How do I know when it's time to get a new mattress?

If I had a nickel for every time I get asked this question, I would have a lot of nickels.

Your Aches and Pains May Mean It’s Time To Change Your Mattress—Here’s How To Tell-

You should feel pretty good when you get out of bed in the morning. You will likely have a little stiffness, as you have been in one place all night, but with a light stretching routine, you should be good to go. Just like a dog stretches when they get up from a nap, we too need to stretch. But how can you tell whether aches and pains are coming from your mattress rather than normal aging or daily activity?

Here are 5 Telltale signs it's time to change your mattress:

1. You have lower back pain that does not go starts when you get out of bed and does not go away until mid-way through your day. It will feel super stiff and achey really quite painful in the morning, you might feel like you need to sit with some heat on it before you can start your day.

2. No matter how much you walk, your lower back, just won't loosen up. That stiffness doesn't let go. The discs in your spine, never had a chance to rehydrate during the night and you will feel like you need to "crack" your back, but you just can't.

3. You will feel a constant tension across your lower back when you are sitting, making it very difficult to sit up with good posture, which will likely cause your neck and shoulders to round forward.

4. You will develop pain on your outer hips whenever you are sitting, because the bursa in your hips was not supported during the night. (otherwise known was greater trochanteric bursitis, or hip bursitis).

5. You go to a hotel and you wake up with no back pain. Or you sleep on a different mattress and all of a sudden your back pain goes away.

How does an unsupportive mattress change the way the body holds tension overnight?

When we sleep, our body gets to work. Tissues repair, inflammation reduces, and spinal discs—those soft, gel-like cushions between the vertebrae—reabsorb water and nutrients. After a long day of gravity compressing your spine, sleep is when the pressure finally lets up. However, if the mattress is not supportive, your spine doesn't have the chance to decompress. Ideally your mattress should hug the curves of you spine and keep it like that as you sleep, no matter the position you are in. You can assist the process with the correct neck pillow and placing a pillow between your knees if you are sleeping on your side.

Why do some people feel worse in the morning but improve as the day goes on when their mattress is the issue?

Motion is lotion.

If you are able to move throughout the day, synovial fluid will lubricate the joints and you will feel better. However, if you have a long commute or desk job, that will not typically happen. Either way, if you can get moving, you will feel better, sometimes it just takes a little longer to get out of the "tin-man" mode.

Bottom line:

If you still aren't sure, Cape Concierge Physical Therapy will come to your house and help you decide once and for all if your mattress has got to go. We can look at your spine while you are in sidelying and on your back and see exactly what is happening to the curve in your back. This way, we can know for sure whether or not your mattress is causing your pain.