Drew, the hammock does help a bad back. The first time I ever used a hammock was in fact in the physio dept of a very good hospital in Berlin. I went into hospital for something else but while I was there. may be due to the lack of exercise, hospital beds or whatever, I got a terrible back problem so they treated that as well.
Later on I got a hammock and frame, just for fun. One day I got a really bad back and was floored - couldn't move for a couple of hours. When eventually I could get up of the floor I forced myself to set up the hammock and, boy, was that a relief when I got in it!
I now use a hammock all the time. I sleep on a futon on the floor and roll the futon up every morning so that I no longer waste the space of a bed. I have slept quite often in my hammock, though. But after a week or so I want to go back to sleeping on the floor where I can really stretch out.
I find that when I sleep in the hammock it is much easier to get up at any time including in the morning whereas on my futon I sleep like a rock. Nevertheless I am very refreshed after sleeping in the hammock. It is just I don't have the feeling of having stretched out. So sleeping in the hammock is very restful, as most of us know, but it is a lighter sleep.
If you have the walls to hang up a hammock, that is better as you can then use all types and sizes of hammocks. The problem with hammock frames is that some hammocks are too long to fit in the frame.
I believe that hooks for hanging up a hammock on a wall must be part of a bolt that goes right through the wall into a metal plate on the other side of the wall - but I'm no expert at all on such matters as DIY!