Horrible neck pain caused by sleep...but disappears when awake. Someone please help!

Ok guys, this is a tough one. For the past 2 months my mum (age 51 and very active) has woken up (after about 5 hours of sleep) with excrutiating neck pain. She's done x-rays and such and the results came back that she had osteoarthritis of some of the disks between the cervical spine.

So she's been seeing a physiotherapist who has prescribed exercises, as well as a chiropracter who told her to use a certain pillow. My mum has tried several pillows and patches and such, however she has still got a HUGE amount of neck pain that wakes her up after about 4-5 hours of sleep. But the weird thing is, when she's up and about doing exercise, cooking, grocery shopping etc. the pain goes away and she feels absolutely fine. So it's obvious that the pain manifests while she is sleeping.

I really need to get to the bottom of this...I've searched the net and on all the sites the problems seem to stem from the other way around (i.e. pain when awake, relieved when sleeping). Can anybody shed some light on what I can do to help my mum? It ***** seeing her like this.

Thank you so much guys, David.

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hey David!

Since the pain just occurs during sleep this is likely to be due to a postural abnormality over a primary degenerative process (osteoarthritis) or muscle spasms. This is probably that would need to be worked on as a hit and trial with her physiotherapist/ chiropractor in finding the posture that suits her the best during sleep and avoidance of postures that could aggravate the symptoms. She could begin with a firm mattress and avoiding using a pillow or specially designed head supports during sleep that limit neck movement during sleep; to ultra soft pillows that mould with the users posture. I would suggest taking to your physiotherapist/ chiropractor in detail about this. You could also talk to her doctor, if muscle relaxants would suit her to help with the symptoms
Hope this is helpful.

Take care!