3 Best sleeping positions for sciatica sufferers for quick relief

In one of our previous articles, we have discussed how physiotherapy can help a sciatica sufferer. However, in sciatica, a sleeping position greatly influences how fast you recover from sciatica. This explains the importance of the best sleeping position for lower back pain.

Before we proceed, let me tell you that taking bed rest is very important during severe sciatica pain. How? Let’s dive into it.

3 Best sleeping Positions for sciatica pain

Rest is very important for a severe sciatica sufferer. It allows the healing of damaged discs, which otherwise would have constantly been under stress. The patient is advised to rest in the most comfortable position. Rest also helps in the reduction of acute tenderness around the lower back.

One important thing to note is that rest does not only mean bed rest. Bed rest is a kind of whole-body rest; as the severe pain subsides, we can localize the rest focused on the lower back. This way, we can achieve my use of the lumbar belt. It’s beyond the scope of this article to discuss the lumbar belt, but you can click here to read more about it.

Acute sciatica sufferers should adopt a sleeping posture that makes them most comfortable. Sleeping in a single posture for a long period is not possible, and it is also not advisable.

Here is the guide to sleeping posture you can adapt.

#1 Sleeping with pillows under the knee

Our first sciatica sleeping position is sleeping on our back with pillows under the knee. For this, use a single thick pillow or a layer of two thin pillows, depending on the comfort level. This position keeps the knee in a slightly bent position and hence helps to ease any pulling sensation of your back leg when sleeping.

As you can see, it is very easy to learn the position, and it should give you some relief from your pain. If this position doesn’t help, we still need to achieve a little more of a bending position at the lower back, so we need to try the next sleeping position.

#2 Sleeping with pillows under the lower leg

So, our next position is again sleeping on our back, but this time with a slight tweak. Sleep on your back with a pillow, as shown in the figure above, to maintain your hip and knee roughly at 90 90-degree angle. You need to use 3 to 4 pillows, one over the above.

Often, the pillows don’t give the desired effect; for this, I would recommend a leg elevation pillow that will help to retain the position with so much ease. Usually, this position is recommended during very severe sciatica pain, but if it gives you comfort, you may use how severe or low your pain is.

#3 Side-lying with pillows under knee

Next is the final point on how to sleep with sciatica, which is sleeping in a side-lying position. It’s obvious that we need to shift our posture while sleeping, and shift to side-lying constantly is also necessary. For this, we need a painful side over the top and support it with the arrangement of pillows, as shown in the figure.

The point to note here is that you need to keep the painful leg on the top to give it comfortable support using the pillow. Bend the top leg’s hip and knee and position two layers of the pillow just below it to rest the leg in a comfortable position. You can also use a pillow for the head.

Keep Reading: Sciatica Pain Relief: Dummies Guide that Actually Works

Sunit. S. Ekka

Dr Sunit Sanjay Ekka is a physiotherapist in practice for the last 15 years. He has done his BPT from one of the premium Central Government physiotherapy colleges, ie, SVNIRTAR. The patient is his best teacher and whatever he gets to learn he loves to share it on his Youtube channel and blog.