When it comes to caring for your back, one of the most important factors is how you sleep, and what you sleep on. That’s why, here at the UK Bed Store, we are supporting National Back Care Week 2020. This year the awareness week falls from 5th October to 9th October.
What is National Back Care Week?
National Back Care Week was created to raise awareness of those who suffer with back conditions, or who do a manual role that may impact the health of their back.
Many of us take a healthy back for granted and do not appreciate the struggle that individuals may be going through on a daily basis.
The theme for this year is back pain in nursing. Many nurses struggle with back pain, especially later in their career. Due to the constant lifting and shifting of patients and equipment they are more susceptible to back injury or long lasting pain. This week can help to highlight the daily struggles and how important it is to care for your own back.
Back Pain In Nursing
Due to the nature of the job, caring for others means that they will have to undertake manoeuvres that will eventually take their toll on our nurses. While in recent years there has been a push on manual handling guidance and an encouragement to follow these lifting and shifting guidelines, it may not always be possible due to the “item” being moved being a human being, usually an unwell one at that. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to avoid this.
So, where possible, we promote our nurses ensuring that outside (and inside where possible) work doing the best they can for their backs. This includes regular massage or chiropractor appointments, fitness to improve the muscles in the back and the use of a good quality mattress.
How Your Bed Can Help Your Back
It’s long since been known that what you sleep on can have a huge impact on your back. Sleeping on a hard floor, in comparison to sleeping on a supportive mattress makes a big difference.
Typical advice recommended that an orthopaedic mattress is the best for individuals struggling with back pain. However, this advice might not be accurate for you. When looking for a mattress you should look for one that is supportive to you. This includes moulding to your shape and how you sleep. For example a smaller individual who sleeps on their side, would find it extremely uncomfortable to sleep on an extra firm mattress as it would not contort to their body shape. Whereas a softer or a memory foam mattress would mould to the right shape, offering fuller support.
Where two individuals share a bed, both need to be taken into consideration, and ideally either a mutual ground or a mattress that reduces the movement felt by the other person such as a pocket sprung or memory foam mattress where the movement is contained.
If you are looking for a new mattress and struggle with back pain, contact one of our experts here at UK Bed Store who will be more than happy to discuss your individual requirements, finding you the best support.