How to Sleep with Lower Back Pain

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About 80 percent of Americans will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. Depending on the cause which may include injury arthritis and chronic conditions like fibromyalgia symptoms range from dull throbbing aches to sharp shooting pains. If pain becomes too severe it can interfere with quality sleep leaving you feeling exhausted and depressed. Poor sleep can also disrupt the body’s natural healing process which can make pain worse and keep it from getting better.

How to Sleep with Lower Back Pain. - Living with chronic back pain requires many people to adapt the ways they sit, stand, and do many of their daily physical activities. Knowing how to sleep with lower back pain and sciatica is an important part of those functional adaptations. Learning sleep positions that relieve lower back pain is often especially important. Without using effective sleep positions for optimum back comfort, people may experience ongoing sleep difficulties and other serious effects. They may resort to avoidable pain medications that can even more severely impact healthy sleep patterns.

Sleeping Positions for Back Pain. - Your back pain may be the result of stress, posture problems, disk issues, obesity, arthritis, or another condition. Knowing how to sleep with lower back pain and sciatica positions can be very helpful in getting a good night of sleep, which is critical for general health. Whatever the cause of your back pain, here are five special sleep positions that can relieve chronic back pain and help you sleep comfortably.

Lie on your back in a reclining position. Lying in a reclined position with an angle between your torso and thighs helps support your back and helps provide support on your back and minimize pressure on the spine.

Lie on your front side with a pillow placed under your lower abdomen. This sleep position helps reduce the stress between spinal discs and can benefit many patients and can be especially helpful for people with degenerative disc disease.

Lie on one side with a pillow placed between your knees. Sleeping with a pillow between the knees helps align the skeletal structure in one of the healthiest and most comfortable positions for sleeping, which reduces lower back pain.

Lie on your back with a pillow placed under your knees. Sleeping in this position allows the back to lie with its most natural curve. It also distributes the body’s weight most naturally and evenly. The pillow further reduces pressure on the lumbar spine.

Lie on one side tucked into a fetal position. This unique sleeping position helps gently stretch the spine and open the spaces between the spinal vertebrae. It relieves pressure from the discs and prevents the spine from curving in a backward direction.

How Should I Sleep with Lower Back Pain? - Strong chronic back pain can diminish the quality of daily life. Using the worst sleeping position for lower back pain can cause hours of lying in states of spinal misalignment with unnecessary pressure on disks. Using the recommended sleep positions listed above can help preserve your sleep quality.

Finding the right sleep position for you can help improve your energy level and your mood and even help strengthen your immune system against diseases. These improvements can further help cognitive and physical functioning for better performance at work, school, and home.

Some people can sleep in positions that relieve pain. However, others with nighttime back pain may find that they can't find that sleeping position changes do not provide adequate relief. For those people, pain may also flare up when they lay down. Below are 5 tips that may help.

1. Upgrade your mattress. A springy old mattress can make back pain worse. But a super-firm mattress may not be the best solution either. To keep your spine aligned just right while you snooze you’ll need a mattress that’s just right. That means something different for everyone but medium-firm mattresses are usually a good bet. Replace your mattress every eight years for optimal firmness or get a mattress topper for support when it starts to sag.
2. Become a back sleeper. It may seem strange but the best position to sleep for back pain is on your back. To make this position even more comfortable place a pillow under your knees to take pressure off your back. If you’re a side sleeper pull your legs part of the way toward your chest and put a pillow in between your legs for support. Avoid sleeping on your stomach as it can worsen pain and put pressure on the spine.
3. Hit the gym. Getting regular physical activity is a tried and true way to get more sleep. Adding yoga and gentle stretching to your routine can also help reduce stress lessen pain and improve the quality of your sleep. Many yoga poses strengthen your core and back muscles which help reduce pressure on the spine and eliminate muscle spasms while you sleep. Talk to your doctor before trying any new workout to discuss safety measures.
4. Heat things up. Heat helps loosen up stiff muscles and can reduce pain. Use a heating pad or take a warm shower or bath to soothe stiff sore muscles before bedtime. Just be sure to switch off the heating pad before you fall asleep to avoid burns.
5. Avoid Screen Time. Avoid screen time before bedtime. Blue light devices may interfere with quality of sleep.

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When to See Your Chiropractor - Lower back pain often goes away within a few days to weeks. But, if your back pain has not improved within a week or so or is worsening, or you are experiencing pain in new areas of the back or body areas, you should call your healthcare provider. Further, call for an appointment if you experience one of these specific symptoms:

• Constant or extreme pain, especially when lying down
• You have pain from your back extending down one or both legs
• You’re having pain or a tingling sensation in one or both legs
• You have numbness or weakness in one or both legs
• The pain is accompanied by redness or swelling of the back

Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Back Pain
Dr. John T. Toth at Vitality Health Center of White Bear Lake has been treating chronic back pain for patients. 
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