How To Sleep Better with Sciatica
Sciatica is a nerve condition where the sciatic nerve, which runs from your lower back to your feet, is irritated or compressed. This causes pain, reduces mobility, and makes it difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position.
The good news is that sciatica usually goes away within eight weeks, but severe injury, and reinjury, can extend the condition to over six months.
If you have sciatica, you will have pain, tingling, numbness, or weakness in your bottom, the back of your leg, and your foot and toes. You can get spontaneous pins and needles and shooting pains that make your legs twitch.
While the pain is usually manageable moving around, bedtime brings the most discomfort for many people. Laying down can increase pressure on the sciatic nerve, leading to many a sleepless night.
This article provides tips on how to sleep better with sciatica.
Let’s jump in!
Avoid soft mattresses
Soft mattresses will knock your lower back, hips, legs, and spine out of alignment, putting massive pressure on the sciatic nerve.
Sleeping on a firm mattress relative to your body weight is better. This means a medium mattress if you are under 160lbs, a medium-firm mattress if you are under 190lbs, and a firm mattress if you are over 200lbs.
Pictured: Millbrook Beds Lavish 1400 Ortho Firm Mattress, Traditionally Handmade In Britain. Available from Bedstar.
If in doubt, go for a medium-firm or firm mattress. The firmer the surface, the higher your lower back and legs will be, helping relieve pain.
Elevate your knees
Sleeping on your back with your knees elevated should provide pressure relief on your sciatic nerve. Knee elevation takes the weight off the nerve, leaving it inactive, and this promotes healing by increasing blood flow to the region.
Pictured: Recline-A-Bed Pure 2000 Twin Adjustable Bed. Available from Bedstar.
Try slipping a pillow under your knees to see if it helps. Alternatively, get an electric adjustable bed and elevate your knees with fine adjustment.
Sleep on your side with a pillow between your legs
If sleeping on your side increases pain in your sciatic nerve, slipping a pillow between your legs could nip it in the bud. A pillow between your legs will relieve pressure on the nerve so you can sleep on your side in comfort.
We recommend using a soft hollow fibre pillow, so it compresses, or a thin memory foam pillow if you want pressure relief between your legs.
Shimmy in some lumbar support
Two of the five nerve roots of the sciatic nerve are in the lumbar spine, so it makes sense that extra lumbar support can relieve pain in bed.
Put a firm pillow underneath your lower back and sleep on your back to see if it relieves your discomfort. If it does, happy days! You can also put a roll pillow (log pillow) under your lower back if you want firmer support.
Sleep with a heated mattress topper
If most of your sciatica pain is concentrated in your lumbar, a heated mattress topper could give you significant pain relief when you sleep on your side.
Electric mattress toppers use around 90 watts of electricity per hour, so running it for two hours seven days a week uses 1.26kWh – or 1.26x your kWh electricity rate. So, if you pay 34p/kWh, you will pay 42.85p per week. Peanuts!
Take the proper medication.
Paracetamol and ibuprofen will give you a pain buffer, and topical ibuprofen gel will help relieve sciatica pain in your lumbar. However, shooting pains require stronger meds, and only a doctor or pharmacist can help.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and skeletal muscle relaxants are usually prescribed for sciatica. We recommend speaking to your GP about your pain – they might give you a prescription or refer you to a physio.
Summing up
Living with sciatica is a nightmare because it affects you all day and night. Sleep provides little relief because the pain can keep you up. However, this article’s tips should help you – give them a go and see what you think.
If you enjoyed this article, read our piece on the best mattresses for lower back pain.
