Waking Up With Neck Pain?

When you’re sleeping with pain in your neck, it deeply affects your sleep pattern and keeps you awake throughout the night. This eventually drains out all your energy and leads to more and more pain. You can try some painkillers but even they aren’t effective most of the time and you simply can’t take them every night. You can just make your night less painful by using some of these tips which will help you sleep peacefully.

Sleep Without a Pillow

Sleeping without a pillow can be really advantageous for people with neck and back pain but only in specific positions. But if you sleep on your stomach, sleeping without a pillow can cause more neck pain because your head is on the side and your neck also extends backward, hence making an awkward angle.

Sleeping on your back without a pillow keeps your head flat. It helps in reducing some of the stress on your neck and thereby avoiding pain through better alignment. Since there isn’t much research in this regard, it’s suggested that if you sleep without a pillow to avoid neck pain, you should first consult with your doctor to avoid any further problems.

Sleep on Your Back or Side

Before deciding what position to sleep in, consider the one that is best for the natural curve of your neck. If you're a back sleeper, you can always try a thin pillow which wouldn’t mess up the curve of your spine therefore easing the stress on your neck. When you sleep on your back with a thin pillow or without a pillow, your head is in a flat position and it saves you from an unnatural curve on your neck and spine.

You can also sleep in a side position to avoid neck pain but you’ll need a thick pillow for that in order to make sure that your neck and head are perfectly positioned between your shoulders. Side sleepers can choose the thickness of their pillow by examining themselves if they’re broad shouldered or not. Petite people usually require a thinner pillow.

Avoid Sleeping On Your Stomach

As stated by the University of Rochester Medical Center, one should avoid sleeping on their stomach because it puts your spine in a very awkward and unnatural position. This is so because most of the body weight is placed in the stomach area and so sleeping in that position puts all the pressure there. Which further leads to adding stress on your neck and your spine is unable to keep its natural posture.

In order to avoid such complications, you should sleep on your back with a thin pillow or on your side. You will witness better results and your pain will be out in no time.

Maintain Proper Posture At Work During the Day

One of the main reasons behind neck pain is the awkward neck position at workplaces. Workplaces require you to sit straight in your chair for 7-8 hours in front of the system. As is it hard for people to sit straight, they usually try to bend their back or their neck when they are tired. This leads to an unnatural position of the spine which causes pressure on the neck, therefore leading to severe neck pain.

While looking at your monitor screen make sure you gaze at the top third of the screen. If you want to gaze below, lower the screen. Do not bend your neck even slightly as it will cause pain. If you want to sleep peacefully without complaining about neck pain then maintain a proper posture at work during the day so that your neck and back are at ease.

Apply Heat or Ice

Out of all the tips suggested earlier, this one is the simplest and easiest to follow. But this remedy is only for minor and common neck pains. In order to ease out the pain, you can apply heat or ice on the area where you feel the most pain. For the first two to three days you must apply ice first and then later on apply some heat to it.

You can wrap ice cubes in a cloth and pat it on the painful area slightly. Repeat it 2-3 times during the day for 48-72 hours. After that apply some heat on it by taking a lukewarm shower, using a heating pad or hot compresses. But do keep in mind not to sleep with an ice bag or a heating pad otherwise it will cause injuries.

As you can observe there are many causes of neck pain. One should avoid them beforehand in order to save oneself from any complication and discomfort. To help in easing the pressure on your neck, you can follow these tips. These simple and easy to follow tips will help you sleep peacefully without any neck pain.