Lying down and resting
Some people have lower back pain when they lie resting in certain positions. A relative few have lower back pain only when they lie down. Many people with lower back pain feel worse when they are lying down, and they dread the thought of another night with more back pain and less sleep.
If you have lower back pain only when you are lying down, or if you regularly awake in the morning with a stiff and painful lower back that was not painful the night before, one of two things is probably wrong. Either there is something wrong with the surface on which you are lying, or there is something wrong with the position in which you sleep (Fig. 4.19).
It is a comparatively easy task to correct the surface on which you are lying, but it is rather difficult to influence the position you adopt while sleeping. Once you are asleep, you may frequently change
your position or’loss and turn.” Unless a certain position causes so much discomfort that it wakes you up, you will have no idea of the various positions you assume while sleeping.
Many people with back problems are told never to lie facedown while in bed. This can indeed make it difficult to recover from an injury to the neck, but there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that this is harmful to the back. On the contrary, it may well be that your back will stop being painful if you sleep in the facedown position.
If you have not already discovered the effects of lying facedown, you should experiment. Next time you have back pain while lying down, see what effect lying facedown has on your problem. The results will vary from person to person. Certainly there are some lower back problems that are aggravated by lying facedown. And if you have sciatica, lying facedown is nearly always impossible. But for many back sufferers, lying facedown will bring relief.
