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.
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:
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- Constant or extreme pain, especially when lying down
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- You have pain from your back extending down one or both legs
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- You’re having pain or a tingling sensation in one or both legs
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- You have numbness or weakness in one or both legs
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- The pain is accompanied by redness or swelling of the back
Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Back Pain
For 21 years, Dr. Lisa Bell & Dr. Jamie Bell at Advanced Health Chiropractic have been treating chronic back pain for patients here in Troy Michigan. Our doctors apply state-of-the-art processes and techniques in physiotherapy.
Call Advanced Health Chiropractic at (248) 813-0500, or contact us here online for information about chiropractic treatment for back pain or to schedule an appointment.
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