Episode 14: How To Sleep With Scoliosis

Scoliosis patients are often concerned with what is the best way to sleep with scoliosis.

Scoliosis has an indirect effect on how people sleep. It affects how comfortably they might lay down in their bed, it might cause discomfort when sleeping on their backs, and patients often need to find different sleeping positions.

Scoliosis also impacts patients' ability to breathe properly, and lung impairment is greater when patients have thoracic scoliosis. But also, in patients with a different degree of scoliosis, there can be difficulty breathing as scoliosis progresses, especially when it is severe.

Since scoliosis causes pain in some cases, patients who have scoliosis pain also struggle when sleeping.

One of the solutions given to scoliosis patients is traditional bracing to hold the spine and prevent the curve from progressing. However, this type of bracing squeezes on the body and the ribs, and it creates a restriction feeling that prevents the patient from taking deep breaths. This makes the brace more difficult to wear the longer the patient wears it, and it can cause trouble when sleeping for patients.

Corrective bracing, however, pushes the spine to become straighter, and as it straightens, it becomes easier to wear. Initially, with this brace, the patients might take shallow breaths, but it gets easier to take deeper breaths in time because their scoliosis is improving. That is why the best way to sleep with scoliosis is with a good corrective brace.

There is no one way to sleep better for patients who do not have a brace and have thoracic scoliosis or lumbar scoliosis. Either way, they will put pressure on the spine, and there won't be a correction without the brace. All that can be done is finding a comfortable position to sleep with their scoliosis.

When mattresses are too soft, patients sink into the mattress because they do not offer enough support. So, the best mattress is a firm one with a medium-size pillow top.

Patients also inquire about different types of support to help their scoliosis, like using a pillow on their knees or other types of support. In general, any support to your spine and your scoliosis is better than none.

The worse way to sleep with scoliosis is face down because the neck is twisted. The second worse way is on the side without any support on the knees or the torso. Now, the best way to sleep with scoliosis is on your back, and even better is sleeping with a brace on your back.

It is always best to speak to your doctor and look for options to reduce your scoliosis because as scoliosis worsens, it becomes more difficult to sleep comfortably. But the straighter your curve becomes, the easier it will be to sleep with scoliosis.

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