If you’ve got it, it’s hard to focus on anything else. Back pain is pervasive and, if left unchecked, can dramatically impact your quality of life.
Golfing, playing with the kids, doing yard work — everything gets put on hold when your back starts aching. Exercise, physiotherapy, and a regular stretching routine can certainly help. But all of that goes out the window if you’re sleeping on lumpy, support-less mattress.
If you suffer from back pain and you haven’t purchased a new mattress in this decade, I can’t recommend upgrading enough. It will make a difference.
So, what does a back-pain friendly mattress look (and feel) like? Everyone is different, but in general, a medium-firm mattress is ideal for those suffering from back pain. That’s medium-firm mattresses will provide you with the desired softness to cushion your shoulders while still providing you with the desired support. Memory foam is also recommended, as these mattresses do a great job of contouring to your body.
Now, it’s time for some specifics! Let’s explore some of the latest and greatest mattresses designed with your back in mind.
Eight Sleep
A six-inch layer of foam, two-inches of transition foam, and an additional two-inches of responsive foam equals an antidote to back pain. Eight Sleep’s Saturn mattress is a great solution for those that sleep on their back, with it’s three distinct layers offering a whole a world of support and flexibility.
In addition to a multi-layered design, Eight Sleep mattresses come equipped with an integrated sleep tracking system. That’s right, Eight Sleep is considered a “smart” mattress that can track your sleep using its intuitive companion app, it can pre-warm your bed to help you fall asleep faster and it can help train you to wake up without an alarm.
The Saturn+ Queen mattress will cost you $899 (CAD), with free shipping and a 10-year warranty included. Plus, you’ll be able to return it after 100 days for a full refund if you so desire.
The Bear Mattress
The Bear Mattress is billed as one of the only units on the market specifically designed with recovery in mind. Not to hard and not too soft, the Bear Mattress prides itself on being just right.
Their five-layer construction is proprietary and is a large reason for the company’s soaring popularity in the mattress industry. Cooling Graphite-Gel Memory Foam helps distribute your body heat evenly, the comfort foam layer and transitional performance foam distributes the weight of your body more evenly, and the high-density support foam provides you with the perfect level of firmness to help alleviate the pressure on your back. The mattress’s “Breathable Celliant Woven Cover” is unique to Bear and boasts the ability to redirect the body’s natural energy back as infrared light to help your muscles recover from a long day.
Free shipping, a 100-night risk-free trial, and a 10-year warranty should provide you with the confidence to add this one to your cart. You can pick one up for just $1225.00 (CAD).
The Saatva Mattress
The Saatva Mattress line is easily one of the best back-pain mattresses on the market today. This luxury mattress uses individually wrapped comfort coils, lumbar support enhancement, and a unique steel coil base support system to provide you (and your back) with just the right amount of comfort and without having to sacrifice firmness.
They must have done something right, because Saatva mattresses earned the Chiropractic Seal of Approval back in 2010. The shopping experience is great, too. Using Saatva’s website, customers can custom build their mattress with the desired firmness and add the accoutrements of their choice.
By cutting out the middle-man and shipping their product directly to the consumer, Saatva is able to keep the price of their luxury mattress line down. Just go to their website, build your mattress, and you can enjoy a luxury sleep experience for $1329.95 (CAD). They’ll even remove your current mattress, so you don’t have to!
The Helix Mattress
Helix Mattresses are great because they are entirely customizable. All you need to do is fill out a simple sleep questionnaire on their website and voila, the custom designed mattress of your dreams is ready to be added to your shopping cart.
Everything about the Helix mattress can be tailored to your individual needs, as such, you can construct the back-pain killer you’ve been waiting your whole life for. Firmness, temperature regulation, elasticity — everything is up for tweaking! And, if it doesn’t help your aching back within 100-days, you can return it for a full cash refund.
It’s important to note that the Helix Queen Mattress will run you roughly $1350 (CAD). Which is far from a budget-bin box mattress. But can you really put a price tag on a healthy back? I didn’t think so.
The Amerisleep AS2
When it comes to back pain friendly mattresses, there’s one clear winner. That winner is the Amerisleep AS2. The AS2 uses memory foam to keep you cool during the night while conforming to the specific needs of your body. Better still, their specially designed Bio-Pur Memory Foam is environmentally friendly and, due to it’s enhanced “open cell structure,” much more efficient then the industry standard. An added benefit of the AS2’s environmentally friendly manufacturing process: it’s easier on your lungs too!
The AS2 also incorporates a layer of Active Flex foam for comfort and a Celliant fabric cover that recycles your body heat. Translation: this mattress is incredibly comfortable. The AS2 impressed the mattress mavens over at sleepjunkie.org so much that they dubbed it “one of the best mattresses on the market,” stressing that the unit’s Surface Modification Technology has been clinically shown to reduce pressure points by up to 49 percent. Not bad at all!
Simply go over to their website, choose your desired firmness level and book your tee-time. You can get your hands on the Amerisleep AS2 for just $1299.