What I was trying to get at was the importance of finding out just what you are dealing with.
Perhaps what I should have said was, to take as many rest periods -- that you normally take -- in a horizontal position where possible. I didn't mean to imply that you should spend many extra hours resting, though some extra might be good.
However, all of this is academic if there is no tear/rupture. Find this out first.
Some experts claim to draw the leaked substance back into the tear with traction. That has been described as, and I quote. "Bollox" by a senior spinal surgeon. Basic hydraulics and the makers of $100,000 traction machines seem to think this happens. Right now I'm not sure, but gentle traction is unlikely to do any harm and quite a lot of good.
I have a friend that was employed by IBM. He was very fit. He turned to get a manual out of a low draw and was suddenly disabled with back pain. He got the best medical treatment possible...flown home in a brace, and then in traction on his bed. The thing is that they were treating a very specific fault. He got back to playing squash, and running his 7 miles a day in a short time. BTW, for a while, he was 1 3/4 inches taller.
What I do know is that his treatment was successful and mine was not. I carried on flying for a couple of years and worked out in the gym as much as possible. It just got worse and worse until it was an inflamed mess. I have often wished that I had taken the other route.
What is so misleading is that when high traction loads are applied and the facet joints move allowing the disc to 'increase' in size, it feels so good that you can not believe that it is doing harm. But it is. Gentle traction -- cycling the load -- might just cause the disc to regain some fluid. Remember, it has no other supplies...yet.
If the body recognizes the damage, and starts to effect a repair, then this is where long term pain might start. A neuro-vascular web will be formed to do the job, but this has the unfortunate side affect of transmitting pain back down these new nerves.
That's why the heat treatment inside the disc seemed so good...it destroys that new 'cloud' of vessels and nerves and stops the pain. But they grow again in no time, leaving the patient with the burned disc and a new lot of pain.
I could argue for hours about the minute detail and typical faults in the lower spine, and I have acquired some of the best reference material published, but non of it helps until you know just what is wrong. X-rays and even cheap MRIs will not tell you that.