Nighttime neck pain is certainly a topic which can haunt patients who experience severe symptoms when trying to relax and sleep. Patients may have pain at night due to a wide range of possible reasons. Some patients have pain after a long days work and suffer muscular exhaustion leading to increased symptomatic expressions. Other patients have pain when reclining for bed due to positional concerns relating to a structural issue in the cervical spine. Still other patients may have pain enacted by emotional processes which kick in when they arrive home from work or have to deal with charged psychological issues which take place in the evening hours.
There is no universal explanation for neck pain at night, but this article will help explore any of the possible causes and contributors, as well as suggest some potentially effective treatment options.
Nighttime Neck Pain Scenarios
Neck pain which only occurs at night typically will fall into one of the following possible descriptions:
Some patients will experience pain due to sitting in a specific position or chair/couch after work. Many times, this is overlooked as a potential cause, since some people simply blame the pain on the effects of a long day. To remedy this situation, the obvious treatment would be to vary position or seating options until the patient finds relief.
Many patients definitely suffer muscular stiffness and pain due to hard manual labor during the day which peaks at night when the body is depleted of energy. There are many topical products which may help provide relief and talking to your doctor may help to find a cure, or at least some substantial respite from muscular neck pain.
Pain which occurs when lying down to sleep is complicated. Some cases may be due to purely bodily issues involving the positioning of the head and neck or pressure on one side of the neck or the other. In these cases, experimenting with different neck pain pillows might prove worthwhile. In other patients, changing sleep position may be an easy fix.
However, many causes of sleep-related pain, and particularly pain which wakes a patient while sleeping, may be indicative of a psychoemotional component in the causative mechanism. In these cases, knowledge therapy is recommended as a potential treatment option. Patients with known emotional and psychosomatic pain syndromes must be aware of situations which trigger the symptoms to begin. If you are fine all day at work, but suffer a recurrence of nightly pain, there is obviously something at home responsible for the symptoms. Discuss the possibilities with your therapist or use journaling and the various knowledge therapy books to get to the bottom of the causative emotions and the pain should resolve.
Nighttime Pain Ordeal
Not being able to rest or sleep due to neck pain is a real problem. The symptoms are draining, physically and mentally, and no one needs their relaxation time more than patients affected by chronic pain.
If the cause is structural, always get your doctor or physical therapist involved in the battle plan and work together to investigate why the symptoms are taking place and how to end them once and for all. The more input you have, the faster this process can often be accomplished.
For pain syndromes not definitively proven to be structural, never discount the possibility for an emotional cause or contributor. Feeling tight emotionally translates to actual tightness and pain in the body. This is proven fact. Consider reading the many fine literary works of Dr. John Sarno to address these issues and remember that psychogenic concerns are universal in humans. This type of syndrome does not mean you are crazy or making up the pain. Alternately, you can also read my own peer-acclaimed book on ending back and neck pain forever.
Nighttime Neck Pain Analysis
Nighttime is a period of rest and solace after a long and often trying day. It is crucial that patients can get the sleep they need in order to be healthy and recover from whatever structural issues may be responsible for their pain. Luckily, most anatomical neck pain causes can be successfully addressed, although the process may take time and effort from you and your doctors.
Psychological nighttime neck pain syndromes are more complicated, since physicians generally do not recognize them for what they truly are and often theorize that some coincidental structural issue may be responsible. This helps to provide an explanation for why so many treatments for minor cervical abnormalities fail. In cases of known or suspected emotional sourcing of pain, you will have to go the alternative route in order to find a cure. Read more about tension myositis syndrome and after diligent research, you can decide if the theories presented make sense in your particular circumstance.
Neck Pain > Neck Ache > Nighttime Neck Pain
