What Is The Best Mattress For Scoliosis? Scoliosis & Sleeping

Sleep is important for everyone, but for people with scoliosis, they are facing extra challenges related to living with a progressive spinal condition. Finding a good mattress can be helpful for people with scoliosis by providing spinal support, temperature regulation, and reducing pressure points.

The best mattress for scoliosis is one that offers optimal spinal support and comfort. People with scoliosis can find it difficult to get comfortable at night, and getting a good night's sleep is important when it comes to creating an environment inside the body that's conducive to healing.

Before we talk about specific mattresses for scoliosis, let's first take a moment to fully define the condition, for a better understanding of its effects.

Understanding Scoliosis

Being diagnosed with scoliosis means an unnatural lateral (side-to-side) spinal curve has developed, with rotation, making scoliosis a 3-dimensional condition.

In addition, scoliosis is progressive, meaning it's virtually guaranteed to get worse over time. Scoliosis ranges widely in severity, and the severity levels are also the condition's progressive line: mild, moderate, severe, and very severe.

So even conditions diagnosed as mild can easily progress to become moderate, severe, or very severe, especially if left untreated, or not treated proactively.

The more severe a condition, the more likely it is that its effects are going to be noticeable and disrupt a person's sleep.

So what are the condition's effects, and how do they affect sleep?

How Scoliosis Can Disrupt Sleep

Scoliosis introduces a lot of uneven forces to the body, and as the spine works in partnership with the brain to form the central nervous system (CNS), scoliosis effects can be felt throughout the body.

The CNS is a complex network that facilitates brain-body communication, meaning the spine is involved in the function of virtually every working system within the body.

The uneven forces can disrupt the body's overall symmetry in the form of postural deviation, which is the main symptom of scoliosis in children and adolescents.

Postural changes can include uneven shoulders, shoulder blades, hips, the development of a rib arch, and arms and legs that appear to hang at different lengths.

The more postural deviation there is, the harder it can be to get comfortable, and finding a healthy sleep position is a big part of getting a good night's sleep.

In addition, scoliosis can also cause different levels of back pain, and while this isn't a common issue for young scoliosis patients, for adults, the condition is compressive, and back pain and radiating pain into the hands and feet is the main symptom of scoliosis.

Being in pain makes it difficult to get comfortable, and can cause frequent disruptions that make it difficult to get a long stretch of sleep, much needed for its restorative potential.

In addition, in severe cases, lung impairment can be a condition effect that makes it difficult to settle into a rhythmic breathing pattern during sleep.

So now that we know how some of the condition's effects can disrupt sleep, let's talk about how to minimize those effects: by developing healthy sleep habits through sleep position and a solid support system (good mattress for scoliosis).

Best Sleep Position for Scoliosis

When it comes to the best sleeping position for people with scoliosis, we're talking about a position that keeps the spine in a neutral and aligned position, and the best positions for spinal health are the same for everyone, whether scoliosis is an issue or not.

Sleeping flat on the back is the best sleep position as it evenly distributes body weight to provide pressure relief, while keeping the spine neutral and aligned.

After sleeping on the back, the best sleep position is on the side, and placing a thin pillow or between the knees can optimize spinal alignment and reduce pressure on the hip and shoulder (pressure points).

The single worst sleep position is stomach sleeping as this unnaturally arches the upper back and puts the neck (cervical spine) at an odd angle, and this is for average weight stomach sleepers; for stomach sleepers carrying excess weight, this position is particularly harmful as it increases pressure on the spine.

So the best sleeping position for people with scoliosis is flat on the back because it promotes proper spinal alignment, disperses body heat, pressure point relief, can alleviate pain, and helps to prevent pressure build up.

In addition, a customized scoliosis pillow suited to a person's body type can help provide optimal cervical spine support and spinal alignment.

Let's now move on to some specific mattress recommendations for people with scoliosis.

The Best Mattress for Scoliosis

Each case of scoliosis is unique, as are mattress preferences.

When it comes to important mattress characteristics for people with scoliosis, we're talking about a mattress that's comfortable, supportive, helps with temperature regulation, and reduces pressure points.

Even for people who don't find their scoliosis disruptive to sleep, a good mattress is still important for maintaining spinal health over time.

Ultimately, the best mattress for scoliosis is one that helps a person get the best possible sleep, and this will also depend on a person's mattress preference and sleep position.

There are many mattress choices out there from a memory foam mattress, hybrid mattress, foam mattress, innerspring mattresses, a firmer mattress, latex mattresses, a medium firm mattress, luxury firm mattress, mattresses with individually wrapped coils, gel infused foam, pocketed coil support core, gel memory foam, etc.

The variety of choices can be overwhelming, so let's take a look at three specific mattresses that are thought to be among the best mattresses for scoliosis.

The Nectar Mattress

The Nectar Lush mattress is an award-winning mattress that offers its users optimal comfort and spinal support.

This mattress was named the Mattress of the Year (2020) and Best Overall Mattress by USA Today.

In addition, the mattress was also named Best Memory Foam Mattress of 2020 by Sleep Foundation and was the winner of the Tuck award for Best Value Memory Foam Mattress in 2019; Mattress Advisor also recommended it as the Best Value Mattress of 2019.

This mattress features multiple layers, the first is cooling for hot sleepers and pulls body heat away from the body to keep the mattress cool.

The 12" layer of top-quality materials provides ideal spinal support, and the coils offer good flex and support; in addition, the high-density foam helps relieve pressure.

It's not uncommon for people with scoliosis to suffer from hip pain, particularly common in older adults and side sleepers, so a mattress with extra pressure-point relief has a lot of benefits in terms of pain relief and comfort.

Bear Hybrid Mattress

The Bear Star hybrid mattress was named the Best Mattress of 2022 by Sleep Foundation and is ideal for those wanting pressure relief, temperature regulation, and sharing a bed with a partner (motion isolation).

The Bear hybrid mattress has a high flex point, meaning that even with frequent position changes, from oneself or a partner, the mattress will return to its conforming position around the body.

Combining copper gel infused memory foam and individually-wrapped coils, users benefit from a high degree of flex, minimal motion transfer, and support for optimal spinal alignment.

Saatva Classic Mattress

The Saatva Classic mattress is made from organic materials for ultimate breathability, making it ideal for hot sleepers.

This mattress is an innerspring mattress that's award-winning and chiropractic-approved as a hybrid mattress that offers users optimal support through its inner coil springs and the comfort of memory foam for minimizing pressure points.

The mattress features a plush pillow top that offers contoured support with reduced pressure from the coil spring layer below.

Its patented spinal-zone technology/memory foam facilitates spinal alignment while working towards reducing pressure on the lumbar spine (lower back).

The Saatva Classic mattress has been approved by the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations so is ideal for those dealing with the challenge of life with a progressive spinal condition like scoliosis.

An additional benefit of the Saatva Classic is that it can be further customized to suit a person's preferred firmness: plush soft, luxury firm, and firm.

Conclusion

Here at the Scoliosis Reduction Center, I treat scoliosis proactively with a conservative chiropractic-centered treatment approach.

For patients undergoing treatment, the process can be intense, and the ability to get a good night's sleep can affect energy levels and the ability to withstand the challenges of treatment.

While having scoliosis doesn't automatically guarantee a person will have sleep issues, if severe, and particularly if left untreated, it can make it difficult to get comfortable and settle into a healthy sleep routine.

When it comes to the best sleeping position for people with scoliosis, it's sleeping flat on the back, followed by side sleeping, and the worst sleep position is stomach sleeping.

The best mattress for scoliosis will vary from one person to the next as variables such as body/condition type and personal preference are important, but in general, a mattress that offers comfort, flex, support and temperature regulation, while reducing pressure points and promoting optimal spinal alignment is ideal.