The Best Way To Sleep With Neck Pain | Chiropractor for Neck Pain in Lubbock, TX
Hi, my name is Dr. Greg Marin here at 1-Spine Chiropractic. One of the questions we get asked a lot is “What can I do at home for some relief from a neck pain?” but during the consultation history, what we ask is “Did you wake up with your neck pain or did it get worse throughout the day?”
Incorrect Sleeping Positions
Patients typically tell us the answer is “I woke up that way”. So that’s telling me two things, it’s either your pillows, or your sleep position. So what we’re gonna do today is demonstrate the best way to get the most out of your pillow and your sleep position. Okay, so we’re going to have the patient lay face up for me, like just sleeping at home, and we’re going to show you the incorrect way to use your pillow. So we don’t want that pillow and the tip of your skull pushing forward, that’s an incorrect position.This can prolong the stress and strain of that neck.
The Correct Way to Sleep
What do we do want is for that pillow to give you support in that little part of that neck and upper back. So that’s a perfect position there. So it’s allowing her head to rest and gives us the support in the neck to get the relief we need so we don’t wake up with neck tension or headaches. So besides laying on her back, another option, that’s a good option is sleeping on our side. So when we’re sleeping our side we want that pillow giving your head enough support to keep everything in midline down your spine. Sometimes you have a pillow that’s too flat, causing a weird angle on your neck. Sometimes we have people that sleep with two pillows or more, causing the another angle in the neck. So we want to make sure we’re keeping everything nice and neutral, keeping those hands out in front and just like this.
Sleeping Positions That Can Flare Pain
One thing we want to avoid is sleeping with your arm underneath your pillow. So this is a big no-no because, not only do we wake up with neck pain, but sometimes we get numbness and tingling in that arm; leading us to have patients who have severe shoulder pain from sleeping this position. When you think about sleeping on your side for six to eight hours this is a lot of stress and strain on that shoulder caused other issue besides your neck issue. The worst way to sleep is on your tummy. So we have a patient demonstrate sleeping on her tummy. And we’re gonna go over why that’s a big no-no. So at times when we sleep in our tummy, the big thing is we try to get comfortable and put our neck at a different angle and different position. So when you think about it this way, how would we feel when we’re walking around all day with our neck to our side? It causes a lot of stress and strain in the neck creating a lot of problems. If you’re waking up with neck pain maybe it’s because of one of your sleeping positions, it maybe your pillows.
Give our office a call! A lot of times poor sleep equals a poor day, and then a poor day leads to a poor quality of life. So we want to make sure we get you some results.
