Chiropractor Dr. Rick Swartzburg, D.C.
Creator of the Mattress Checker App
Easy as 1-2-3
How to measure your alignment with the Mattress Checker app by Back Science®
Step 1
Lay on your side on your mattress, ensuring your shoulder is beneath your pillow, rather than above it.
Step 2
If you have a partner or friend to help, have them take a picture of your back, ensuring that the whole spinal column is visible and the camera is level with the mattress. If you're alone, you can use the timer setting or a mirror to take your picture.
Step 3
Finally, place 5 dots along the path of the spine from the bottom to the top and the app will show you what your spinal alignment looks like.
Done!
That's it! Now you can objectively see how well your mattress supports your back. The app even lets you save your measurements and compare different mattresses to see which ones result in bad alignment, or whether Back Science® is really the best mattress for back support.
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A Message from the Founder
Mattress Checker was created in response to all the questions I received over the years asking how an individual can really know if a mattress is supporting their spine well. While side sleeping is the most popular position, it also makes it easiest to determine the alignment of the spine, since a normal spine should be straight and not laterally deviate, unless there is Scoliosis. Even if you sleep on your back or stomach, the region of your body that will be losing support on your side will also be the same area of weakness in the mattress when you are lying in other positions, so it can still be a useful evaluation tool for sleepers of any position.
The Mattress Checker is the first objective means of scientifically measuring degrees of deviation in the spine that can occur from a mattress that is not providing proper support. It can have a high degree of accuracy and precision when you use correct visual body landmarks as you place the dots along the spine and then use the two finger zoom function to really see the detail of where you are placing each dot and especially when you can actually see the spine itself during the dot placement.
The other aspect of this app. that works so well is the ability to see where the spine stress points are located, how the body is contouring to the mattress, and how well the pillow is working with your mattress. For really assessing those last aspects, you may want to take advantage of our Free Consult and email the results to one of our mattress experts or send it to your health practitioner.
Other mattress evaluation tools, such as pressure mapping, will work well for determining how much pressure is being created in each area and while in certain circumstances it may be okay to allow some loss of support in an effort to improve the comfort level by decreasing the pressure points, a prolonged significant loss of support can have detrimental consequences that may not show up for many years. Only the Mattress Checker will give you the ability to measure and record an objective way to ensure a proper balance.
Dr. Rick Swartzburg, D.C.
