When I saw the reviews for this I thought "no way 6,000 people can love this crazy hedgehog mat," but the reviews made it sound like just what I needed. My muscles tend to hurt and cramp up when I get my back adjusted and my spine is very much in need of correction and I'm just so tired of back pain, neck pain, pain period. My first thought when I opened it was "so I just wasted $20, this is really sharp" but I decided to try it because I already had it. I laid it on the floor with clothes on and had to get up every minute or two because my kids were being needy and fussy and it was just downright awful. I hurt more and I was grouchy. So I rolled it up in a pillowcase and put it up to maybe try another time, appreciating the fact that getting up and down was NOT how I was supposed to do this and I'm not supposed to go straight to the floor. That was a week ago. Today I came home from the chiropractor having used their roller table and my lower back hurting. It started to feel a little better I decided to stretch my lower back like I'm supposed to and after a minute or two I realized that the muscles in my lower back were starting to spasm and I was going to have a veeeerry bad night. Like watching a train wreck there's nothing you can really do, right? But then I thought of that mad little mat and thought, this is what I got if for, right? My husband was going to the store but I asked him to wait and watch the kids for just 10 minutes. I laid it on the bed, put a small flat pillow under the lower back area, and went bare backed, intending to recant and put a sheet or two on top if I needed to. My first thought was... wait, this doesn't hurt, it's just mildly uncomfortable. Shocking but great news! It only hurt when I moved around, but it was still uncomfortable at first, (tip: don't wiggle or move your arms or hold up your phone, just lay there, I went ahead and lifted and re-laid a part of my body a few times when my wiggling made a few points feel sharp). After 5 minutes I thought... hey, this feels good. Like really good. What?! But it does. It felt a little like a back scratch and a little like a back rub, as though a little wave was running down my back from the top to the bottom every few seconds. I liked it! A lot! And when I had to get up at the 10 min mark my lower back didn't hurt anymore or feel spastic! It felt like it was thinking about being slightly crampy for about 10 minutes after I got up and then settled out to be just slightly sore but totally functional. I think if I could have stayed on longer it would have been all better, but honestly just for that one result it was worth the twenty bucks, since that spasm would likely have laid me out for tonight and kept bothering me for days afterwards. I'm going to try it again after the kids go to bed and do it longer :D. I think this mat does more than just overwhelm the pain receptors because my neck and hips (neither of which fit on the mat with my back) both still hurt, but in between (my back) I felt so much better! Laying on the mat didn't even hurt much to start with, sort of like curling up with a hedgehog and finding it surprisingly tolerable... and then comfortable. It really helped me and I immediately called my Dad and told him about it too. I finally understand the concept of a bed of nails and although it sounds crazy I'm SO glad I bought it. It's a great little hedgehog mat. Just be careful when you unwrap it the first time and don't leave it out where kids will get into it because it's sort of like a pineapple on your hands. I didn't like the pillow the first time I tried it (you know, when I did it all wrong ;)), but I think I'm going to give it another try. The only thing I wish was that it had little ties to keep it rolled up around the pillow, but I can honestly just sew a little bit of rope on it and have my wish so no complaints here. I hope it works as well for you as it does for me, even with only 10 minutes! I wish I had two now so that I can do it from neck to heels. Saying that might make it sound like my head needs to be checked, but at least my back doesn't :)