Herniated Discs and hammocks

[OrionFyre]

Glad you've made such an improvement Mike.

I've got a friend who had back pain bad enough that they were considering putting him on a drip. But today he wakes up with a discomfort level of 1 out of 10 according to him when it used to be 8 out of ten on a good day. Of course he exercised and watched what he ate, ended up dropping close to a hundred pounds. But the thing he reports as being the biggest influence on his back pain was ditching the mattress.

I went to a platform bed about a year ago with no mattress. It's a solid platform of 3/4 MDF on top with supports underneath. At most for cushion I have a king size comforter doubled over to lay on, and it's pretty flat, just enough to take the edge off. The adjustment was a little rough the first few nights, but man did I notice an immediate improvement in how I felt physically after a night's sleep with no cushion.

I conveyed this too my friend and he was interested since he tried everything else and even his top dollar memory foam mattress wasn't working any better then the one he had previously. I built him a bed identical to mine while he watched (felt bad because he couldn't help with anything other than handing me screws and bolts).

I told him to call me in the morning and let me know how it went. When he called he was crying. He said his alarm went off and he reached for it, shut it off, rolled out of bed and got to the bathroom before he realized how little his back hurt.

I think the premise is pretty much the same as it is in a hammock. more or less. You end up moving more during the night. With the cushionless bedframe I no longer sleep with pillows, i've adopted primitive sleeping postures which work amazingly. With a highly cushioned bed like the memory foam and such they're so comfortable you do sleep deeper, and move less in the night. The thinking is that it's a more restful and natural sleep (Sounds familiar right?) watch your dog sleep. Do they sleep motionless in the same position all night? does any animal that lays prone? Not at all, they all move, change position, stretch, and spend a sizeable portion of their night in a twilight daze.

Something to chew on I guess in addition to your hammock.

[G.L.P.]

I feel your pain... and i mean that
I herniated my L5 disk at work in 09 ... at first mine didn't really bother me much just some back pain and leg pain but not too bad and about 2 months in i got a nasty pain down my right leg while i was at work on a lift and it was all down hill from there just this past summer in Aug i had surgery (Laminectomy/Micro Discetomy)forgive me for the spelling
anyway the surgery did work they got all the disk out but i ended up being that lucky 5% that my disks didn't fuse together like they should have... now my L5 and S1 are rubbing bone on bone... it's a pain i can't put into words i take 7 different meds a day just to get out of bed
i did the same thing you did at first and didn't take anything for the pain .. i hate pills .. but it gets to a point where i had to or i couldn't get out of bed
i now have nerve damage as well
on June 6th i go for surgery again to replace my L5 disk and there putting a Cage in place to hold it together and a small rod in the back side

after my first surgery the only place i could sleep was a hammock i slept in the back yard for 3 months till i could sleep in a bed again ... i plan on doing the same thing after this surgery
i started using hammocks in 07 so it wasn't new to me when i got hurt but i never had back problems befor now .. i was always active and fit... i'm glad i was into hammocks
i can't wait till i can run again...i feel lazy and useless sometimes but what can ya do
anyway good luck ... there are many of us out there that know what your going through and we are here if you need us

[GvilleDave]

Thanks for sharing. I have experienced a bulging disc issue in the past and have often wondered how to sell the Mrs. on my sleeping in the hammock. I am afraid she would take that the wrong way...

[Bomber]

Thanks for sharing. I have experienced a bulging disc issue in the past and have often wondered how to sell the Mrs. on my sleeping in the hammock. I am afraid she would take that the wrong way...

I was afraid what the missus would say when i started sleeping in hammocks(full time). But as she puts it: I have the choice between living with a psychotic lunatic or living with you(which in my case essential is choosing between the plague or cholera).

[rigidpsycho]

I don't have a herniated disc, but I did find out last year after re-injuring my back once again at work that I now have arthritis in my lumbar region now. When I sleep in my bed my back is always aching so bad when I get up, but when I sleep?in my hammock I wake up feeling no pain. I have been looking around my house on tryin to figure out a way to hang at least one of my hammocks inside to help with this problem.

[TadTheTinker]

Rigid, find a corner, screw in a couple of heavy duty eye hooks into the studs and you should be good.

[ohski]

Dec 2006 I fell at work and blew out a disk, L5-S1 . Surgery in Mar 2007 and diagnosed with "chronic inflammation of the nerve root" in Oct 2007. Been on and off Percocet since then and can kill a large bottle of Ibuprofen in no time.

So, I feel your pain... I haven't started sleeping in my WBBB full time yet but it is hanging up in my basement and I bet this summer I end up there. I feel much better first thing rolling out of the hammock than my bed (brand new $1,750 set).

I know all our issues are a bit different but I think we are all in the same boat.

I wish you all good luck in any upcoming surgeries.

Ski

[mikewithe]

Thank you so much everyone for your kind words, well wishes, and shared stories. I wish hammocks worked as well for your backs as they do for mine and I hope that you can all find some comfort, whatever the source.

[GreenDog]

Hey you all, those in pain and those not! I'm so glad to read this thread. I know it's about 6 years old,but I'm hoping that Mike who started it is out of pain and that others are following suite. I was diagnosed with a herniated disk at the end of this summer, and pain is less of a problem for me, but the numbness and tingling in my feet is crazy-making! I've not had surgery; went instead with Spinal Decompression Therapy (thru a chiropractor) and I was well on my way to recovery until I walked 100 yards with a 28 pound pack on my newly "healed" back when we went car camping. I can only kick myself so much... Now I'm pretty much starting over with the rehab and my doc knows nothing about hammocks. I've had the best nights sleep in my hammock (WB RR) since this injury and I'm hoping to go back to it. Right now, I'm keeping track for a week of how I feel after each night on a "good mattress" and after that I'll do an informal study of how I feel after a week of nights in the hammock. Then report back to the doc. Does anyone else have relief of tingling feet from a herniated disk by hammock sleeping? I'd love to hear your experience, strength and hope!

[Carrico]

Yes, I blew a disc about 6 years ago rebuilding a bridge on my property. I was on my back for over four months. After recovering with the help of a chiropractor and 3 years of pain I finally got booted out of my bed after having our third child ;<) and took up residence in my hammock, in the living room. Since then the back pain is gone, I do get some stiffness in the base of my neck once in awhile, and a Little shoulder or leg stiffness, but nothing compared to the lower back pain and numb legs, shooting pains I used to suffer from. Ive only been back to the chiropractor three or four times in the last 2 1/2 years.