11 May Do you wake up with neck pain and numbness?
If you find yourself waking up with neck pain and numbness, I have a few helpful tips for you.
First of all, evaluate your sleeping posture. If you prefer to sleep on your back, you need a pillow with the support (neck roll) under your neck. The bulk of the pillow should not be under your head. If your preference is to sleep on your side, you need a thicker pillow to keep your head in line with your neck. If you are sleeping on a feather pillow that flattens out during the night or a thin foam pillow, that isn’t going to work. You will spend a lot of the night with your head tilted towards the bed pinching off the nerves that exit your spine. That causes you to wake up with neck pain and numbness.
Secondly, I really like to read at night before I go to bed. It’s a nice little ritual that helps me wind down from my day and makes me tired. I found a pillow at Walmart here in Broken Arrow that is perfect for holding a kindle or a book. It even has a nice pocket if you wear reading glasses. It is shaped like a pyramid and has a little ridge around it the reader sits within. For those of you who like books, it also has a long tassel to keep your page. You can keep it on your lap, your table or take it to bed. It keeps the book at an angle so your head isn’t constantly looking down.
Thirdly, ask yourself why you have neck pain and headaches. Have you left a problem untreated for years only for your muscular imbalances to worsen? Do you spend endless hours on devices such as laptops, phones, and tablets? Do you have a career that restricts you to a desk and computer the majority of the day?
It’s important to ask yourself what shape you want your spine to be in 5 years from now. If the answer is better than it is right now, you need to change your device habits and also find a chiropractor so that you can correct the damage that years of looking forward and down have caused.