Best Sleeping Position for Sciatica
Trying to find the best sleeping position for sciatica, or for that matter, any back pain, neck pain, or hip pain can be a sleep-depriving roundabout that you are likely familiar with. We all need quality sleep to repair and restore, but if your back, neck, hips, or all of them are painful, you can kiss goodbye to a good night, and if you’re trying to find the best sleeping position for sciatica in a bed that doesn’t support you correctly? You can kiss goodbye to a good night… every night.
Sciatica can be relentless and demoralizing. After years of living with back and neck pain, we 100% know this:
- You must try and relieve sciatica BEFORE getting into bed.
- You ABSOLUTELY MUST sleep on a bed that is designed to support your spine CORRECTLY.
- Exercises can help alleviate and prevent a ‘Bad Back‘.
- NO exercises on earth can fix a BAD BED.
Are you sleeping with the enemy (sciatica), sleeping on the enemy (bed), or both? Let’s tackle the first.
The Great Sciatica Sleep Fix
We call this ‘The Great Sciatica Sleep Fix‘ because 9.5 times out of 10 it works for us.
We perform these simple exercises for sciatica before bed every night, without fail, and for us, they are an excellent way to relieve sciatica pain immediately. In addition, we also find it’s a fantastic way of how to prevent sciatica. It feels really, really good. Please share this exercise with anyone you know who suffers from sciatica, if it works for them too… they’ll love you for it.
— SHARE WITH A SCIATICA SUFFERER —
link to bands at bottom of page
When searching for the best sciatica treatment, you’ll know there is an abundance of information out there. Try giving this simple exercise a go and see how it works for you. It is the only exercise we use to manage our own sciatica before bed, often laying down for well over 30 mins because it’s such a passive, relaxing stretch.
⚠️ PLEASE GET IN BED: Don’t do anything that may aggravate your sciatica.
The Sciatica Sleep Shuffle
The gentle traction and reduction of muscle tension from the sciatica sleep fix has now primed our backs for bed. This exercise alone is usually enough for us to get into bed and be comfortable.
Sciatica doesn’t follow the rules as you know… and this is when we perform the sciatica shuffle. We were given this priceless advice for back sleeping many years ago from a physiotherapist. Once in bed, do the following:
- Lying on your back, place a pillow under your knees
- Keeping your knees close together, shift your hips an inch or two away from the pain
- Relax in this position for a few minutes then review
This simple positional adjustment can often be the icing on the cake and bring relief. If your sciatica doesn’t ease after a few minutes, try nudging a little further away. For example, if you have sciatica down your right hip and leg, shift your hips over a couple of inches to the left and relax for a few minutes… you may be very pleasantly surprised that this simple tip works. It’s hard being patient when you’re in pain, but if it works it’s worth it.
With sciatica, getting a decent night’s sleep might be tough. Certain postures might put further pressure on your inflamed sciatic nerve, causing pain to erupt. Some sleeping positions, on the other hand, are less prone to triggering irritation. Pain is personal, so experimenting with different sleeping positions will really help you to find the best way to sleep with sciatica.
What are the best sleeping positions for sciatica?
The two positions considered the best to relieve sciatica pain when sleeping are on your side with a pillow between your knees, or on your back with a pillow under your knees. We NEVER sleep on our stomachs. Ever.
How to sleep with sciatica? When our sciatica is not playing ball, we default to side sleeping as this usually alleviates pressure on the sciatic nerve. Depending on how painful the sciatica is, we’ll experiment with 1 or 2 pillows between our knees as we find the space varies and requires a little experimentation to find a sweet relief spot. This is where a body pillow for sciatica can make a difference as you can mould it around you for your own best sleeping position for sciatica.
The sciatica sleep shuffle applies here… when our sciatica pain is located in our right hip and leg, we will sleep on our left side and vice versa. Right side sleeping is a problem for us because of reflux. On the occasions sciatica is on our left side, we try to find a comfortable position on our backs, using the sciatica sleep shuffle principle.
The Best Bed for Sciatica?
What is the best bed for sciatica? We know that exercise can work wonders for a bad back, but no exercise on earth can cure a bad bed... that’s what we call sleeping on the enemy. We know what the wrong pillow can do to our necks… but sleeping on the wrong bed? Every single night? Month after month? Year after year? You know the answer.
If you’re looking for the best bed for sciatica like millions of other people and you’ve spent years trying to sleep with sciatic, back, neck or hip pain, the next few paragraphs may be the most important you’ve read in a long, long time. Once you’ve found your best sleeping position for sciatica, it’s critical to understand what type of bed is best for sciatica. And that’s where experience is priceless.
Please meet Marc Werner.
The Man Who Made His Own Bed
There is no better example of someone in pain searching endlessly for the right bed than the truly inspirational story of Marc Werner, the founder of Nature’s Sleep.
Marc was living with constant back and neck pain from a lifetime of sports injuries and the wear and tear that life brings. Add three… yes, three neck surgeries into the mix, and you could say Marc was the perfect example of someone desperately trying to find the right bed and pillow for pain-free sleep… we all relate 100% to this. Marc was also frustrated trying to find the best bed for sciatica.
So what did Marc do when he couldn’t find them? He invented them and in 2001, Nature’s Sleep was born. Who better to develop and design a bed for back and neck pain than a life-long sufferer? But that was just the beginning… Marc’s quest to help fellow back and neck pain sufferers resulted in 14yrs of intensive research and scientific innovation and in 2015 he launched the incredible GhostBed, dedicated to back, neck and hip pain.
“After three neck surgeries, I knew what it was like to live and sleep in constant pain. When I couldn’t find the right pillow and mattress to support my neck and back, I invented own.”
Marc knew first hand the frustration of going from showroom to showroom and being ushered from mattress to mattress and pressured by salespeople. If you suffer from sciatica, back or neck pain, you cannot make one of the most important decisions that directly effects the quality of your life by lying down on a mattress for a few seconds. It’s completely unrealistic... and if you consider the potential health consequences of buying the wrong mattress? We’d suggest it’s potentially dangerous.
After crafting what can be considered one of best mattresses for back and neck pain on the market, Marc knew he needed to eliminate the stress of going to the showroom completely and deal direct with the consumer and give them the 100% confidence and convenience needed to test at home with an astonishing 101 night sleep trial with FREE delivery and FREE returns. That’s a BIG, BIG deal for people like us in pain.
“Do you want to trial a mattress for 3 months in the comfort of your own home… or 3 minutes in a showroom?”
Your Mattress Matters
This is where Marc’s personal and life-long experience really helps those of us searching for the right bed. How did he do this? By designing the perfect interactive quiz to deliver the perfect results for your specific pain.
Please take moment to consider this… when you’re in constant pain, you’re taking it to the showroom with you. If you’re testing a mattress for a few minutes….when you’re already in pain… it suddenly seems like an unbelievable waste of precious time.
If you’re sleeping ON the enemy, please CHANGE IT. Even if your just curious to know what the best bed for your back or neck looks like… Marc’s quiz is quick, fascinating and with free advice available from expert sleep consultants, your search for the perfect mattress will be well and truly put to bed.
Essential Sciatica Stretch Kit
You only need a giant elastic band to perform the Great Sciatica Sleep Fix, no expensive gizmos or devices. However, we like to make the most of our time so give our necks a little TLC with a Neck and Shoulder Relaxer and use different massage balls on trigger points. Tennis balls are perfectly fine of course.
Conclusion
Sleeping on your side with a pillow or knee spacer between your legs is generally considered to be one of the best sleeping positions for sciatica. The truth is of course, that there is no one best position for sleeping with sciatica that is ideal for everyone. What works well for one person may not work at all for another. The key is to determine what works best for you by experimenting with various positions to see which one feels the most comfortable.
Try our best stretch for sciatica for at least a week, experiment with some sleeping positions and you may just find the relief you’ve been looking for.
The answer to the best sleeping position for sciatica? Don’t get into bed with it ;O)
Sincerely
BackPainSleep.
Last prices update on 2024-07-27
