Not only have I had issues with night sweats but also many problems with low back pain. It all started after a visit to a wonderful bed and breakfast in Napa Valley where I fell in love with the super soft beds. When I got home, I convinced my husband that we should add a memory foam mattress pad to our own bed.
The bed felt great…just like a cloud. Then about two weeks later I started having low back pain and night sweats. Could this be menopause? I had read that joint pain and night sweats are all part of that thing called menopause. My back pain continued to get worse and my night sweats got better only when I started wearing wicking pajamas.
In the past two years, I’ve had steroid injections in my back, had MRI’s, taken anti-inflammatories, visited physical therapists, acupuncturists and orthopedic surgeons. Nothing helped my back pain.
Then something interesting happened. I had to take a business trip to Turkey and was gone for about 10 days. I slept on a firm platform bed with a relatively firm mattress. In those 10 days, I did not have night sweats and my back pain went away for the first time in 2 years. I thought it was perhaps because of the back exercises that I was doing. Then a few days after I returned from Turkey and was sleeping in my own bed, the back pain came back.
Then it all made sense. It never dawned on me that the back pain and night sweats could have been caused by the memory foam pad on my bed. I immediately removed the pad from my bed and within days, the pain and night sweats both subsided. After two weeks, I am once again pain free and sleeping much cooler at night.
If I had to guess, I believe the memory foam just does not provide enough core support which in turn can cause serious back pain. Additionally, the foam makes the bed much too warm. Now as long as I’m wearing my Cool-jams pajamas, I am almost sweat-free at night.
After discovering this problem with memory foam, I surveyed several other women to see if they might have had similar issues. 3 out of 4 people that I surveyed stated that they also had to get rid of the memory foam due to similar back and heat issues.
If you suffer from back pain, you might consider switching to a firmer mattress. Who would of thought it could be that easy!
Photo by Christine Mary
2 comments:
My wife and I started to use a memory foam mattress pad (about 3 inches thick) two weeks ago. Since the next day of using it, I have been having left leg pain. The pain has been getting worse. I thought it might be related to the mattress, but was not sure. Finally, yesterday morning, I could not stand the pain anymore. Then I decided to take it off from my bed and sleep without it for a week to determine whether it is the mattress causing the problem. Last night, I slept on my bed without the mattress pad. When I woke up during the night, the pain was eased obviously. I will return the mattress pad back to Costco this weekend. The material might be good for pillows. It could be a bad idea for mattress. My son is using the same kind of mattress pad and claims the same kind of pain as mine.
Memory foam mattresses are fantastic. I have one and it really helps me sleep well.
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