How to sleep on a bad mattress if you have back pain ?

Sleeping on a bad mattress is the worst thing that can happen to you when you have back pain. and if you don’t have back pain yet and you have to sleep on a bad mattress, well…it’s probably just a matter of days before you join the club.

It just happened to me this summer.
We have a small holiday house in the mountains in Italy and this is where i love to spend my summer holidays.
The furniture & general confort of the house are down to the bare minimum and this year, the first night I went to bed…WOW!

I could feel the springs from the mattress in my back, in my shoulders, I did not remember the bed was so lousy.
Of course, the mattress doesn’t offer much support to the back either and that + the springs was just not possible.

First thing to try is of course to reverse the mattress. It can work. Often there is a good side and a not so good side to a mattress.

In my case, though luck: the side with the springs piercing my skin was the good side!

So I put it back and I tried the next mattress (It’s a 2 persons bed with to single mattresses next to each other).
No good either: the first mattress was still better.

Back on the less bad mattress, I tried sleeping upside down. You know, sleep with my head where I normally  put my feet, but no luck either.

Finally, I decided to use both mattresses. As bad as they were, that worked.

I put the upper part of my body on the first mattress and the legs on the second mattress with my feet hanging out of the mattress (and this is something that helps a lot when you sleep on your belly or almost on your belly: feet should not be on the mattress but just out of it.To make this work, I also used the two pillows: one pillow under my pelvis and the second pillow under my arms and like I said: I’m almost lying on my belly, and my head goes right into the mattress.

Get a pregnancy pillow

oregnancy pillow helps when you have a bad mattress

Pregnancy pillows also helps spreading the body weight to a greater surface and since they are quite large, more parts of your body will not be in contact with the bad mattress and that is what you  want.

A Pregnancy pillow also help achieve the sleeping position explained in the first part of this article.
I would definitely recommend purchasing one and preferably top quality if you want results. Not matter how much you pay for it, it’s still cheaper than a new mattress.

I know next year, I’m taking mine with me when I go on vacations.

Get a mattress topper

Just make sure you buy something firm; memory foam mattress toppers are too thin: you’re body will just squeeze them and I can garantee you will still feel those springs in your back. Memory foam mattress toppers are effective on memory foam mattress only.

Share your tips

If you have another effective solution for sleeping on a bad mattress, something that works well, you’re welcome to share it in the comments section below.