What mattress do chiropractors actually recommend for back pain?

Most chiropractors generally recommend a medium-firm mattress for back pain, not extra firm. A medium-firm mattress tends to offer the right balance of comfort and support for people dealing with back pain. The old "sleep on something hard" advice has mostly fallen out of favor.

A few things that come up across chiropractic guidance:

• Firmness depends on sleep position. Chiropractors generally point to medium-firm to firm for back sleepers, medium to medium-firm for side sleepers, and firmer support for stomach sleepers, though most chiropractors will also tell you stomach sleeping is the position to move away from if you can.
• Too firm causes its own problems. A mattress that's too soft can cause spinal misalignment, while one that's too firm can create painful pressure points at the shoulders and hips.
• Underlying conditions change the advice. People with herniated discs, sciatica, or lower back arthritis are often told to factor those conditions into their mattress choice, rather than just going by general firmness guidelines.

To be clear, these are  general takeaways from chiropractic guidance. If you have a diagnosed back condition, talk to your chiropractor or doctor about what's right for you.

Bryte personalized smart beds are built around adjustable firmness and active pressure relief, rather than one fixed firmness level. Up to 90 individual silent air-powered Active Balancers sense pressure points and self-adjust in real time, up to 200x per night, and each side of the bed adjusts independently. So instead of picking one firmness number and hoping it matches your sleep position all night, the bed adjusts to whatever position you're actually in.

People who came to Bryte specifically because they were waking up in pain are a big part of why the average improvement number is what it is: 46% better restorative sleep quality, reported by Bryte users overall.

More on how Active Pressure Relief addresses common causes of back pain here.