Hello everybody, Dr. Jodi Kinney, your chiropractor for shoulder pain in Belmar, NJ. Today I’m working a little bit more on teaching you proper posture in different positions where you may be throughout the course of your day.
Something like six to nine hours of your day is spent sleeping. So you really do wanna try to exhibit or have the best posture possible when you’re sleeping ’cause often people tell me, they wake in pain or they wake with back pain or neck pain and I’ll ask them, well, how are you sleeping?
And then when they tell me, I know that six to eight of their hours are spent in that position and that’s the reason why they have pain.
So, first things first when you sleep you either want to be sleeping on your side or on your back. I’m sorry belly sleepers, belly sleeping is one of the worst positions, you can put your body in for a long period of time. It puts a lot of stress on your lower back and it forces you to have to turn your neck hard one way or the other, which puts a lot of stress on the neck and into the shoulders.
Chiropractic Sleep Posture for Shoulder Pain in Belmar, NJ
So sleeping on your side or your back is the best. People always ask me, well, what’s the best pillow or what’s the best mattress that I can use? And I never think that there’s a one size fits all when it comes to pillows and mattresses.
Mattresses you wanna have something that’s firm, not hard, firm and not too soft (and that really is an individual thing). And I always say make sure you use a company that has a big warranty
like a six month warranty. Some companies now are offering a year warranty so you can sleep on that mattress for a while, many nights, to get the idea of how it’s gonna feel overall.
With regards to a pillow, you want a firm foam pillow. I don’t care if it’s memory foam. People like the cervical pillows. It’s again, an individual thing. It’s more important how you use the pillow.
When you’re sleeping on your side you want the pillow to be cradling your shoulder. You want your shoulder square and you wanna pull the pillow so it’s under your neck. So you never want the pillow to be forcing your head up or forcing your head down.
You want a nice 90 degree angle with the shoulder and you wanna pull the pillow so that it’s cradling your neck and I always say slightly elevate your head up. So you don’t wanna be sleeping with your chin pinned to your chest all night long that puts a lot of stress on the neck.
So pull your pillow and elevate your head slightly, so you’re in a neutral spine. Same thing on your back. I always try to tell patients and I do it myself, pull the pillow so it’s cradling your neck and you’re looking slightly up.
Shoulder Pain Sleep Relief | Chiropractic Belmar, NJ
Again, you don’t wanna be pinning your chin to your chest all night long. You wanna have a nice, like, curve to your neck when you’re sleeping. And this is gonna give you the most support in your neck and your shoulders when you’re sleeping at night.
So you won’t wake with neck pain, you won’t wake with headaches, you won’t wake with numbness and tingling down into your arms, keeping the best align spine when you’re sleeping is so important, ’cause again, it is a third of your day.
I hope that helps. I hope to see you guys real soon.
