| Lower back pain at night - my solution SHARED
I had problems with lower back pain after I would sleep for about 5 hours. I would sleep about 5 hours without issues, then wake up with severe lower back pain. The only way to eleviate this pain was to wake up and go about normal activities, or to elevate the top of my bed at a 40 degree angle or so. By elevating my bed like this, I could sleep more than 5 hours without the pain. It became a regular routine. Every night, I would wake up after 5 hours and then elevate the top of my bed.
I had associated my pain with an exercise injury and lived with this pain nightly for over 3 years. Then I remembered that at the same time as my work out "injury", I had also changed from a polyester to a down/feather PILLOW.
I then thought about the alignment of my spine when laying on my side and placing my head on the down pillow. Since the down compresses down so far, I found that my neck was badly aligned with the rest of my body when I laid on my side (I am a side sleeper). I even tested my theory by laying on my side without any pillow during the day, and after about 10 minutes, my lower back did begin to feel uncomfortable. I had never associated my head and neck position with my lower back pain.
As a test, I got rid of the down pillow, and bought a quite puffy polyester pillow that supports my head at a much higher level than the down one. The polyester doesn't smoosh down and give way like the down did. After using this new, puffier pillow for about a week, the pain began to lessen. It has now been about 7 months since i GOT RID OF THE FLATTENABLE DOWN PILLOW AND STARTED USING THE PUFFY-TYPE PILLOW, AND I HAVEN'T HAD THE LOWER BACK PAIN WAKE ME UP ANY MORE. Now I can sleep without elevating my bed for a full 8 hours easy, and I don't wake up with lower back pain.
I thought my "fix" was going to cost a lot of money, but for me thank heavens, it was actually pretty cheap. I just bought a new very supportive pillow for about $20 bucks, and it fixed the pain. Please, for any of you having this issue, give it a try. It's cheap, it's relatively quick to find out if it will help (about a week or so), and the pain just stinks. Remember, the brand of the pillow doesn't matter. It just needs to support your head and not give too much. When you lay your head on the pillow (while laying on your side), your head and neck should be aligned with the rest of your spine. If when you lay on your side, your nose falls lower than the middle of your neck vertebrae, that means the pillow is giving way too much. Get a pillow that is more supportive. Good luck. I hope this helps many people. God bless.
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