26 Aug So You Got Injured In Your Sleep, Now What?
So you got injured in your sleep, now what?
The running joke at MYo Lab has been that that we’re going to start specializing in ‘sleep injuries’, solely based on the number of members who have come in stating “I don’t know what happened, I just woke up like this.”
Well, it’s unlikely that sleep is the actual cause of your pain, so what is?
There’s a good chance it boils down to one of a few things: posture, prior injuries, or peculiar movements.
Posture
Stillness is what is uncomfortable for most people. But then we lay in bed, frequently in one position for 6-10 hours. No wonder we wake up feeling sore. On top of that, we sometimes sleep in awkward postures, which can lead to our morning aches and pains. So what do you do? Well, the fact is that when you’re sleeping, you’re unconscious (groundbreaking, I know). Which means you don’t have much control over your posture. You can do a few things to minimize the chance of an awkward posture though. This is why we often recommend sleeping with a pillow between your knees (side sleeper) or under your knees (back sleeper). Or without a pillow entirely if you’re a front sleeper. You can also use pillows around your head to lessen the likelihood that you sleep with your head at an awkward angle. Be warned though, if you toss and turn in your sleep, these pillows have a 99.9% chance of ending up on the floor or in your partner’s face.
Prior Injuries
If you already have a shoulder injury that gets worse with direct pressure on the shoulder itself, guess what – sleeping on your side is going to leave you in a world of hurt the next morning. On top of that, sometimes trigger points in muscles can be aggravated by immobility. So you go to bed feeling fine, and wake up sore. The other thing to consider when you wake up hurting is what you did the day before. Maybe you actually did injure yourself when gardening, or shovelling snow, or whatever it was you were doing, but you didn’t notice at the time because the muscles were warm and compensating for the injury. Then overnight, the muscles cool, and spasm, and then PRESTO! Sleep injury. Take care of your prior injuries with treatment and proper rehab exercises so that they don’t continue to crop up overnight.
Peculiar Movements
Okay, so sometimes, we’re in pain, and maybe we’re even already seeking treatment for it (go you!). But we also know that maybe twisting is a painful movement, so during the day, we’re aware and we’re doing our diaphragmatic breathing and we’re moving intentionally so that we don’t re-aggravate our pain. But then we go to bed. And in the middle of the night, we decide we want to switch sides. And our unconscious body just goes for it. And every muscle that we’re trying not let spasm spasms. Not enough to wake us up in the moment, but just enough so that when we wake up, we hurt. Or maybe that’s not what happened. Maybe we were good overnight and didn’t move too much. But then we wake up feeling awesome and we jump out of bed and SPASM. What then? Well, since you were already being treated, you probably have some exercises that you were shown as a way of helping your back or neck or shoulder. This would be a great time to do those. Oh, you don’t remember them? Send your Practitioner an email, we keep track of what we assign you, and will be happy to remind you.
As silly as it sounds to call these things sleep injuries, we at MYo Lab know that sometimes, you don’t have an explanation for why you hurt. Don’t let that stop you from taking the next step to take care of yourself. We want to help you lead the life you want to live, and if that includes not waking up in pain, book your next appointment online and feel free to tell us about your sleep injury!
We are always accepting new members who are ready to commit to their health and wellness journey. If you are ready to experience the MYo difference, book now so one of our team members can welcome you to the MYo Lab community!