Back pain can make simple tasks like getting in and out of bed challenging. Turning over, twisting, and transitioning to a sitting position can be painful first thing in the morning. This creates hesitancy and fear avoidance with movement and can be due to a couple of different reasons.
If you have ever heard that you are taller in the morning compared to any other time during the day, well it’s actually true. Our spine literally becomes longer. The discs in our spine do not receive blood flow like most other joints in our body. Instead, when we lie down at night, fluid around and in our discs increases and hydration is at its highest first thing in the morning. The increased nutrients to our discs is a good thing, but there is a negative side effect.
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Discussing sleep position with patients is an important component of care. The way someone sleeps is rarely the cause of someone’s problem, but it can be one of the many factors that don’t allow their body to recover like it should. If the goal is to provide fast, long lasting relief than all factors need to be considered and sleep position can be a big one. Here is a general rule:
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Although there are over 150 classifications of headaches, most of those classifications will fall under tension related headaches. While tension headaches have many causative factors, the symptoms present very similar. Symptoms of a tension headache will include pain around the head and/or neck and may have associated neck muscle tightness. The pain will often be described as a dull or achy pain that may get worse as the day goes on. A tension headache will respond very well to manual therapy, but here a few other things to consider on your own.
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