Trying to sleep when you’ve got sciatica can be challenging. The tingling, burning sensation through your legs and back can make it difficult to find a comfortable position that you can maintain all night. While there’s no one right or perfect sleep position that will ease your pain, there are some things you can do to make sleeping with sciatica a little easier.
What Is Sciatica?
Sciatica occurs when the sciatic nerve is pinched, compressed, or irritated, which causes pain in the lower back, hips, and legs. It can happen suddenly or develop over time due to a herniated disc (or discs), piriformis syndrome, weight gain, spinal stenosis, misalignment, and other conditions.
Why Is Sciatica Pain Worse at Night?
Though some sciatica pain is mild, many people find the pain serious enough that it interferes with their daily life. However, some people who don’t experience severe sciatic nerve pain during the day find their pain increases at night, making it difficult to sleep. There are several reasons why you may experience more sciatic pain at night or when you’re trying to sleep.
First, your cortisol levels are lower at night, particularly around midnight. Cortisol is an anti-inflammatory hormone that decreases pain and swelling throughout your body. Lower cortisol levels at night make it more likely you’ll feel sciatic pain.
Second, lying down can increase your sciatica symptoms. For example, if your sciatica is caused by a bulging disc, the weight of your body can compress your sciatic nerve when you lie down, increasing the pain. Even if you don’t have a bulging disc, certain sleeping positions push your spine out of alignment, increasing the pressure on your lower back and compressing the sciatic nerve.
Finally, during the day, you likely have distractions to take your mind off the sciatica, like work, school, or engaging in hobbies. At night and when you’re trying to sleep, you don’t have the distractions, allowing the sciatica pain to get your full attention. It’s not that the pain is more intense; it’s just that you’re more aware of it.
7 Tips for Better Sleeping With Sciatica Pain
While there’s no single solution that can help you get a good night’s sleep when you suffer from sciatic pain, there are some things you can do to improve the odds you do. Your sleeping position, mattress, and even what you do during the day can impact how well you do or don’t sleep each night. Here are eight tips for getting a good night’s rest when you’re sleeping with sciatica.
1. Choose the Right Sciatica Sleeping Position
There’s no perfect sleeping position, but certain positions are better for sciatica than others. Ultimately, the best sleeping positions for sciatica are ones that keep the spine in a neutral position, meaning it’s aligned and not putting pressure on the lower back.
Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if you like to sleep on your back, stomach, or side. There are steps you can take to relieve sciatica pain while you sleep.
Back sleepers: put one pillow under your knees and another one under your head. Keeping your knees bent throughout the night helps maintain your spine’s natural curvature, keeping pressure off the discs and vertebrae to alleviate sciatica pain while you sleep.
Side sleepers: put a pillow between your knees and under your head. Alternatively, you can use a body pillow to support and maintain your spinal alignment. If neither of these works, try sleeping in a fetal position.
Stomach sleepers: stomach sleeping can strain the lower back and neck, so it’s generally not recommended for someone with sciatica. However, for some, not sleeping on the stomach can lead to poor sleep quality. If you’re a stomach sleeper, use a thin pillow under your head (or consider skipping the pillow) and put another small pillow under your stomach.
2. Get the Right Mattress
Mattress firmness is a personal choice. What feels like a too soft mattress to one person may be just right for another. However, many studies have concluded that a medium-firm mattress is the best for reducing all kinds of low-back pain, including sciatica.
Medium-firm mattresses are generally the best at supporting the body and keeping the spine aligned, no matter which sleeping position you prefer.
3. Get a Different Pillow
Speaking of pillows, consider ditching traditional pillows and getting a neck pillow instead. Neck pillows have a curved shape that helps support your neck and keep your spine aligned while still supporting your head. It’s best for back sleepers, though some side sleepers find it useful.
4. Stretch Before Bed
Gentle stretching before going to bed can loosen your muscles, relieve tension, and provide some pain relief to help you fall asleep faster. Light yoga or Pilates are good ways to stretch, but if that’s not your speed, a few simple stretches, like bringing your knees to your chest and a few pelvic tilts, can do the trick.
5. Get a Massage
Massage therapy can provide softening of hip and lower back tension and provider relief from the chronic pain caused by sciatica. While a professional massage is ideal, if you don’t have the time or budget for that, consider using an at-home device to get some relief.
Ideally, you could have a massage later in the day or early evening. The stress relief and improved circulation ease muscle tension, helping you fall asleep quickly and experience higher-quality sleep.
6. Reduce Pain Throughout the Day
One of the more overlooked solutions for sleeping with sciatica is to take care of your sciatica pain during the day. Exercising and strengthening your back during the day can relieve pain in your back, legs, or neck that you may experience at night. You can:
- Practice good posture. Stand and sit straight and tall, but maintain a neutral spine
- Exercise to strengthen your core and take some of the pressure off your back
- Try some complementary therapies for pain relief, like acupuncture or yoga
7. Consider Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care can also provide sciatica relief. The gentle adjustments of spinal manipulations and focused stretches and exercises restore muscular balance and realign your spine, taking the pressure off your sciatic nerve and reducing your back pain.
Find Relief
Sleeping with sciatica is difficult, but not impossible. With the right mattress, proper sleeping positioning, and some exercise, you’ll be well on your way to dreamland with less pain.
If you’re suffering from sciatica, lower back pain, neck pain, or any discomfort that makes it hard to sleep, schedule an appointment at Flourish Chiropractic Spa today. Our team of dedicated, compassionate chiropractors and massage therapists will get to the root cause of your discomfort, ease pain, and help you find relief.
