Why do you have back and neck aches for days if you “sleep wrong” one night?
In: Biology
I was prone to neck muscle pain and even back spasms until I figured out that one major cause was propping my head up too much with pillows when sleeping. It was stretching my neck and upper back muscles for hours at a time while I slept so I’d wake up with problems in those areas and it would last for days. Now I make sure when I sleep my neck is not bent and is in line with my spine and they are MUCH less frequent.
There are some ways to make this go away rather quickly. When I’m not home sleeping on my memory foam bed with weighted blankets, I take ibuprofen or tylenol with horny goat weed. If it’s bad, I’ll find a gym and do some back and shoulder workouts followed by a warm shower, and it has always gone away afterward.
Generally either because the position you were sleeping in stressed certain muscles and/ or pinched a nerve. But what most likely causes the pain to stay for so long is the fact people avoid moving when they are in pain.
If you want the pain to go away you have to almost teach your body that it is ok to move the affected area.
Because your muscles have become tense and they hold that tension until released manually or by themselves. It rarely has to do with the nerves and more with the muscles being hypertonic (tight).
In my opinion the only relief comes with trigger point therapy.
For the same reason wrecking your tv takes seconds, but putting it back together takes a really long time.
Destruction doesn’t care for what is ruined and how, things being put together do care about it and it takes more care and time.
Firstly, generally these are small muscle strains or inflamed nerves. Tight, dense muscles from life are vulnerable to strain which takes a couple days to heal and will be sharp and weak in the meantime.
Also, there are numerous small muscles in your neck and those are made of groups of smaller subsets of muscle fibers called fascicles. Each fascicle is innervated by nerves that tell them to fire.
When you sleep, you try to perform the actions of your dreams. These actions are MOSTLY inhibited. If your head is turned or flexed or in any position that may stretch or shorten a compromised muscle (tight from years of overwork/poor posture/ lack of exercise), it’s possible that a dream twitch could cause that muscle or fascicle to strain.
Additionally, as other people have mentioned, there could be a whole host of nerve interactions thar hurt due to inflammation. Nerves are complex and their interactions with other tissues is many and varied, so I tend to focus mostly on the muscle strain aspect of stiff necks. Luckily the treatment is the same, rest and ibuprofen.
Constant phone usage will be the death of us all. So many neck problems. It might look idiotic but try to hold your phone up to eye level rather than bending your neck when endlessly scrolling reddit.
I’m in decent shape and I’m still young, only 26. I slept weird one night and woke up with a stiff neck, no pain. The next day was a different story. I couldn’t turn my head at all without being bright to my knees. That lasted for 3 weeks and was hell. I still don’t know what happened to me.
This book addresses the “why,” but more important it’s very good for “how” to ease the pain and stop it from coming back. Someone gave it to me decades ago and it really helped me. I’ve been recommending it since.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that you can get really stiff and sore after a long car or plane ride, especially if you fall asleep during it. It’s a response to being immobilized. If you can move around, it can prevent the backache from happening. The same can occur if your bed is too soft and comfortable. It needs to be firm enough that you feel like changing positions every once in a while.
As Steven Wright once told:
“Did you sleep well?”
“No… I made a few mistakes.”
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