What's the best mattress for back pain?

[davess]

@Phoenix

Hi davess,

The first couple nights, the Leesa felt great and I woke up with no back pain. Last night however, I woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating spasms, something that hasn’t happened to me in years. I’m going to try the Leesa on the floor tonight to see if it’s the bad platform that’s the main problem, but in light of your concerns about the durability of the Leesa, I’m thinking that my plan will be as follows:

• Order a Savvy Rest bed rug to go under the mattress, since the new platform is solid upholstered squares.

While it’s possible that your current platform could be part of the issue if it is sagging under your mattress … I don’t think you will need a bed rug on top of your Charles P. Rogers Medera platform which should be fine by itself.

I would also be cautious about assuming that your pain is connected to the mattress if your symptoms just appeared “suddenly” because it could be connected to some type of movement or twisting during the course of the night.

• Go to Nest and try out some of their mattresses (I live in San Francisco)
• Go to Foamorder and try out some of their memory foam mattresses
• Choose a new mattress from either Nest or Foamorder depending on what feels best, and return the Leesa.

I realize that you don’t give advice on particular mattresses here (and I’ve learned the hard way to take advice with a large grain of salt) but am wondering if you think my approach makes sense based on what I’ve described above. Is there anything I’m not considering that I should be? Or any other local shops you’d recommend I check out?

While I can certainly help with “how” to choose … as you mentioned I don’t make specific suggestions or recommendations for either a mattress, manufacturers/retailers, or combinations of materials or components because the first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components or which type of mattress would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort” or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress), sleeping positions, health conditions, or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

Having said that … your approach certainly makes sense to me.

You’ve probably seen this but just in case you haven’t … the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around the San Francisco/Berkeley/Oakland areas (subject to making sure that any mattress you are considering meets the quality/value guidelines here) are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. Regarding the bed rug, I know some people have concerns about mold and dust mites with solid platforms, so I though that the bed rug might decrease the chances of these becoming issues. Is this not something I should bother worrying about?

Thanks again, this site has been invaluable in this process.