4:00am (Discourse Chronicle)
Comments(6) [I am awake against my own free will at 4am and my alarm clock is set for 7am. No, I am not a PhD graduate student yet, so I am not reading for prelims or working on a dissertation or anything like that. Unfortunately, lower back pain is what keeps me up at night preventing me from sleeping well over the past year or so. Nothing I do helps this pain go away and it seems to be getting worse as I watch my hours of sleep become less and less over time.
I started working out my upper body a few weeks ago because my parents thought my pain is associated to weight after a magical 15lbs. found its way on me over the summer changing me from 130 to 145lbs. against 5ft. 5in. in height. I tried using a pulley traction system to straighten my spine for 15 minutes a day, but stopped because of potential hyperextension of my neck; I flipped my mattress; I tried buying a contour memory foam pillow; but none of them alleviate my pain. BK]
that is awful
That’s rough, Bobby. Do you have a healthcare plan that lets you get an expert opinion?
Dennis, us graduate students do have health insurance, but I dislike visiting doctors unless it is absolutely necessary. I remember hosting my Dad down here in Texas two weeks before the semester started and I slept on an inflatable air mattress. I experienced no back pain then.
For a while, I believed my bed may be too hard for me, so my back reacts negatively and the air mattress supports my theory. Therefore, I am thinking the solution is to buy one of those memory foam spreads for my bed because it works on a similar principle.
I HIGHLY recommend the inch or so thick memory foam. I got one at Wal-Mart right after my back surgery and it made my bed infinitely more comfortable. So much so that I bought one for my brother, too.
Thanks, Rebecca. I hope it finally solves my sleepless problem.