Shoulder pain sleeping at night is a common struggle for individuals. Routinely people prefer sleeping on the shoulder which happens to be the one hurting them. These folks will toss and turn for weeks on end just hoping for the pain to go away. Unfortunately, that rarely is the case. Until circumstances change, the issue is likely to remain.
What circumstances you ask?
The ones that are causing the shoulder pain in the first place. In addition to pain with sleeping at night, these folks often complain about pain with reaching and lifting during the day. These issues become more apparent when the item lifting increases in weight, or the arm is extended.
But what about the sleep issue?…The answer is coming soon. But 1st we must understand that day-time activity or inactivity can be directly related to shoulder pain sleeping at night.
It is common for the night time shoulder pain to last for quite a while as people wish their problem away. Often the 1st line of treatment attempted are NSAIDs. Then if the person seeks medical care they will often be offered an injection. This injection often takes the pain away…but for a short time only. That is because the ACUTAL CAUSE was never addressed. Finally, after many trips to a physician, a recommendation for physical therapy will be advised.
Why after so many months? Great question. It is finally once a person fully explores the problem that the solution will come to light. This solution involves addressing any muscle/joint stiffness and selectively addressing muscle strength or coordination. Along with this comes making small adjustments to daily activities that are provoking to the pain. Short-term modifications are necessary at times. One of these modifications is adjusting sleep position.
People have their preference for sleeping but at times modification is necessary. Sore shoulders do not like to be compressed and slept on. Thus, it will be necessary to adjust position to remove the offending pressure. The best advice is to try sleeping on the opposite shoulder and put a pillow under the painful shoulder. The pillow will open the joint space up a little providing better bloodflow and help to reduce the night-time pain.
Nighttime shoulder pain is extremely common and treatable. Best advice is to seek to solve the problem vs masking it. Not sure of the next best step? Click the following LINK for more information on you can once again sleep well without shoulder pain sleeping at night.