Sleeping on your back will just make it worse

MANY people think sleeping on your back is best, but this is a myth. To avoid back pain, or if you have it already, sleep on your side, suggests Jan Keller, a personal trainer specialising in postural correction.

‘About 90 per cent of us have a tilt through the pelvis when upright [meaning the bottom sticks out and the stomach protrudes]. This predisposes us to lower-back pain. Sleeping on your back will exaggerate this tilt. Lying on your side means less of your bodyweight is pressing on the lower back.’ If you must sleep on your back, place a pillow beneath your knees to help maintain the natural curve in your spine. It’s also important to pick the right mattress.

The back likes the load evenly spread across the muscles, discs and joints. But while a saggy old mattress is clearly bad news, don’t assume that a very firm one is right, either.

People with lower-back pain who slept on a medium-to-firm mattress suffered less pain than those who used firm mattresses, according to a study in The Lancet. As a guide, the British Chiropractic Association says that when you’re lying on your side, your spine should be parallel to the mattress, not sagging downwards (too soft) or bowing (too hard).

And when it comes to making love, conventional positions are better. Spooning might seem a good position if you’ve got lower-back pain, and is often advised. But a study published last year in the European Spine Journal found it’s the worst for some types of back pain — for instance, in women whose pain is made worse by arching their back.