lower back and hip pain
| I often wake in the morning with lower back and/or hip pain. I am a back and side sleeper. Does this mean my mattress is too soft or too firm, or could something else be causing this? My mattress is memory foam over latex and is very comfortable. |
Re: lower back and hip pain
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sej615 wrote: Sorry, I guess I was just trying to get a general idea about what typically causes lower back and hip pain while sleeping. My mattress is a queen memory foam over medium latex with a firm foam on the bottom. I think I've had it about 5-6 years and I bought the components online from Mark's Memory Foam and put them together myself. I played with several combinations before finding this one, which seems the most comfortable. I am 5'2", about 130 pounds. My boyfriend does not complain about the mattress but likes his tempurpedic much better. I am noticing sleeping less comfortably in the last few years, and wonder if it's just part of getting older. I sometimes use a pillow between my knees and sometimes it helps, but not always. Thanks for any suggestions. Well, first of all, you might try a chiropractor or a DO and see if there is anything actually physically wrong with you. If nothing is found wrong with you physically, and since you are already experienced with putting together your own mattress, you might try some other configurations that would give you a firmer mattress. It sounds like the mattress you have now is fairly firm. I have heard so many negative things said about memory foam on this forum that that item immediately stands out as a possible culprit. But since you have already slept on this bed for five or six years, this seems to minimize it as the culprit, unless of course you are noticing that it is breaking down. Is the mattress leaving an impression that does not recuperate once you get out of bed? This message was modified Oct 16, 2009 by eagle2
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Re: lower back and hip pain
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For me, lower back pain almost always means the mattress is too soft. Sometimes, due to the nature of foam, it will get softer and no longer provide enough support. Sometimes this can happen in as little as a few nights or a week, depending on the type of foam it is. Even latex can soften up, from what I've heard. Memory foam certainly can. Making it a bit firmer but not too much firmer should help. It really can be a pretty fine line, at times. Try it without the memory foam and see how it feels. If that doesn't work, try a softer latex instead of memory foam, or less inches of memory foam, or a firmer higher quality memory foam. What memory foam do you have and how thick? Do you know what pounds density the memory foam is? Usually they sell it as a 3lb a 4lb or a 5lb density. And what is the ILD of your latex and how thick? Where did you buy it? Is it Talalay or Dunlop? |