Waterbed? Foam? Spring? What kind of bed do you have?

If you have back pain, you know that it can be hard to get a good night’s sleep. Finding the perfect mattress can be a never-ending search. Some people swear by waterbeds, others by foam, and so on.

More stores these days are offering 30-day trial periods for their new beds and mattresses. That’s a great deal because even if a bed is comfortable in a store, you have no way of knowing how comfortable it is for an entire night – night after night – until you’ve given it a try.

What may have felt like a cloud in the store, may be like sleeping on rocks or pins after a while.

When I was 23 or so, I bought a waterbed because I was told it would help my back pain. To tell you the truth, I don’t know if it did or didn’t. I had bouts of terrible pain and times with no pain. Would it have been the same with a regular mattress?

I had what was called a semi-waveless bed and I really liked it a lot. My husband and I switched to a regular mattress in 1999 and there are still times when I miss my waterbed, particularly on a cold winter’s night.

A new study, published in the April issue of the journal Spine, looked at the effect of different kinds of mattresses on back pain. The researchers looked at 160 people with lower back pain (144 completed the study) and their back pain after randomizing them into one of 3 groups The patients slept for 1 month on a waterbed, a body-conforming foam mattress, or a hard mattress.

After the month, researchers assessed the patients’ sleep time, pain levels, and quality of life. While the differences were small, the waterbeds and foam mattresses did seem to provide better quality of life, better pain relief, and better sleep than did the regular mattress.

Any chance I can get my waterbed back???

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Image: iStock.com