Curing Back Pain by Sleeping on a Hard Mattress
My first night in China I arrived after 30 hours travel to a mattress as hard as a rock and the worlds worst pillow. Well, I bought a new pillow first thing but I still sleep on my concrete mattress. I gotta say, I will never go back to a soft mattress. Back in the States my mattress was as soft as a feather and I woke up every morning with lower back pain. It was just a nightmare getting out of bed in the morning. It wasn’t until almost right before I left that I figured out my mattress was probably the culprit - and I was about to start sleeping on the floor. My first week in China I noticed a huge decrease in lower back pain every morning.
Now when I wake up I usually do have some back pain (soreness would be a much, much better word) but that is because I lift like an Animal and do a ton of heavy back work at the gym. To be sure, the bed is uncomfortable as can be but the absence of back pain makes it more than worth it.
Most of the Chinese sleep on a hard mattress and I rarely see a Chinese person with bad posture. I was at the shop with a friend and she asked the shopkeeper where she could find a soft mattress and the shopkeeper laughed at her and said a soft mattress is bad for your back. Clearly they know something about sleeping on a firm surface that we have forgotten.
If you have lower back pain you should get off of your weak mattress and sleep on a firm surface. The human body was most definitely not designed to sleep on a bed of feathers. Try sleeping on the floor for a few days and see if you notice a difference. You probably will. Then you can trade in your fancy pants mattress for a firm one. Sleep on the ground like a man and look like one. Sleep on feathers like a princess and look like one.
Which one is you?
Sleeping on a soft mattress makes you soft. Sleeping on a hard mattress makes you hard. Give it a try and see if you notice a difference.
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Nick
I totally agree. A few years ago I got a herniated disk in my lower back. It’s still sore every now and then, but back extensions help keep it under control.
Anyway, I sleep on the floor at least once a week, and I notice that that alone helps my back somehow realign itself. If I sleep on a soft mattress, it’s bad news.
What I’d like to see (not sure if they exist) are sleep “platforms” that contour to your body, but are hard (I’m not sure if they’d accommodate different sleeping positions). My shoulders are kind of wide, so the one disadvantage to sleeping on the floor is I need to fold the pillow in half just to keep my neck from straining.