturally have a hollowed curve. Your sleep position, sitting posture, and your pillows should be geared towards ensuring that you maintain spinal alignment.
But if you don’t sleep in the correct position or if you don’t use the correct pillow, your spine isn’t aligned and you eventually suffer from lower back pain. In this article, we discuss the best sleeping positions to relieve lower back pain and we review the best pillow for lower back pain.
What is the Best Sitting Posture for Lower Back Pain?
As mentioned previously, your spine followed a curved path with a slight hollow around the lower back. When you sit, you should maintain that natural spinal curvature. Your hips should be at a right angle with your knees and your back should be straight and slightly hollowed around the lower back region. Some people struggle to maintain that posture for long periods of time.
If you struggle to maintain your spinal curvature while sitting, you can get lumbar support for your chair. Desk Jockey Lumbar Pillow is one of the best lumbar supports on the market. This lumbar support can be strapped to your chair so it doesn’t move around. It’s made of high-quality memory foam so it conforms to the shape of your back perfectly and also arches your lower back to ensure complete spinal alignment when you’re sitting. This pillow can help relieve back pain by correcting your seating posture.
What are the Best Sleeping Positions to Relieve Back Pain?
Now that you know how to sit correctly to avoid lower back pain, let’s discuss the correct sleeping positions. The following is a quick overview of the different sleeping positions along with the pillows most suitable for them.
Is it Bad to Sleep Sitting Up?
You may not always have the luxury of sleeping comfortably on a bed. Frequent travelers often have to contend with sleeping upright in buses or flights or even waiting rooms. If you’re not careful about your posture while sleeping sitting up, you run a massive risk of suffering from lower back pain.
While it’s ideal to sleep on a comfortable bed, that may not always be possible. So the following is a brief overview of tips on how to sleep sitting up:
- It’s best to sleep against a slightly sloped surface rather than a completely vertical surface. So if you’re on a flight or bus, you should recline the seat slightly.
- Make sure that the surface is well padded. If there’s no padding on the surface, you can lay down some blankets or comforters to soften the surface.
- The most important thing is to use lumbar support. When you have lumbar support, your spine can maintain its natural curvature and your head can lean back comfortably. Without lumbar support, you’re at high risk of suffering from lower back pain. The aforementioned Desk Jockey Lumbar Pillow is a great choice of lumbar support for this purpose.
- When you’re sleeping upright, your head may fall to your sides, which can cause immense neck pain and that pain can also extend down to your back. To avoid this, you must have some neck support. Desk Jockey Neck Pillow Headrest is the perfect neck pillow for this purpose. This is a dog bone-style neck pillow that keeps your head, neck, and spine in perfect alignment. This is also memory foam so it offers therapeutic benefits as well.
If you follow these tips, you’ll be able to sleep upright comfortably without worrying about lower back pain or neck pain.
Sleeping on your Side
You can sleep on your side in one of two ways.
While sleeping, you can stuff a pillow between your knees. This will help keep your entire body in perfect alignment.Contour Products Leg Pillow is the perfect lower back pillow for this purpose because it conforms to your legs and keeps you stable throughout the night.
You can also sleep in the fetal position by pulling your knees towards your chest.Elite Rest Contour Sleeper is the best pillow for side sleepers because it has a contoured design — it measures 4 inches at the highest contour and 2.75 inches at the lowest contour. This allows you to rest your head on the ergonomic corner for optimal support.
Sleeping on your Back
Sleeping on your back is one of the best sleeping positions because it ensures even distribution of weight across your body. Elite Rest Contour Sleeper is the perfect pillow for back sleepers as well because it’s made of memory foam so it conforms to the shape of your body and offers optimal support. Furthermore, because of the two loft heights, you can rest your head on the level in which you’re most comfortable.
Sleeping on your Stomach
If you sleep on your stomach, you should either sleep without a pillow or with an extremely thin pillow. You should also keep a pillow under your abdomen so it can offer support to your lower back.
Elite Rest Slim Sleeper is the best pillow for this purpose because it has a loft height of only 2.75 inches and it’s made of latex foam, which is an extremely comfortable material. It’s also well-ventilated with a pinhole design to facilitate air circulation.
This article has been compiled after countless hours of thorough research and study conducted by our top physicians. If you’ve gone through this article, you must know exactly which pillow to purchase to alleviate lower back pain for your specific sleeping position.
