If you suffer from chronic neck pain, there are a number of things you can do to reduce pain levels without reaching for a bottle of medication. We’re going to look at three tips for better sleep despite neck pain and then consider a natural alternative to pain medication.

3 Ways to Get Better Sleep with Neck Pain

If neck pain is keeping you awake, here are a few things that might provide some fast relief.

1. Stretch Before Going to Bed – Neck pain is often a posture problem. For example, if you sit at a desk all day for work, being hunched over the desk to type, looking down at a monitor that is too low, or holding a phone between your ear and shoulder can all be contributing factors to neck pain. A few neck stretches before bed may be able to help work some of those strains out.
2. Don’t Use Your Phone in Bed – First of all, your phone itself may keep you up. Second, craning your neck to get a better angle to view the screen is putting a ton of extra strain on the soft tissue of the neck. If you decide to use your phone before bed, try to hold it up at eye level, and don’t use it for very long or it may interrupt your body’s natural sleep process.
3. Use the Right Pillow – Using the right pillow depends on your sleep position. If you sleep on your back (the best position for your neck), you will need a thinner pillow. Examine the curve of your neck while laying down. Perhaps your spouse or partner can take a photo for you so you can see your neck curve. This will help you gauge the size pillow you need. Side sleepers will need a thicker pillow depending on how wide your shoulders are. Sleeping on your stomach is rough on the neck. Since you have to turn your head to the side to breath, it’s basically like you’re looking over your shoulder for 8 hours.

Natural Neck Pain Relief

If you’re still struggling to sleep and dealing with neck pain, you probably need more intervention than just following a list of tips from the Internet. An upper cervical chiropractor can examine the top two bones in your neck and provide a gentle adjustment if necessary. Keeping these bones in line is a vital part of giving the body a chance to heal from soft tissue damage. Contact an upper cervical chiropractor near you to learn more.

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