According to the Mayo Clinic, your spine is strong and stable when you practice healthy posture. But when you stoop or slouch, your muscles and ligaments struggle to keep you balanced — which can lead to back pain, headaches and other problems.
Spine Health claims that correct posture is a simple but very important way to keep the many intricate structures in the back and spine healthy. It is much more than cosmetic – good posture and back support are critical to reducing the incidence and levels of back pain and neck pain.
Harvard Health says that most of us get back pain at some point in our lives. It may be due to a sports-related injury, an accident, or a congenital condition such as scoliosis. But most of the time, upper or lower back pain develops during the course of day-to-day life. Repetitive activities at work or home, such as sitting at a computer or lifting and carrying, may produce tension and muscle tightness that result in a backache. How many of us has read about the dangers of staying seated all day at a desk, texting, improper lifting?
Yet, the focus always seems to be on posture during the day. A much smaller percentage of practitioners talk about sleep posture. Yet, we spend 1/3 of our lives in bed! In fact, considering that the optimum hours of sleep for an adult is 7-8 hours, we spend about the same amount of time in bed, as at the office.
For side sleepers, who make up anywhere from 70%-85% of people (depending which studies you read), incorrect sleep posture is definitely a cause of back pain. It is important that patients/clients are shown how to ensure that their hips are properly aligned, and their spine kept in a neutral position, through the night. Professionals can help reduce back pain, but if their sleep posture is incorrect, the back pain will just keep coming back.
Help support the work you do, by understanding the importance of correct posture day and night.
