One morning, you wake up and feel pain on one side of your buttocks, or even in your whole leg. The lower part of your back is also painful. Sorry to tell you the bad news: that’s sciatica! In the evening, you go to bed and it haunts you, like a Halloween night, but less fun. And you wake up during the night, with convulsions of pain and howling like a banshee. You tell yourself that you should find a solution to this problem. So in the early morning, you google “What is the best mattress for my sciatica?”, and you end up on this complete article from Polysleep. Breathe and keep on reading, you’re now in good hands!
“Say Google, what is a sciatica?”
It’s a term commonly used, often indiscriminately. Every time your grandmother suffers from back pains, she starts complaining about her sciatica. But is that really the case? Let’s educate ourselves and look up the exact definition of sciatica!
“What are the sciatic nerves?”
The term sciatica comes from the nerves of the same name: the sciatic nerves. The latter is located at the back of both your legs. They’re the largest nerves in your body, nothing less! They meet up at the base of the spine just above the coccyx and are notably in charge of both bending and feeling in your lower limbs. That’s a lot of work!
“Then what is sciatica?”
By extension, in everyday language, the term ‘sciatica’ is often used to designate any backache in an abusive manner. But it’s a real affliction: it’s the compression at the root of one of the sciatic nerves, most often resulting from a herniated disc. For all that, sciatica can have other causes: the list is long! Usually, the symptomatic manifestations will disappear within one month at the most, but they can reappear by themselves if nothing is done to prevent that from happening.
“Knowing that sciatica is haunting me, what mattress would help me exorcise it?”
The criteria to consider when choosing a mattress with your sciatica
Choosing a mattress adapted to your sciatica problems is simple: it should allow you to maintain the ideal position for your body during the whole duration of your sleep. In practice, it must relieve the pressure points and provide the same posture as if you where standing.
For all that, your preferences in terms of comfort and support should be accounted for, and it’ll be YOUR job to find the best balance of these factors. This means that you’ll have to choose the right size of mattress of course, but also and ESPECIALLY, find out about the type of structure of the mattress and what materials were used in its confection (springs? viscoelastic or shape memory foam?). All the same, here below is a few types of mattress usually recommended.
Latex Mattresses
No, we’re not talking about condoms, but about mattresses made from the same material! It’s a material that is elastic in nature and will perfectly conform to the shape of your body and your spine. One of its advantages is that there won’t be any gap at the lumber level if you sleep on your back. And since it’s a dense material, the support provided is unswerving.
Shape Memory Foam Mattresses
We often talk about these types of mattresses at Polysleep, with mixed assessments. But when it comes to support, we must admit that they’re very good. Memory foam molds itself to your body with precision, and so provides your spine with tremendous support.
But you should be careful about the model you’ll choose, since memory foam isn’t very comfortable in cold weather: the foam has to react to the heat from your body first before it can adapt to your curves. In the middle of winter, during the first minutes you’re lying down, the foam can feel like a cement block until it warms up.
Another, more annoying point during summer: this type of foam doesn’t dissipate your body’s heat very well. So you risk finding yourself in quite the sauna if your mattress doesn’t have thermoregulating gel to prevent you from getting too warm. And inevitably, if you add gel as another feature in your purchasing criteria, expect to face higher prices for your new acquisition!
The Polysleep Foam Mattress
We won’t hide it: at Polysleep, we sell mattresses! And to that extent, we’ve strived to design the best mattresses possible by offering all the advantages without the drawbacks: ideal support of your body and spine in any circumstances, advanced thermoregulation to always sleep at the right temperature and superior durability, all of this at the right price.
Our solution? Foam mattresses. The various viscoelastic foams we use offer a perfect balance between support and comfort, while relieving your pressure points. They are also breathable, allowing for optimal air circulation. Finally, for the Polysleep and Zephyr models, the edges have been reinforced with a super-firm integrated frame support. The result: your bed will not flatten out!
To conclude: choosing the right mattress will relieve your sciatica!
So, sciatica is a chronic condition, but not untreatable! It is caused most of the time by a herniated disc that is compressing and/or irritating the root of one of your two sciatic nerves, causing you pain that may extend to your foot!
Different types of mattresses can help you get rid of it:
- Latex mattresses, that perfectly mold to the shapes of your body, due to the natural elastic properties of this material.
- Shape memory foam mattresses, that also adapt precisely to your body’s curves, but at the price of poor airflow if the mattress doesn’t include thermoregulating gel.
- Foam mattresses, preferably one of our Polysleep mattresses (a little advertising never hurt anybody!): if you choose the right mattress, you’ll get the perfect balance of comfort and support while benefiting from a high degree of thermoregulation and superior durability.
For all that, don’t forget that you have your say in the matter, with your bed preferences, and that you’ll be the one to have the last word during your purchase!
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