Upper-mid Back Pain Only After Sleeping

[quiXilver]

For about 6 weeks I have been experiencing mid back pain when I wake up in the morning.  The pain is so bad, I cannot go back to sleep, and NO position change helps.  I must get out of bed and start walking around or sit in a chair for the pain to start going away.  After an hour or two, the pain basically disappears.  The pain seems to be emanating from my spine, and tensing up the back muscles nearest the spine.  

I have been seeing a chiropractor/massage therapist for about 4 weeks now, and it has not helped, because the pain is only after I sleep!

I am 23 years old. I help my dad deliver produce 2 times a week in the morning, and I am also a full time sales associate at Sears selling electronics (which I'm on my feet all day.)  That may cause a little lower back pain, but it goes away when I'm not working.

I have used a contour pillow, slept in all different kinds of positions (back and both sides), I always sleep with a full body pillow, and nothing has seemed to help.

I would appreciate any suggestions, thanks!

[wuppies]

I have had this pain for over 10 years - I found some solutions that I thought I would share.
There is a chiropractor in Fremantle, Western Australia that does spinal readjustment using a tennis ball. This worked for me, until I did something stressful to my back like falling or lifting something too heavy, or sitting at my PC with poor posture too long. I would visit them again - rest for a week and I would be fixed.
I am now blessed to have a 7 month old daughter that I pick up and carry repetitively through the day - now the therapy only works for a night or two and I am sore again.
Things that each still help me a little:
- using two tennis balls wrapped together and rolling them up and down my spine while leaning on a wall
- trying to sleep not curled up
- better posture through the day
- heat packs
- not lifting anything heavy or twisted
- walking regularly

Please keep posting your solutions, even if they help a little, they help a lot.

[JCK1964]

I have been dealing with nighttime back pain since 1998. I too have sought out and tried all forms  of relief, modalities and prescriptions with no success:
-chiropractic
-electro-nerve  testing/therapy
-lidocaine and cortisone injections
-facet injections
-massage therapy
-pain patches
-accupuncture
-sleep testing
-multiple x-rays and MRI's
-percoset, tramadol, neurontin, anti-depressants,
muscle relaxers. Anti-inflammatories, etc.etc.etc
-pain mgt specialists, PT, OT, rheumotologists
sleep specialists, etc.
I am now sitting in the office of what I believe to be my 4th or 5th neurologist over the years hoping to be told something new or different. I am not very  hopeful. I never sleep without pain. This is my first time posting and am both relieved to know I am not alone and  saddened to know so many people, even quite younger than I (46), are dealing with this pain and disturbed sleep. I will keep you all posted on any relief I may find. Best of luck to you all.

john
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[clash715]

I had problems with lower back pain after I would sleep for about 5 hours.  I would sleep about 5 hours without issues, then wake up with severe lower back pain.  The only way to eleviate this pain was to wake up and go about normal activities, or to elevate the top of my bed at a 40 degree angle or so.  By elevating my bed like this, I could sleep more than 5 hours without the pain.  It became a regular routine.  Every night, I would wake up after 5 hours and then elevate the top of my bed.

I had associated my pain with an exercise injury and lived with this pain nightly for over 3 years.  Then I remembered that at the same time as my work out "injury", I had also changed from a polyester to a down/feather PILLOW.

I then thought about the alignment of my spine when laying on my side and placing my head on the down pillow.  Since the down compresses down so far, I found that my neck was badly aligned with the rest of my body when I laid on my side (I am a side sleeper).  I even tested my theory by laying on my side without any pillow during the day, and after about 10 minutes, my lower back did begin to feel uncomfortable.  I had never associated my head and neck position with my lower back pain.

As a test, I got rid of the down pillow, and bought a quite puffy polyester pillow that supports my head at a much higher level than the down one.  The polyester doesn't smoosh down and give way like the down did.  After using this new, puffier pillow for about a week, the pain began to lessen.  It has now been about 7 months since i GOT RID OF THE FLATTENABLE DOWN PILLOW AND STARTED USING THE PUFFY-TYPE PILLOW, AND I HAVEN'T HAD THE LOWER BACK PAIN WAKE ME UP ANY MORE.  Now I can sleep without elevating my bed for a full 8 hours easy, and I don't wake up with lower back pain.

I thought my "fix" was going to cost a lot of money, but for me thank heavens, it was actually pretty cheap.  I just bought a new very supportive pillow for about $20 bucks, and it fixed the pain.  Please, for any of you having this issue, give it a try.  It's cheap, it's relatively quick to find out if it will help (about a week or so), and the pain just *****.  Remember, the brand of the pillow doesn't matter.  It just needs to support your head and not give too much.  When you lay your head on the pillow (while laying on your side), your head and neck should be aligned with the rest of your spine.  If when you lay on your side, your nose falls lower than the middle of your neck vertebrae, that means the pillow is giving way too much.  Get a pillow that is more supportive.  Good luck.  I hope this helps many people.  God bless.

[Sleepneeded]

I have the same issue. It is terrible. Have any of you noticed if you have this pain sleeping in other beds? Hotels?

Have your dr.'s looked at your back when it is hurting?

Mine is muscle tightness. Icy hot helps.

Sometimes if I sleep with small pillow under breast that helps. Do you sleep on stomache?
Do you have large breast?

I used to only have this when I slept late on weekends, now it's everyday.  

Does sleeping in bra help?

[diver0312]

My back pain solutions:

I have suffered terribly from both upper and lower back pain while sleeping. The following has worked for me, and I’m now pain free during sleep. There is a lot of discussion on this forum about what we can do while we are awake to stretch, strengthen and exercise our backs, but not a whole lot about what we do while we are asleep. In my opinion and in my experience, your body position while sleeping is more important than anything you can do while you are awake.

Upper Back Pain: Just like everyone else here, I had terrible upper back pain that would start 4-5 hours after sleep, and wouldn’t go away until I was upright. The fix for me was simple. I sleep on my side, and I used to sleep with both hands under my head. This position stretches out the upper back muscles in a bad way. The fix is to put your upper arm to your side, and move your lower arm below your neck. It took some getting used to, but solved the back problem immediately. If you assume both positions, you can feel how having your hands above your neck tightens & stretches the muscles between your shoulder blades, but having your top arm to your side and lowering your bottom arm relaxes these muscles.

Lower Back Pain: This fix was equally simple for me. I slept with a pillow between my legs, and thought that this was all I needed to do. However, I started paying attention to the position of my hips as I lay in bed, and realized that my hip was torqued. As you lay in bed, you need to pay attention to the position of your hips with respect to your spine. Your hips should be at a 90 degree angle to your spine, both left to right and front to back – the same as they would be if you were standing with good posture. I realized that I was both leaning my hips forward and also that the side of my hip that was on to was stretched further out than the side on bottom. I was double torqued. Paying close attention to this and making sure that my hips were straight before I fell asleep solved my lower back issues.

I hope this helps someone.

[diver0312]

Those of you who sit at a desk all day may want to look at getting a sit/stand setup for your workstation. For example, the Ergotron Workfit. Sitting is terrible for your back and these type workstations allow you to stand most of the time and sit when you are tired.