What is an Orthopedic Mattress?
I decided to write this post because I’ve dealt with back pain off and on throughout most of my adult life. I try not to mention it a lot, but when I have spoken up, friends usually tell me that I need to get an orthopedic mattress. The problem is, there doesn’t seem to be a clear cut definition of what an orthopedic mattress is or isn’t. More and more people are looking to buy an orthopedic mattress as a solution for their aching backs. When your back is hurting, it can seriously put you completely out of commission. Just one bout of having your back “go out” on you can convince you to make some changes so that it never happens again. No doubt these folks are just following the same advice I was getting, offered by concerned friends and family who want to help them get rid of their back pain. I found that there is no shortage of retailers offering to sell hunched over people a back pain mattress.
Turn on your television, especially during the late night hours (when people are struggling to fall asleep), and you likely won’t have to wait very long to see an ad touting the benefits of this or that “orthopedic mattress”. Particularly if you happen to be laying on a mattress that’s uncomfortable, or even if it feels alright but you wake up feeling unrefreshed or even sore and achy, how can you help but wonder if an orthopedic mattress might not just be the answer to your problems?
Well, what is an orthopedic mattress, anyway? As I said, it seems there is no legal standard for what may or may not be represented as such. Who’s to say that some charlatans aren’t out there promising to deliver an orthopedic mattress that turns out to be anything but? I was actually pretty surprised by this considering how careful most retailers must be nowadays about the claims they make.
Unless they’ve been to an orthopedist, probably most people have but a sketchy idea what an “orthopedic” anything is. Orthopedics is a branch of medicine specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the spine and skeletal system, as well as the joints and musculature. Thus, rather than being merely a more or less soft surface on which to sleep, one should expect an orthopedic mattress to deliver benefits to those parts of the body.
People who are unhappy with their mattresses most typically complain of pain in their back, particularly the spine. The spine has a natural contour, and being full of nerve connections to all other parts of the body, putting and keeping it in an unnatural contour for six or eight hours can logically be expected to result in distress at any point throughout the system. If you have ever fallen asleep in an awkward position on the couch while watching TV, you may have experienced a more pronounced version of this.
Orthopedic Mattress Recommendations
In looking for an orthopedic mattress, then, one should expect at a minimum that it will provide support that doesn’t force or even allow the spine to get out of alignment. Furthermore, since the extremities, most especially considering the head, are connected to the nervous system, adequate and appropriate support should be provided for those as well.
There are several types of mattresses that can be said to provide orthopedic benefits generally, and there are even specialized orthopedic mattresses designed to deal with existing misalignments of the body’s structure. They range from coil spring types to air mattresses to water bed variants to various types of orthopedic foam mattresses. I’ve personally slept on all of these and the only one I will intentionally avoid now is a water bed. Maybe I just slept on poor examples, but I can’t personally understand how anyone feels supported by them. The novelty wore off in a hurry after I slept in one for the first time.
What Orthopedic Mattress Price is Reasonable?
Prices vary greatly among the various types of orthopedic mattresses. To give you an idea, at the time I’m writing this, a queen orthopedic mattress set made by Serta is available for just under $700 on Amazon. There are also several queen size memory foam mattresses, that also claim to provide superior sleep experiences, selling for quite a bit less. I’ll be honest with you, I obviously have not tried every mattress for sale on the market, but I have dealt with a sore back after my wife and I decided to save money by buying a cheap mattress. My own experience is that cheap mattresses are a lot quicker to lose their shape and stop providing support. Buying one was a mistake. Considering that you spend roughly one third of your life sleeping, a mattress seems like a pretty bad place to cut corners. We did finally invest in a decent spring mattress, and I’m glad we did. I have been sleeping much more soundly and my back does not give me nearly as many issues as it used to.
Do Orthopedic Mattress Toppers Work?
My own experience is that the value of an orthopedic mattress pad is directly related to the mattress it resting upon. We tried using a memory foam mattress pad on our cheap mattress, and the results were unimpressive. When we placed it on top of our new mattress however, it seemed to make things a bit more “cushy” while still providing support. I wouldn’t count on one doing much in the way of providing support all by itself though. Of course, your experience may be different.
Do I Need an Orthopedic Mattress?
Honestly, I’m not a doctor. I’d say that if your back is bothering you enough that it is causing you to lose sleep consistently, it might be worth a trip to your physician to see if they have any suggestions. My own research seems to come down to the fact that I could not find any “real” definition of an orthopedic mattress besides the fact that they are meant to provide proper support. It seems to me that unless there are precise definitions put in place, the claim of a mattress being “orthopedic” could just be a way to make it sound more attractive. If you can, I’d suggest spending a bit of time testing out mattresses in showrooms, and then buy what you like the best. I’d also ask salespeople for details about what exactly makes one of the mattresses orthopedic while another is not. I could not get a clear answer on this. I only got found vague answers that seem to relate to the firmness of the mattress. Remember that if you do go mattress shopping locally, you can still buy the mattress online if you find them for sale cheaper there, but you will have at least given it a test drive. I personally don’t ever want to make the mistake again of saving a hundred dollars on a mattress and paying the price with back pain for a couple of years.
I hope you found this post helpful and that you’ll find the mattress you need without paying extra for a label that was slapped on it. Please take a look around to find more household tips, and feel free to share any experiences you might have had with shopping for an orthopedic mattress.