What kind of mattress is best for your spine?

How to choose the right mattress?

A good night’s sleep depends on many factors like comfort, stress level, and room temperature. The primary element in getting a good sleep is picking the right mattress for you. The right mattress should support your body in a neutral position. The mattress should support a healthy spine and keep buttocks, heels, shoulders, and head in proper alignment.
The one question that comes to mind while choosing the best mattress is whether the mattress should be too firm or too soft. If the mattress is too firm, it can pull you out of alignment by pushing pressure points and irritating musculature. If the mattress is too soft, your spine will not be adequately supported.
In this article, you will know which type of mattress is best for people in different conditions.

1. Innerspring or coil mattress
An innerspring mattress is built with layers of coil springs to provide support and comfort. The numbers, layers, and types of coil springs may change with the time due to technology advancement. A large number of coils in a mattress gives better support and comfort.
Pros: This mattress is ideal for those people who want a bouncing, cooling, durable, and strong support framework. It keeps your body aligned.
Best For: This mattress is best for those people who are on the heavier side of the weight spectrum. The spring mattress provides firm support making it easier to get in and out of bed. It is good for people facing back pain issues. This type of mattress is also for stomach sleepers as it keeps chest and hips from sinking lower and keeping the body aligned.

2. Memory Foam Mattress
This is the most popular type as it provides excellent support, pressure relief, and body contouring. The layers of different densities of memory foam bear weight and temperature and known for comfort. However, this mattress retains heat and ideal for those people who want warm sleep.
Pros: Memory foam provides contour, pressure relief, body shaping, and excellent support.
Best For: This type of mattress is best for people who have muscle pain or chronic fatigue. This type of mattress is for side sleepers as it provides great support without being not too firm or not too soft.

3. Latex Mattress
A latex mattress is built with natural or synthetic rubber and provides firm and uniform bounce throughout the bed. This mattress has cooling properties and provides a comfortable sleep.
Pros: This mattress is popular due to its great responsiveness, firmness, support, and cooling effect.
Best For: The people who are suffering from back pain, the latex mattress is a good option for them. It provides relief for back pain and offers comfort and support. Back sleepers can choose latex mattress as it maintains the natural lumbar curvature and supports muscles and spine.

4. Adjustable
These beds, as the name suggests, has the ability to change the sleeping position by adjusting it from head or feet side. You can elevate the head or feet to be more comfortable. Some of them also have the ability to vibrate heat and massage the sleeper.
Pros: It is ideal for those who like to watch television in bed. It is helpful for those people who have difficulty getting in and out of bed.
Best for: It is best for those who suffer from hip or back pain, sleeping disorder, snoring, and lower back pain.
These are only a few of the major categories of mattresses that are available in the market and you can choose the mattress according to your sleeping position and health issues. If you are facing certain health issues, you can select the mattress accordingly. You can make variations in springs or pads according to your own comfort choice and budget.

Personally, Dr. Chawla recommends a firm springy mattress for the majority of his patients because it provides opposite resistance to the spine, thus supporting it. The overly advertised pillow top mattresses are not so recommended as it does not support the spine as mentioned above. We at Chawla Chiropractic look forward to any questions you may have in regards to this matter. Please feel free to reach out to Dr. Sudeep Chawla!

Please contact us via the following:

Phone: (617) 334-5002
Email: drc@chawlachiropractic.com