More and more people are looking to buy an orthopedic mattress as a solution for their aching backs.


Turn on your television, especially during the late night hours, and you likely won't have to wait very long to see an ad touting the benefits of this or that "orthopedic mattress". Particularly if you happen to be laying on a mattress that's uncomfortable, or even if it feels alright but you wake up feeling unrefreshed or even sore and achy, how can you help but wonder if an orthopedic mattress might not just be the answer to your problems.

Well, what is an orthopedic mattress, anyway? It seems there is no legal standard for what may or may not be represented as such. Who's to say that some charlatans aren't out there promising to deliver an orthopedic mattress that turns out to be anything but?

But what? Unless they've been to an orthopedist, probably most people have but a sketchy idea what an "orthopedic" anything is. Orthopedics is a branch of medicine specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the spine and skeletal system, as well as the joints and musculature. Thus, rather than being merely a more or less soft surface on which to sleep, one should expect an orthopedic mattress to deliver benefits to those parts of the body.

People who are unhappy with their mattresses most typically complain of pain in their back, particularly the spine. The spine has a natural contour, and being full of nerve connections to all other parts of the body, putting and keeping it in an unnatural contour for six or eight hours can logically be expected to result in distress at any point throughout the system.

In looking for an orthopedic mattress, then, one should expect at a minimum that it will provide support that doesn't force or even allow the spine to get out of alignment. Furthermore, since the extremities, most especially considering the head, are connected to the nervous system, adequate and appropriate support should be provided for those as well.

There are several types of mattresses that can be said to provide orthopedic benefits generally, and there are even specialized mattresses designed to deal with existing misalignments of the body's structure. They range from coil spring types to air mattresses to water bed variants to orthopedic foam mattresses of various types.

Prices vary greatly among the various types and even within the various types. As you lay there some night longing for a better quality of sleep and restfulness, prepare yourself to engage in some serious research, and most likely, to shell out a significant sum to obtain a truly orthopedic mattress.