Back pain sufferers are often given advice for how to help alleviate their pain during the day, but now, for the first time ever, a groundbreaking innovation will help them to relieve pain as they sleep.
Manchester Met physiotherapists have partnered with sleep posture company Levitex to design, prototype and trial a specialist nighttime aid – the Lumbar Support Cushion – which promises to provide unique support to back pain sufferers, relieving discomfort, muscle spasm and, in turn, improving sleep.
The 18-month design process will build on years of research into sleep support and back pain conducted by Dr Chris McCarthy, Clinical Fellow and Dr Chidozie Mbada, Senior lecturer at Manchester Met’s Department of Health Professions.
As Consultant Physiotherapist at the NHS and lead of Manchester School of Physiotherapy’s clinical unit, Dr Chris McCarthy noticed that his patients did not have the tools to help them with back pain overnight and he did not have anything to recommend that he was confident could work.
Dr McCarthy said: “I’ve often asked patients to use a bath towel rolled into a sausage-shape to alleviate pain overnight. It can be quite helpful if you’ve got severe back pain to have it supported during the night, but a towel can be quite hard to sleep on. Levitex makes a specialised foam that they use in mattresses, pillows and healthcare products, so we’ll be using it to make our cushion. The foam will make it much more comfortable.”
619 million people worldwide were reported to suffer from lower back pain in 2020 (nearly 10% of the world’s population), a number that is expected to rise to 843 million by 2050 and is, according to The Lancet, a global epidemic. Despite this, there hasn’t been a great deal of research into what happens to the back at night and there are currently no specialist cushions for lumbar back pain in production. This is something Dr McCarthy is working to address after more than 30 years of work in the back pain field and thousands of patients in need of the world-first solution.
The prototypes for the cushions will be worked on for the next 18 months alongside a number of trials to assess the effect cushion support will have on back muscle spasms and how they could improve sleep, as well as pain at waking.
Dr McCarthy said: “Posture during sleep is very important. Sometimes people wake up worse than when they went to bed. There are so many different kinds of pillows produced for different types of neck issues but for some reason that hasn’t made its way down to the lumbar spine, which is where people have the most problems.
“If you have nasty back pain that is not supported, you won’t get a good night’s sleep, and a chronic lack of sleep can lead to yet more inflammation in your body. It’s a vicious cycle. Improving sleep quality is really important for a lot of chronic pain conditions, and certainly with back pain.”
This area is where Levitex’s expertise lies, with the company’s sleep posture products designed to improve sleep quality and reduce pain on waking.
Levitex Foam®, Levitex’s patented innovation, has been featured in the Journal of Wound Care and found to perform very well with regard to redistribution of pressure whilst increasing comfort, without causing an increase in temperature or moisture.
Manchester Met’s collaboration with Levitex is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), one of several UK-wide programmes designed to foster innovation by linking organisations or businesses with academic institutions.
Dr Michael Ward, KTP Associate at Manchester Met and Levitex, and project lead for the study, will work with both organisations to study how participants at Manchester Met’s Movement Unit will benefit from the Lumbar Support Cushion.
He said: “The Unit has fantastic facilities, allowing us to perform various sleep assessments on our participants by looking at their anatomical alignment, their sleep quality and habits, and how to improve their sleep in order to help reduce back pain. The equipment in the movement lab allows us to assess spinal positioning through the use of motion capture technology, as well as muscle activity and muscle tone, whilst the participant is lying in bed.
“The pilot data will be used to develop the product and refine the final specifications based on clinical data and outcomes. There are many sleep cushions out there on the market, but a clear gap exists in products which are clinically backed up by science. The sleep expertise side comes from Levitex who have a history of creating sleep-related products that are backed by research.”
James Leinhardt, Chief Sleep Posture Expert at Levitex, said: “We have put clinical research at the heart of everything we do from the start. Our collaboration with Manchester Met is another step in making sure that the products we bring to market are differentiated by the research behind them and the next key step in tackling pain at waking. If your back pain is at its worst in the morning, you are who we’re creating this product for.”
