Surprisingly, many people nowadays advocate sleeping on the floor to alleviate their back pain.
But while this method is gaining popularity in the West, we can’t discount how floor-sleeping has already been a large part of Eastern cultures.
Is sleeping on the floor good for back pain? Is there truth to it? Well, even some pregnant women appear to agree that sleeping on the floor leads them to a good night’s sleep better than their mushy beds.
But while this method garners positive impressions and persuasive claims, there is yet to be a study about how sleeping on the floor can diminish back pain. The idea remains unscientific.
Despite the lack of study, why do people advocate it so much?
Here are other reasons why people opt to sleep on the floor:
- For locations with warmer climates, sleeping on the floor brings people closer to the ground which fends for a cooler well-rounded sleep.
- Removing a huge bulky bed renders more room space. Such minimalistic living not only provides more range for movement but also a calmer, cleaner, and organized household.
4 Facts About Sleeping on the Floor
As mentioned above, the claim that sleeping on the floor reduces back pains remains anecdotal. But if you want to take a leap into this method, here are 4 crucial facts you need to consider first:
1. The Floor Provides Firmer Support For the Neck and Spine
Many Eastern countries like Japan practice sleeping on the floor as part of their culture. They sleep on the floor due to various reasons. It’s space-saving, adaptable to changing seasons, and for traditional reasons.
Also, sleeping on the floor delivers more benefits such as offering firmer support for the spine and neck.
Unlike soft mattresses, lying down on the floor’s flat foundation prevents your body from sinking while you sleep. As a result, it can keep your body steady, maintain correct spine and neck alignment, and later on, benefit you with a good posture.
This is why people who sleep on beds prop plyboards under their mattresses.
When your body dips into a soft bed, it shapes your spine into a perilous curve. It’s not only the back but your limb muscles, and foot and knee joints can suffer, too, after a considerable time.
When we sleep, we need a firmer bed to settle on. But keep in mind that sleeping on solid concrete, without mats or pillows is subject to more muscle pains when you wake up.
Even the Japanese people don’t sleep directly above concrete floors. Instead, they prepare a futon – Japanese bedding – over rice straw floors called tatami.
That said, you still need thin mattresses to cushion your body’s pressure points. If not, you might wake up with sore muscles and abhor the idea of floor-sleeping.
2. Sleeping On the Floor Can Aid Proper Spine Alignment Which Relieves Back Pain
You can try sleeping on the floor, but keep in mind that without employing proper sleeping positions, it can turn out as bad as sleeping on an overly cushioned bed.
You must be conscious of proper spine alignment to alleviate back pain.
Whether you sleep sideways, on your stomach, or your back, keep an attuned alignment across your ear, shoulder, and hip.
Position an appropriately sized pillow between your knees, abdomen, or neck to avoid your joints from excessively pressing on the ground.
Here’s 11 best sleep gifts for back in case you are looking for inspiration!
3. Sleeping On the Floor May Be Better Than Memory Foam Beds
We live in a world where cushion equates to comfort. Partly, it’s true. We sit on couches, lie down on 12-inch mattresses, and use pillows all over the body.
But while it’s soothing to the body for the first few minutes, cushioned couches and soft mattresses don’t always deliver the “comfort”.
According to Hooke’s Law, the force applied to a spring or cushion bounces right back. The principle works the same for our body. The force we infuse on foam, soft mattresses, or cushions, is pushed right back to our muscles and bones.
The pressure our body receives explains the numbing or tingling sensation we feel after sitting or sleeping in the same position for so long.
Overly cushioned sleep does not help in proper weight distribution and may lead to joint pains and poor blood circulation. Moreover, sinking into the bed constricts mobility and decreases body flexibility.
This holds true for pregnant women. The increasing body size of the baby during pregnancy becomes more agonizing when they sleep on a soft mattress due to the lack of back support.
It’s not 100% advisable for pregnant women to sleep on floors.
But if they find a comfortable position, use a thin mattress while sleeping on the floor, and take extra precautions (with doctor’s consent), then this practice may soothe their back pains, just like some expecting moms claim.
Having said that, I would not recommend making that decision without consulting your doctor first.
Alternatively, you can check out these sleep gift ideas for back to see if any of these would help you sleep more comfortably.
4. People With Certain Health Conditions May Not Be Suitable For Floor-Sleeping
There’s an upsurge of positive testimonials about how sleeping on the floor helped ease their back pain. However, while people celebrate with a positive effect, it may not be the same for everyone.
If you have weak bones or joint diseases, lying on firm ground and direct contact between a hard surface and your body’s pressure points can trigger discomfort.
You need to consider the reason for your pre-existing back problems. It would be best to consult your trusted doctor first.
Also, since hot air naturally rises, the floor would be the coldest part of the room. You also can’t discount air leaks on the floorboard.
For people who are sensitive to cold or are currently struggling with illnesses, you need to consider the temperature and colder experience of floor-sleeping.
The effects of sleeping on a cold floor may be dangerous for your condition.
It may have worked for others, but it isn’t practice that is guaranteed to work for everyone.
For people who are sensitive to cold or are currently struggling with illnesses, you need to consider the temperature and colder experience of floor-sleeping. The effects of sleeping on a cold floor may be dangerous for your condition.
Is Sleeping On the Floor With a Mattress Bad On Your Back?
Although the act of sleeping on the floor remains unscientific, there has been a study about how the firmness of mattresses affects reducing back pains.
In the study, 313 adults, who reportedly had backaches and lower back pains, were grouped to sleep on soft, firm, and medium-firm mattresses for 90 days.
In the final results, the study showed that sleeping on medium-firm mattresses considerably reduced their back pains upon waking up and even eased the chronic ones during the daytime.
On the other hand, we can presume that softer or firmer mattresses either had no significant effect or severed their conditions.
Sleeping on medium-firm mattresses is better for back pain compared to softer or firmer ones.
So, is sleeping on the floor with a mattress bad on your back?
If you plan to sleep on the floor, having a mattress is a good cushion for your back. At least emulate a medium-firm mattress feel on the floor.
An adequate cushion allows more flexible movements and support for the pressure points like hip, calves, arms, or knee joints while you sleep.
Disadvantages of Sleeping On the Floor
Before jumping into this practice, consider the following disadvantages first:
1. Dust and Dirt May Cause Allergies
Although sleeping on the floor can be a formidable remedy for your back pain, it also means that you are closer to the floor’s lingering dust. It may cause breathing difficulties for people with allergies.
That said, you can perform a thorough vacuuming before prepping your sleep on the floor.
2. Possible Sore Body
Floor-sleeping needs some getting used to it. If you have an improper sleep position and a lack of needed cushion, there are tendencies to have sore muscles and muscle strains in the first few nights of floor-sleeping.
3. Pregnant Women May Struggle Standing Up From the Floor
As mentioned above, some pregnant women claim that sleeping on the floor is more comfortable than sleeping on their beds.
However, while it may provide back pain relief through lying down, expecting mothers may find themselves in uncomfortable positions such as squatting just to get in and out the floor.
This even becomes harder as the baby grows.
For infants, there has been a study not recommending the infants to be laid down on the floor especially if furniture surrounds the space.
Not only does it pose risks of falling objects, but it can also block natural ventilation which may lead to an infant’s suffocation.
Other Ways To Relieve Back Pain
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Aside from sleeping on the floor, you can also do these activities to relieve lower back and neck pain:
1. Be Active
Although back pain may have reduced your flexibility, there’s still a way to keep yourself moving like walking around the block for 30 minutes or appropriate stretching routines.
You can try some low impact exercises or other natural back pain treatments to get you started!
2. Maintain Good Posture
Aside from a proper sleeping position, engage with a day-time posture correction using stretchy bands or tapes to avoid the common slouching of the shoulders and the back.
3. Shed the Extra Pounds
Reducing the load for your lower back can reduce your backaches. This may include foods such as seafood, nuts, and legumes to lessen the swelling of your back.
Sleeping On the Floor: My Personal Experience
The subject of sleeping on the floor is not foreign to me either. When I was younger I was renting a room in privately rented property for a few years. After some time, I started having a back pain from the poor quality mattress I was sleeping on.
I knew asking the property owner for a better quality mattress replacement would be a lost case – at the end of the day, there was nothing visibly wrong with the mattress I had other than me moaning about its quality.
Initially, I was ignoring my back pain hoping it would just go away (I know how silly that sounds now, lol).
I was tossing and turning, changing sleeping positions, turning my mattress around (hoping there was something wrong with it only on the side I was sleeping etc). Nope, that didn’t help, nada.
I knew I needed to do something about it as I didn’t want my back pain develop into a more serious problem.
I’ve always been into holistic health and believed that our initial aches and pains are signals from our body that something is not right.
It’s like our body’s telling us to ‘fix it’ before it gets to a point where medical intervention is needed.
That night I did some research on mattresses available and selected one that I thought would be good for my back. The thing was, it was a good quality mattress and it came with a price tag and…. I couldn’t afford it at that time.
It never seizes to amaze me what a human being can come up with in times of great need :).
It was then when I came up with the plan: I will start saving for the quality mattress and in the meantime I will try to sleep on the floor, just to see if that helps.
And so I did. I used whatever I had available to make my new bed back-friendly: I placed my yoga mat on freshly hoovered and mopped floor.
Then a long blanket (folded a few times to ensure sufficient thickness) along with flat pillow and a duvet. And there it was, my new bed for what it turned out to be the next 6 months!
How did I find it, you may ask? Well, surprising well. I do admit that, in my particular case, my back felt way better than sleeping on a poor quality mattress.
Would I do that again? I never say never, however I would need to be in a great need again to go back to it 🙂
I since have had the mattress that is good for my back and even an orthopedic pillow (amazing, truly recommend it) and therefore no longer need to sleep on the floor 🙂
Was sleeping on the floor a good choice for me at that time? Absolutely! It was a positive experience and it worked for me when I needed a temporary solution to my back pain.
But before you jump on this idea as well, let me just quickly run through some facts that applied to me at that time (which may not necessarily be applicable to you):
1. I was quite young, fit and healthy (minus the back pain 🙂 that is)
2. I knew my back pain was temporarily and not any medically recognised condition
3. I tried sleeping on the floor first and it felt good, I didn’t force it upon myself in any way that would make me feel emotionally uncomfortable.
Is Sleeping On the Floor Good For Back Pain: Conclusion
Back pains and neck problems hinder your normal work routines. While it’s aggravating, it could also pose severe problems when not attended properly.
As a solution, many people agree that sleeping on the floor is an effective method to reduce back pains.
Is sleeping on the floor good for back pain?
As long as there’s enough cushion, sleeping on the floor may prove beneficial to prevent misalignment of the spine caused by soft mattresses.
But for people who struggle with weak bones and fractures, it is not an advisable method because it may even worsen their condition.
In conclusion, if you don’t have severe illnesses and fractures, you can try sleeping on the floor, along with proper sleep positions and a sufficiently thin cushion.
It is advisable, however, to always consult with your medical practitioner prior (especially when you’re pregnant).
And remember, what works for other people, may not necessarily work for you (like pretty much everything in life).
Feel free to try it, if you like the idea of it or think it would help you but be sure to evaluate the pros and cons of sleeping on the floor, taking into account your specific needs and circumstances.
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