What Type Of Bed Is Best For Your Aching Back?

I've always heard that sleeping on a hard surface was best for a bad back. I've even known people who put a board under their mattress to make it firmer. However, a new Danish study in which back-pain sufferers slept for a month on either a water bed, a firm mattress, or a soft, body-conforming mattress concluded that sleeping on a soft mattress may help relieve back pain! The softer beds resulted in significantly less daytime pain and an extra hour of sleep each night. "The harder the mattress, the more tense and aggravated the already painful ligaments in people's backs became," says the study author, Tom Bendix, M.D.