You Didn't "Sleep Wrong"

If you have ever woken up with a crick in the neck after a night’s sleep or a nap on the couch, you should read on because your sleep is getting tired of getting blamed for trying to give you the rest your body needs. A crick, or painful stiff feeling, is most commonly paired with the neck after a night’s sleep but pain can be felt in other places in the body as well. This is simply your body responding to being in a position it is not used to while you sleep. By now you might be asking, “If I didn’t sleep wrong, then what do I call it and why would the pain appear after I slept that time compared to any other time?”. Great question, let’s answer it.

Rather than saying “I slept wrong”, change the phrase to “I slept differently”. It’s not that you slept wrong, there was just something different about that sleep that wasn’t there the prior times you slept. Whatever might have been different about that sleep caused your body to be in the position it isn’t used to, this is a scenario where you can have pain without injury. Now that we know what to call it, let’s begin to discuss what might have been different.

When discussing what might have been different, simply think about external factors and internal factors which could affect your sleeping position. External factors include location, objects, and/or persons that physically affect your body while you sleep. For location, if you slept in a location other than the bed you normally sleep in, your body is going to be placed in different positions than what it’s normally in, which may lead to pain or stiffness the next morning. Falling asleep in the car on a long car ride where the seat belt ends up being the pillow is a great example of location affecting your body physically while you sleep. For objects, think about what surrounds your body as you sleep. Did you sleep with a different pillow? Did you sleep on a different mattress? Did you sleep with a different comforter? All of those are objects that can affect your position while you sleep. Last of the external factors is persons. An example of this would be the furry family member who climbs on the bed and forces you to sleep in an uncomfortable position throughout the night to avoid waking said furry family member. The position you are in to avoid waking the pet you love is different from what your body is used to and can create stiffness and/or pain when you wake up.

Say you have no external factors altered. You slept in the same location, same mattress, same pillow, everything is the same as the sleep you had before. This is where you might consider an internal factor. There is plenty of research that can be found about why we sleep, but to make it short and sweet, your body needs rest. It needs the “recharge” or “restoration”, so you may be prepared for what occurs when you wake up. With the exception of insomniac conditions, your body will begin to want to sleep more the longer you stay awake. This is the internal factor. In this scenario, your body (mainly brain) cares more about acquiring sleep than the position you put yourself into. In theory, rather than waking you up to move to a more comfortable position, your body (again, mainly brain) disregarded the position and continued to sleep. Now your body is spending more time in a position it is not used to, thus a “crickin the neck” is born.

This is a lot of information, however, this is only the tip of the iceberg in regards to waking up with pain because you slept differently. If you would like to know more, would like treatment for pain you woke up with, or would like to prevent pain, let us at Focus On Health help! Now go get a good night’s sleep!