Upper/Mid back pain after sleeping on new mattress

[VanessaB]

Hi,
About three weeks ago, I bought both a new mattress and new bed. The mattress is a Sealy Posturpedic Proback Olympus. Here are the details of the mattress, taken directly from the website:
PROBACK CoreSupport Center:

• 2.5-cm (1-in.) PROBACK™ stabilizer pad
• 1.3-cm (0.5-in.) PROBACK CoreSupport Center™ featuring ProGel memory foam
• PROBACK™ support insulator

Plush comfort quilt layers:

• 3.8-cm (1.5-in.) super soft StayTrue™ foam
• StayTrue™ fibre

Plush deep down comfort layers:

• 2.54-cm (1-in.) super soft high density StayTrue™ foam

After about a week of sleeping on the new mattress, I started getting upper/middle back pain. It feels like it is right along the spine, near the bottom of my shoulder blades. When I first lay down on the mattress, it feels firm, but comfortable, but then I wake up in the early morning from the pain. In the past, I have never had problems with mattresses. I've had sleepovers at friend's houses with no back pain. In my first year of uni, I had to sleep on a very thin mattress in residence, and that gave me no problems. I've slept on a futon for several weeks over Christmas with no problems...
Anyway, I tried a number of things to improve this, because the pain has gotten worse, and has started waking me up. First, I tried sleeping with two soft, folded-up blankets underneath me. This worked for two days, then the pain returned. I tried adding support to the bed frame by reinforcing the middle support bar with some textbooks - this worked for two days as well before the pain returned. I've tried sleeping in different areas of the mattress - middle versus side, and this also gave me pain relief for two days before it returned. Yesterday, I put a 4-inch thick layer of memory foam on my mattress, and had a good sleep, but suspect that in a day or so, the pain will return.
I am totally stuck for as to what to do. My dad doesn't think that the mattress is the problem, he thinks it is the bed. I am able to return the mattress, but I have no idea what sort of mattress to exchange it for.
Please help

 

[Glenbury]

Return it ...and don't look back..!

 

[VanessaB]

Return it... and get WHAT?

 

[GKDesigns]

The mattress spec does not appear to have much depth, suggesting that it is more board-like and firm. If you are an average female side sleeper, the mattress may be too firm, not allowing your shoulders to sink in and your spine to align, leading to back pain.
It is a normal response to lay on a firm mattress and immediately conclude, 'feels firm but not too bad', and then try to live with it. The problem is that the touch firmness distracts you from the real problem of spinal alignment and proper sleeping posture... if these are not good, you will never be able to live with the firmness. Instead, the misaligned body support will beat on you night after night like dripping water torture until the pain becomes unbeareable.
Ignore the touch response and look immediately for good spinal alignment and support for your sleep positons. If it's not right, get a different mattress.
GK

 

[GKDesigns]

Glenbury wrote:
Return it ...and don't look back..!
Ignoring past experience and lessons learned could doom one to an endless and fruitless mattress buying experience.
GK

 

[VanessaB]

Thank you GK. Yes, I'm female, 5'7", and about 130 lbs - so about normal height/weight. I am a side sleeper, and the mattress does feel quite firm to the touch. I'm returning the mattress today and I'm going to borrow the extra mattress at my parents house until I can find one that's suitable.
You said I should look for one with good spinal alignment and support for sleeping on my side. How do I determine this? Is it just something I should ask the mattress sales person?
Would a memory foam mattress be a good idea? I'm totally confused - this is my first time mattress shopping...

 

[GKDesigns]

VanessaB wrote:
Thank you GK. Yes, I'm female, 5'7", and about 130 lbs - so about normal height/weight. I am a side sleeper, and the mattress does feel quite firm to the touch. I'm returning the mattress today and I'm going to borrow the extra mattress at my parents house until I can find one that's suitable.
You said I should look for one with good spinal alignment and support for sleeping on my side. How do I determine this? Is it just something I should ask the mattress sales person?
Would a memory foam mattress be a good idea? I'm totally confused - this is my first time mattress shopping...
Spinal alignment is harder to achieve than to determine. The spine should be comfortably supported in a nice aligned manner so that it is not bent or stretched or suspended. Some say straight but if your spine is not normally straight, then you would not want to force it straight and expect to sleep well. You get the idea... evenly and comfortably support your skeletal system in it's natural relaxed state... minimize force, pressure, tension, strains on your structure. Then layer on the cushy layers to provide surface pressure relief so your body is comfy, except avoid pillow tops... too much on top just breaks down and ruins the spinal support.
The mattress industry seems to be lost these days. Too much to survey here. Beware sales people who do not listen and do not say anything worth hearing. Look for a simple solid firm innerspring mattress with a few good layers of comfort on top. Just say no to pillowtops and any other nonsense claims. When you lay on them, think pass the top layer to assess how the core of the mattress is responding to your three sleep positions front/side/back... how does the core support your structure. If your spine feels pulled or pushed out of sorts, move on.
Memory foam is heavy, expensive, over-hyped, does not ventilate, and can misbehave/crater and break down. I would not consider it.
Latex foam rubber can be great, but is heavy, expensive, awkward to move, and needs a platform bed (or floor although this precludes desired ventilation). Perhaps try Latex later on.
GK

 

[DoreenA]

One thing to add: When you exchange this mattress, try out others in the store, not for 30 seconds but for half an hour at least in the position you most often sleep in. Most of us are embarassed to do this and get into our sleeping positions in public, but there's a lot of money and possibly sleepless nights at stake (not to mention back pain), so you really need to take your time.
Did you also buy a new box spring with the mattress you have now or is the mattress resting directly on the slats of the new bed frame?