Best Sleeping Positions for Back Pain, According to Spine Specialists

Scroll through any short-video feed this autumn and you will meet the same scene: a creator lying on a mattress, three pillows stacked at odd angles, promising that a single overnight tweak will end years of lower back pain. As of October 2026, searches for the ideal back pain sleeping position have surged alongside those clips and a new wave of mattress and pillow marketing that borrows the language of orthopedics without the evidence behind it.

The attention is understandable. Roughly eight in ten adults will have back pain at some point, and the night is when it tends to announce itself: the slow stiffening at 3 a.m., the careful roll to the edge of the bed, the first bent-over steps to the bathroom.

What spine specialists actually recommend is quieter than the videos suggest. It rests on one idea, a neutral spine, and on a handful of pillow placements that have been taught in clinics for decades. This piece lays out which positions help, which tend to hurt, and how strong the evidence really is.

Why your back pain sleeping position matters more than the mattress ads admit

You spend about a third of your life lying down, and for seven or eight of those hours your spine is held in whatever shape the bed and your habits give it. During the day, muscles constantly adjust your posture. At night they relax, so the position itself does the work of keeping the lower back, the neck and the hips lined up.

The goal clinicians talk about is a neutral spine: the natural S-curve of the back, with the small inward curve at the neck and lower back preserved but not exaggerated. When a sleeping position flattens that curve, over-arches it, or twists it for hours, small joints and discs carry uneven load. Over a night, that uneven load can show up as morning stiffness or a dull ache that eases once you start moving.

This is why a back pain sleeping position is not a cosmetic detail. It is one of the few postural choices you make that lasts hours without correction. The Mayo Clinic’s patient guidance frames the same point simply: the aim is to keep the ears, shoulders and hips aligned, and to use pillows to fill gaps rather than to prop the body into shapes it would never hold while standing.

Two caveats keep this honest. First, most people change position many times a night without waking, so no single posture is held for eight hours. Second, for the common kind of back pain, which clinicians call nonspecific low back pain because no single structure can be blamed, position is one factor among several, alongside activity during the day, general fitness, sleep quality and stress. A better sleeping position is a reasonable, low-risk adjustment. It is not a complete plan, and it was never meant to be.

What changed recently, and what has not

The honest answer is that the clinical advice has barely moved; the volume around it has. As of October 2026, the mainstream guidance from the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic and the NHS still rests on the same principles clinicians taught a decade ago: keep the spine neutral, favor side or back sleeping, use pillows to support the knees or the gap at the waist, and stay physically active during the day rather than resting in bed.

What has changed is the marketplace. Pillow-stacking tutorials, “spinal decompression” sleep gadgets and mattress brands quoting orthopedic language have made the topic trend. Many of those claims describe a mechanism that sounds plausible, then skip the step where someone tests it in people with back pain.

The evidence base itself has been stable for years. The best-known randomized trial on mattress firmness, reported by Harvard Health, enrolled 313 adults with chronic nonspecific low back pain and found that medium-firm mattresses produced better pain and disability outcomes than firm ones after 90 days. Later reviews of sleep-surface studies reached a similar conclusion. Nothing published since has overturned it, and no regulator has approved a sleep device for treating back pain in the way medicines are approved.

One genuine shift in tone is worth noting. Guidelines such as those summarized by the NHS have moved steadily away from bed rest and toward movement, reassurance and self-management for nonspecific back pain. That reframing matters for sleep too: the right position is about reducing overnight strain so you can be active the next day, not about immobilizing the spine. If a viral clip tells you to lie still in one “corrective” pose all night, it is moving against the direction of the guidance, not with it.

What the evidence actually says, graded by strength

Readers deserve to know how solid each piece of advice is, so here is the evidence sorted by quality, strongest first.

• Medium-firm mattresses (randomized trial evidence): the Harvard Health summary of the Spanish multicenter trial is the clearest signal in this field. Participants were randomly assigned mattresses without knowing which type they received, and the medium-firm group did better on pain in bed, pain on rising and disability. Later systematic reviews, summarized by the Cleveland Clinic, point the same way. This is moderate-quality evidence, not large and repeated enough to be called definitive.
• Side sleeping with a pillow between the knees, back sleeping with a pillow under the knees (expert consensus plus biomechanical studies): small laboratory studies show these positions reduce pelvic rotation and keep the lumbar curve closer to neutral. Trials measuring whether they reduce pain over weeks are scarce. This is the level clinicians call expert opinion supported by mechanism.
• Stomach sleeping as a contributor to back and neck pain (observational and biomechanical): lying prone tends to increase lumbar extension and requires the head to turn 90 degrees. Observational surveys associate the position with more spinal pain, but association is not proof of cause. Grade this as plausible and widely accepted, not proven.
• Specific pillow heights or “orthopedic” pillow designs (small, often industry-linked studies): some trials show modest neck pain benefits for particular pillow shapes, but studies are small, short and inconsistent. Weak evidence.

That hierarchy explains why reputable sources sound measured. Nobody has run a large randomized trial assigning people with back pain to sleep on their side versus their back for a year. In the absence of that trial, the responsible position, and the one the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins take, is to recommend the biomechanically sensible options and to let individual comfort decide between them.

Side sleeping with a pillow between the knees: the default most specialists start with

Watch a side sleeper without a knee pillow and you will see the problem. The top leg slides forward and down, pulling the pelvis into a twist, and the lumbar spine follows it. By morning, the muscles and joints on one side of the lower back have spent hours slightly rotated.

A firm pillow between the knees, running from the knees to the ankles if possible, stops that slide. It keeps the hips stacked, the pelvis level and the lower back in roughly the same shape it holds when you stand. The Mayo Clinic’s sleeping-positions guidance describes exactly this setup, and the Cleveland Clinic calls side sleeping with knee support the position it most often suggests for lower back pain.

A few details separate a good version from a frustrating one:

• Choose a head pillow thick enough to fill the space between the ear and the mattress, so the neck stays level rather than tipping down toward the bed.
• If there is a visible gap between the waist and the mattress, a small rolled towel in that gap adds support, a tip the Mayo Clinic includes for people with a pronounced waist curve.
• Keep the knees bent only slightly. A tight tuck becomes the fetal position, which suits some conditions but not all.
• Alternate sides over the week. Sleeping on the same shoulder and hip every night can irritate those joints.

Side sleeping also has a bonus for anyone who snores or has reflux, since the airway and stomach sit more favorably than when lying on the back. The common complaint is shoulder or hip soreness on the down side, which usually signals that the mattress is too firm for a side sleeper’s pressure points rather than that the position is wrong.

Back sleeping with knee support, and when the fetal position earns its reputation

Lying on your back distributes weight across the largest possible surface, which is why some clinicians regard it as the most spine-friendly position of all. The catch is the lower back. Flat on a mattress with the legs straight, the hip flexors, the muscles at the front of the hip, gently pull the pelvis forward and increase the arch in the lumbar spine. For many people that extra arch is exactly where the ache lives.

A pillow under the knees solves it. Bending the knees slightly tilts the pelvis back, flattens the exaggerated curve and lets the lower back rest on the mattress. The Mayo Clinic’s guidance and the Cleveland Clinic both describe this as a first-line option, and the Mayo Clinic adds the small rolled towel under the waist for anyone who still feels a gap there.

Head support matters too. A pillow that is too thick pushes the chin toward the chest; too thin lets the head drop back. Both strain the neck. The pillow should support the natural curve of the neck without lifting the head much above the line of the spine.

The fetal position, lying on the side with the knees drawn up toward the chest, deserves its own mention because it helps a specific group. Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the canal that houses the spinal cord and nerves, most often from age-related changes, and it typically feels worse when the back is arched and better when it is flexed. Curling up opens the space in the lower spine. The Mayo Clinic suggests the fetal position for people with a herniated disc as well, since the gentle flexion can reduce pressure on the disc. The trade-off is that a very tight curl for hours can leave the neck and upper back stiff, so most clinicians suggest a loose curl with a pillow between the knees and a switch of sides during the night.

Can sleeping on your stomach cause lower back pain?

It can contribute, and the mechanism is easy to picture. Lie face down and the middle of the body, where most of your weight sits, sinks into the mattress while the hips and shoulders stay higher. The lumbar spine sags into an exaggerated arch for hours. At the other end, breathing requires the head to turn sharply to one side, roughly a quarter turn, which the cervical spine was not designed to hold through the night.

The Cleveland Clinic lists stomach sleeping as the position it would steer people away from, and the Mayo Clinic describes it as hard on the back. Both are careful about one word: hard on, not proven to cause. The evidence is biomechanical reasoning and surveys that find more spinal pain among habitual stomach sleepers. No randomized trial has assigned people to sleep prone and measured the result, and it would be difficult to run one. So the fair statement is that stomach sleeping places the lower back and neck in positions associated with strain, and that many people who switch away from it report less morning stiffness.

If you are a committed stomach sleeper and cannot change, two adjustments reduce the strain, and the Mayo Clinic includes both:

• Place a thin pillow under the pelvis and lower abdomen. It lifts the midsection, reduces the sag and brings the lower back closer to neutral.
• Use a very flat head pillow or none at all, so the neck is not both turned and tipped upward.

Some people transition gradually by sleeping on the side with a pillow hugged against the chest, which gives the same front-of-body contact many stomach sleepers find comforting. It is a habit change rather than a medical treatment, and it takes a few weeks to feel natural.

Back pain sleeping position by condition: a comparison table

Not all back pain behaves the same way, and the position that eases one pattern can aggravate another. The table below summarizes what mainstream sources such as the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins describe. It is a starting point for a conversation with your clinician, not a prescription.

Pain pattern	Positions usually suggested	Positions often worse	Why
Nonspecific low back pain (most common)	Side with knee pillow; back with pillow under knees	Stomach	Keeps lumbar curve neutral; prone sleeping over-arches it
Herniated disc with leg pain (sciatica)	Side, fetal variation, or back with knees supported	Stomach; lying flat with straight legs	Gentle flexion can reduce pressure on the disc and nerve root
Spinal stenosis	Fetal position; back with knees raised	Flat on back with legs straight; stomach	Flexion opens the narrowed canal; extension closes it
Facet joint irritation	Side with knee pillow	Stomach	Avoids extension that loads the small joints at the back of the spine
Hip or sacroiliac joint pain	Back with pillow under knees; side on the unaffected hip with knee pillow	Side on the painful hip	Reduces direct pressure and pelvic rotation
Inflammatory back pain (e.g., ankylosing spondylitis)	Back on a supportive surface; thin pillow	Prolonged curled positions	Clinicians generally advise against sleeping in a sustained flexed posture; discuss with a rheumatologist

Two patterns need a word of explanation. Sciatica is pain that travels from the lower back down the leg along the sciatic nerve, most often because a disc is pressing on a nerve root. Facet joints are the small paired joints at the back of each vertebra; they are loaded most when the spine arches backward, which is why stomach sleeping tends to bother them. For either, the table is a reasonable starting point, but a diagnosis from a clinician comes first.

Why does my back hurt when I wake up?

Morning back pain that fades within half an hour of moving is one of the most common complaints in orthopedic clinics, and it usually has an unglamorous explanation. Overnight, the spinal discs, the cushions between the vertebrae, absorb fluid and swell slightly. That is normal; it is why adults are measurably taller in the morning. Fuller discs are stiffer, and the first bends of the day load them before they have expelled that extra fluid. Add several hours without movement, during which joint fluid thickens and muscles cool, and you have the classic stiff start.

Position amplifies or softens this. A night in an over-arched or twisted posture leaves the joints and ligaments on one side pre-loaded, so the morning stiffness has a sharper edge. A mattress that sags in the middle does the same thing from below.

Several other contributors are worth checking:

• A mattress past its useful life. Foam and springs lose support over years; the Cleveland Clinic notes that visible sagging or waking sore on a bed that was once comfortable are the practical signs.
• Poor sleep quality itself. Short or fragmented sleep lowers the pain threshold the next day, a relationship the Johns Hopkins sleep guidance describes. Pain and poor sleep feed each other.
• Inactivity the day before. Long sitting shortens the hip flexors and stiffens the lower back, and the night does not undo it.

There is one pattern that should not be dismissed as ordinary stiffness. Morning stiffness lasting longer than 30 minutes, back pain that wakes you in the second half of the night, pain that improves with exercise rather than rest, and onset before age 40 together suggest inflammatory back pain, which is a different condition from mechanical strain and needs a clinician’s assessment. That combination is described later in the when-to-see-a-doctor section.

What can cause neck and upper back pain when you sleep?

The neck is the part of the spine most at the mercy of a pillow. Side sleepers need a pillow thick enough to fill the gap between the shoulder and the ear, so the neck stays level with the rest of the spine. Back sleepers need something thinner that cradles the curve of the neck without pushing the head forward. Stomach sleepers, as described earlier, are turning the head sharply for hours whatever pillow they use.

Upper back pain between the shoulder blades often tracks back to the same source. When the head sits too far forward or too far to one side, the muscles of the upper back and the top of the shoulders work through the night to compensate. Pillows that are too soft and collapse by 2 a.m. produce the same effect in a subtler way.

Beyond pillows, a few causes come up repeatedly in clinics:

• Shoulder compression. Side sleepers who tuck the lower arm under the head or the pillow load the shoulder joint and can irritate the nerves that run under the collarbone, which may cause arm tingling along with upper back ache.
• Daytime posture carried into the night. Hours of screen use with the head forward tightens the muscles at the base of the skull; those muscles do not relax simply because the lights go out.
• Stress-related muscle tension, which many people notice first as jaw clenching or a stiff upper back on waking.

Mainstream guidance from Harvard Health and the Mayo Clinic is consistent: choose a pillow by your sleeping position rather than by advertising, replace it when it no longer springs back, and keep the ears, shoulders and hips in a line. Neck pain that comes with arm weakness, numbness in the hands or trouble with balance is not a pillow problem and belongs in the red-flag list below.

What could be causing pain in the lower back and hip when you lie down?

Pain that sits where the lower back meets the hip, and that gets worse the moment you lie down, often has a different origin from the midline ache of a strained back. Three structures are usually in the frame.

The first is the hip joint itself. Osteoarthritis, the gradual wearing of joint cartilage, commonly produces groin or outer hip pain that intensifies when the joint is loaded from the side, as it is when you sleep on it. The second is the sacroiliac joint, the large joint where the base of the spine meets the pelvis; it is a frequent source of one-sided pain just above the buttock that worsens with lying on the affected side or with the twisted-pelvis posture of unsupported side sleeping. The third is greater trochanteric pain syndrome, irritation of the tendons and the fluid-filled cushion, called a bursa, over the bony point at the side of the hip. Its signature is sharp pain when lying directly on that side, often enough to wake you.

Position changes help all three in similar ways. Sleeping on the back with a pillow under the knees takes direct pressure off the hip. If you prefer your side, lie on the unaffected hip with a firm pillow between the knees so the top leg does not drop and pull on the joint. A softer mattress topper can reduce pressure on the bony point of the hip, which the Cleveland Clinic notes is a common reason side sleepers find very firm beds uncomfortable.

Less often, back and hip pain when lying down comes from the spine referring pain outward, for example a nerve root irritated by a disc, which tends to send pain down the leg rather than stopping at the hip. Pain that is worst at night, does not change with position, and comes with fever, weight loss or a history of cancer needs prompt medical assessment rather than a new pillow.

What are the common causes of lower back pain in men, and does sex really change the picture?

The search phrase is popular, so it is worth answering plainly: the common causes of lower back pain in men are, overwhelmingly, the same as in women. Nonspecific mechanical strain of muscles and ligaments accounts for most episodes in every adult group. Disc herniation, facet joint irritation, spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis follow, roughly in that order of frequency as people age. MedlinePlus and the NIH list these as the leading causes without separating them by sex.

Where differences exist, they are modest and mostly about exposure rather than anatomy. Men are more likely to work in occupations involving heavy lifting, vibration from vehicles and machinery, and prolonged driving, each of which raises the risk of mechanical back pain and disc problems. Ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis of the spine, is diagnosed somewhat more often in men and typically begins in the late teens to thirties, with the night-time and morning pattern described earlier. Smoking, which is slightly more prevalent in men in many countries, is associated with higher rates of back pain and disc degeneration.

Two causes deserve mention because they can be missed. Kidney stones and prostate conditions can produce flank or lower back pain that feels nothing like a muscle strain and does not change with position; the clues are urinary symptoms, fever or pain that comes in waves. Abdominal aortic aneurysm, a bulge in the main artery in the abdomen, is more common in men over 65 who have smoked and can present as deep, constant lower back pain. It is uncommon as a cause of back pain, but it is the reason clinicians take new, severe, position-independent back pain in older adults seriously.

For most men, though, the practical message is identical to the one for everyone: the sleeping position that keeps the spine neutral, a mattress that still supports, and enough daytime movement to keep the hips and back mobile.

Mattress and pillows: what the trials show and what they do not

Mattress marketing leans hard on the idea that a firmer bed is a healthier bed. The best available trial says otherwise. In the randomized study summarized by Harvard Health, adults with chronic nonspecific low back pain who were given medium-firm mattresses reported less pain lying in bed, less pain on getting up and lower disability scores after three months than those given firm mattresses. The participants did not know which type they had received, which strengthens the result.

Why would medium-firm beat firm? A very firm surface does not yield to the hips and shoulders, so a side sleeper’s spine bows toward the mattress and pressure concentrates on the bony points. A very soft surface lets the heaviest part of the body sink, bending the spine the other way. Medium-firm is the compromise that keeps the spine straightest across the most body shapes. The Cleveland Clinic draws the same conclusion from later reviews and adds the practical test: if you lie on your side and a friend can see your spine curving toward the bed, it is too hard; if your hips sink below your shoulders, it is too soft.

What the trials do not show matters just as much:

• No specific brand, material or technology has been proven superior in independent trials. Memory foam, latex, hybrids and springs can all be medium-firm.
• “Orthopedic” is a marketing term with no regulated definition.
• Pillow studies are small and short. Choosing by sleeping position, side sleepers thicker and back sleepers thinner, has more support than any particular shape.
• Adjustable beds that raise the head and knees can reproduce the pillow-under-knees position, but the benefit comes from the position, not the motor.

Replacement timing is practical rather than scientific: when the bed sags visibly, when you wake stiffer on it than on a hotel mattress, or roughly every seven to ten years for most springs and foams.

Common myths about the best sleeping position for back pain

The viral clips recycle a handful of claims. Each has a plausible-sounding story and a weaker evidence trail.

Myth: a hard mattress or sleeping on the floor is best for the back. The one randomized trial on firmness points to medium-firm, not firm. Floors and boards concentrate pressure on the hips and shoulders and tend to bow a side sleeper’s spine. Some people do feel better on a firmer surface, which is why comfort still gets a vote, but “harder is healthier” is not what the evidence shows.

Myth: one “correct” position cures back pain if you hold it all night. Healthy sleepers shift position dozens of times a night, and that movement is useful. Guidance from the NHS and Mayo Clinic frames positions as a way to reduce strain, not as a treatment to be endured without moving. No position has been shown in trials to resolve back pain on its own.

Myth: stomach sleeping is fine as long as you have a good pillow. The pillow can reduce neck strain, and a pillow under the pelvis reduces the lumbar sag, but the quarter-turn of the head and the arched lower back remain. Reputable sources consistently place it last.

Myth: back sleeping is always the gold standard. It is excellent with a pillow under the knees, and poor without one for many people with lumbar pain. It also worsens snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which the airway repeatedly closes during sleep, so it is not universally the best choice.

Myth: morning back pain means something is seriously wrong. Stiffness that eases within 30 minutes of moving is usually mechanical and common. The concerning patterns are the specific ones listed in the next section, not stiffness itself.

Myth: a “spinal decompression” sleep device or inversion routine restores the discs overnight. Discs rehydrate on their own every night without equipment. No consumer device has trial evidence showing it changes disc health or back pain outcomes.

When to see a doctor about back pain that disturbs your sleep

Most back pain improves within a few weeks with normal activity, as the NHS and MedlinePlus both state, and a better sleeping position is a reasonable part of that self-management. Some patterns, though, need a clinician, and a few need one urgently. Every decision about investigation, medicines or other treatment belongs with the clinician who examines you; nothing in this article replaces that.

Seek emergency care the same day if back pain comes with any of these:

• New difficulty controlling your bladder or bowels, or numbness in the area that would sit on a saddle (inner thighs, buttocks, around the genitals). This can signal cauda equina syndrome, compression of the nerve bundle at the base of the spine, which is a surgical emergency.
• Sudden or progressive weakness in one or both legs, or trouble walking.
• Back pain after a fall, a road accident or other significant trauma, especially if you are over 50 or have osteoporosis.
• Severe pain with fever, or pain that is constant, deep and unaffected by position in someone over 65 with a history of smoking.

Book a routine appointment if:

• Pain has not improved after four to six weeks of self-care, or keeps returning.
• Pain wakes you in the second half of the night, with morning stiffness lasting more than 30 minutes, and you are under 40; this pattern can suggest inflammatory back pain.
• You have unexplained weight loss, a history of cancer, long-term steroid use or a weakened immune system.
• Pain travels below the knee, or you have persistent numbness or tingling in a leg, arm or hand.
• Back pain is interfering with sleep most nights, since poor sleep and pain reinforce each other and a clinician can address both.

Bring a short note of what you have tried, including positions, pillows and mattress changes, and how the pain behaves overnight and on waking. Those details help a clinician separate mechanical strain from the less common causes far more than any single test.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best sleeping position for lower back pain?

For most people it is side sleeping with a pillow between the knees, or back sleeping with a pillow under the knees. Both keep the lower spine close to its natural curve. The evidence is expert consensus and small biomechanical studies rather than large trials, so if one position is clearly more comfortable for you, that comfort is a reasonable guide, as long as the spine stays aligned.

Can sleeping on your stomach cause lower back pain?

It can contribute. Lying prone lets the midsection sink and over-arches the lower back, while the head must turn sharply to breathe. Surveys link habitual stomach sleeping with more spinal pain, though no trial proves cause. If you cannot change, a thin pillow under the pelvis and a very flat head pillow reduce the strain, and gradually shifting to side sleeping with a hugged pillow helps many people.

How should I sleep with back pain if I keep waking up at night?

Set up the bed before you lie down: a knee pillow for side sleeping, a pillow under the knees for back sleeping, and a head pillow matched to your position. Keep the room cool and dark, avoid long daytime naps, and stay active during the day, which the NHS recommends over rest. If pain wakes you most nights for several weeks, discuss it with a clinician rather than relying on position changes alone.

Why does my back hurt when I wake up but feel better after moving?

Overnight, spinal discs absorb fluid and stiffen slightly, joint fluid thickens, and muscles cool, so the first movements of the day load a stiffer spine. A poor position or a sagging mattress sharpens this. Stiffness that eases within about 30 minutes is usually mechanical. Stiffness that lasts longer, especially with night pain in someone under 40, warrants a clinician’s assessment for inflammatory causes.

What can cause neck and upper back pain when I sleep?

The usual culprit is a pillow that is wrong for your position: too thin for a side sleeper, too thick for a back sleeper, or any pillow combined with stomach sleeping, which turns the head for hours. Tucking the lower arm under the head, forward head posture from daytime screens, and stress-related muscle tension also contribute. Neck pain with arm weakness or hand numbness needs medical review.

What could be causing pain in my lower back and hip when I lie down?

Pain at the junction of the lower back and hip that worsens on lying down often comes from the hip joint, the sacroiliac joint, or the tendons and bursa over the side of the hip, especially if lying on that side hurts. Sleeping on your back with a pillow under the knees, or on the unaffected side with a knee pillow, usually reduces it. Pain that does not change with position, or comes with fever or weight loss, needs prompt assessment.

What are the common causes of lower back pain in men?

The same causes that affect everyone: mechanical strain of muscles and ligaments, disc herniation, facet joint irritation, spinal stenosis and osteoarthritis. Men have somewhat higher exposure to heavy lifting, vibration and prolonged driving, and ankylosing spondylitis is diagnosed a little more often in men. Kidney, prostate and, rarely, aortic problems can mimic back pain and do not change with position, which is a reason to seek care.

Is a firm mattress better for back pain?

Not according to the best trial evidence. A randomized study of 313 adults with chronic nonspecific low back pain, summarized by Harvard Health, found medium-firm mattresses gave better pain and disability results than firm ones after three months. Very firm surfaces concentrate pressure on the hips and shoulders and bow a side sleeper’s spine. Medium-firm is the usual starting point, with personal comfort deciding the rest.

Does the fetal position help or hurt a bad back?

It helps some conditions and can bother others. Curling the knees toward the chest flexes the lower spine, which eases spinal stenosis and some disc-related pain. A very tight curl held for hours can stiffen the neck and upper back, so a loose curl with a pillow between the knees, alternating sides, is the version clinicians usually describe. People with inflammatory spinal conditions should ask their rheumatologist about sustained flexed postures.

When should I see a doctor about back pain that affects my sleep?

Seek emergency care for back pain with new bladder or bowel problems, numbness around the groin or inner thighs, leg weakness, or pain after significant trauma. Book a routine visit if pain lasts beyond four to six weeks, wakes you late at night with prolonged morning stiffness, travels below the knee, or comes with fever, weight loss or a history of cancer. Treatment decisions belong with the clinician who examines you.

References

• NHS: Back pain
• MedlinePlus: Back Pain

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.