If you walked into a bedroom ten thousand years ago, you wouldn’t find a pillow-top, multi-layer, pocket-sprung mattress with cooling gel. You wouldn’t find a frame that lifts you three feet off the ground. You would likely find a flat, firm surface—perhaps covered with a thin mat of woven reeds or a animal hide.
As I’ve argued in There Are No Cave Drawings Of Chairs, our ancestors didn’t seek “softness”—they sought stability. Today, we spend thousands of dollars on mattresses designed to “cradle” us. But as a chiropractor, I’ve seen that what we perceive as comfort in the moment is often a slow-motion disaster for the spine.
The “Hammock” Effect
The most common issue I see in my clinic, especially among the professional athletes and touring musicians I treat, is what I call the “Soft Surface Trap.”
When you lie on a modern, plush mattress, your heaviest part—the pelvis—sinks deeper than your head and feet. This creates a subtle “hammock” shape in your body. For eight hours, your lumbar spine (low back) is forced into a flattened or even reversed curve.
Remember what we discussed in Chapter 6 about the C-slump in chairs? A soft mattress is essentially a chair you lie down in. It forces the spine into a position of weakness, causing the ligaments to creep and the muscles to stiffen in a compensatory pattern. You wake up “stiff” not because you slept wrong, but because your spine spent the night fighting for a neutral position it couldn’t find.
Why Firmness is “In the Code”
We forget that we are mammals designed for the earth. In the wild, a firm sleeping surface provides proprioceptive feedback. When your body feels a firm surface, your internal stabilizers stay subtly “awake.” They maintain a baseline of tone that protects your joints.
When you sink into a cloud of foam, those stabilizers “turn off.” We are essentially putting our musculoskeletal system in a cast every night. Over years, this leads to:
- Loss of Lumbar Lordosis: The natural inward curve of your low back disappears, leading to disc vulnerability.
- Pelvic Misalignment: If the mattress sags, your pelvis tilts, putting torque on the sacroiliac (SI) joints.
- Chronic Muscle Guarding: Your deep core muscles spend the whole night trying to stabilize a spine that is sinking into foam, leading to that “hit by a truck” feeling in the morning.
Backstage Reality: The Hotel Bed Syndrome
I see this constantly with rock stars on tour. They go from a tour bus bunk to a five-star hotel with the “softest” beds imaginable. By the third city, their low backs are locked up. Why? Because the body cannot find its center on a moving target. The elite performers who stay healthy are the ones who understand that a firm foundation is non-negotiable for recovery.
Reclaiming Your Sleeping Foundation
I’m not telling you to go out and sleep on a concrete slab tonight. But if you want to perform like an athlete and move like a primate, you need to rethink your foundation.
- The Floor Test: If you have chronic low back pain, try spending just one night on a thin mat or a firm carpeted floor. Many of my patients are shocked to find they wake up with less pain because their spine finally had the support it needed to stay neutral.
- Firm Over Plush: When shopping for a mattress, stop looking for “soft.” Look for “supportive.” Your muscles should be the ones relaxing, not your skeletal structure collapsing.
- The “Mammals in Captivity” Reminder: We live in an environment designed for convenience, not biology. Every time you choose a firm surface over a sagging one, you are voting for your body’s natural blueprint.
Stop sinking. Start standing (and sleeping) on your own two feet.
For more on how to align your modern life with your ancient design, visit DrChada.com or read “There Are No Cave Drawings Of Chairs.”