Is your sciatica keeping you up all night and you just need to sleep?
You're in luck, because I'm going to share with you the tips and tricks that I
share with my patients that will get you sleeping better TONIGHT. Stay tuned!
The first thing that we're going to start off with is finding the right
position to sleep, which is probably the most important thing. Just getting
comfortable, being able to pass out and taking the pressure off the back. So I'm
going to start with the worst sleeping positions, all the way to the best
sleeping positions. The worst would be sleeping on your stomach. This position
right here is absolutely terrible and I always tell my patients whatever you do
break this habit, it's no good. The reason why is because it pulls right here on
the low back (downwards). It's going to really mess with the curve of your back
causing irritation and inflammation, making the pain worse. Also, when you sleep on
your stomach your neck is twisted, so then not only
are you going to have low back issues but new issues of neck and upper back
pain. It's no good, whatever you do break this habit.
The next position that most people sleep in (including myself) is on the
side. I usually recommend that if you're a side sleeper to find a really
good pillow that will help support the neck. I like ones that keep the neck
completely straight (kind of like this right here). If you're kind of going up like
this, or it's sinking down, it's not offering the support you need and it's
not keeping the cervical spine in a neutral straight position. Take a look
at that and make sure that your pillow is giving you enough support. Next, what
you'll want to do is put a small pillow in between the knees (like this).
At that point, it's going to keep the back in a bit more of a neutral
position while you sleep. The best position that you're going to find
though is sleeping directly on your back. When you sleep directly on your back
you're going to want to place a pillow underneath your knees to keep them bent.
What this does is it takes the pull of hamstrings, the back
of legs right here, off the back. It keeps the spine in a nice
straight, neutral position and it just takes a lot of pressure off the back
arguably this is the best position that you can get in if you're having a lot of
back pain (just in general). So with these positions, experiment with them. Make sure
that you're eliminating sleeping on your stomach if you're a stomach sleeper and try
to move the pillows around to where you feel that it's taking pressure off the
back. Everybody's going to be a little bit different so you might have to
switch the pillows around a little bit find one that might raise it or lower
the legs a little bit to be able to find that spot that is just comfortable
enough to be able to catch some sleep.
If you do find that those positions
still do not agree with you, the next bet is to lie flat on the floor. There's a
lot of people that find really good relief sleeping directly on the floor.
Again, I would lay flat on your back. Put a pillow underneath your knees and see
if that helps out. Here's a really solid tip... if you feel like your mattress
is not giving enough support and that's one of the reasons why your back pain or
sciatica is increasing, try to put a piece of plywood in between the mattress
and the boxspring. It may aid and giving you more support so it's not sagging as
much, causing less issues while you sleep.
So here's another important tip that I
want to show with you and it's when you finally have to get up. It's very
important to keep the back straight and not to strain yourself further when you
are getting up in the morning. What you're going to want to do is, no matter
what position that you're in, go to the side that you plan on getting up and
then facing that side you're going to bend the knees just like this and then
drape them over the side of the bed. Let gravity take them and what you're going
to do next is then press up (just like this) keeping the back straight to the
point where you're now upright. It's going to make it a lot less likely that you're
going to strain the back and at that point it's easier to get up.
So let's compare to how most people get up in the morning, which is just kind of
hinging up like this. That right there puts a ton of pressure onto the low back.
If you have something like a disc herniation that is putting pressure onto
a nerve you just increased that and put more strain on the back, possibly
re-aggravating the injury. Don't do it!
If you are feeling really tight and need
to loosen up before of getting up to make it easier, here are some really easy
stretches that only take a minute that you might find gives you that extra
oomph to be able to get up in the morning. The first one we're going to
do, I call this the 'gold standard' of low back stretches, is knee to the
chest. So just like the name implies, bending them and bringing them up
towards the chest (just like that). I like to hold this one for about 10 to 15
seconds, kind of release it a little bit and do it upwards of five times.
It just gets it a lot more loose so you'll be more limber to be able to move.
The next one is just putting the feet flat, knees together and then taking it from
side to side. Try to keep the bottom as flat as possible while you do this.
I like to hold this one for about two to three seconds before going back up to
the middle and to the other side. Try to do them about ten times on each side.
They will make it a lot more loose so you're able to get up a lot easier in the morning.
Some other tips that you can do: definitely try the stretch before
going to bed, that way you won't wake up as much because your back is aching.
Being able to take that tension and pressure off the nerves before you go to
bed generally will help you, and you can do those ones that I just showed you earlier.
They work perfectly. Also, I would combine heat with those stretches
so do the stretches first and then combine heat afterwards, ten to fifteen
minutes over the spot that feels very tight in the low back is all you need.
Anything that mimics a hot shower is the route that you want to go. In fact, if you
want to take a warm bath or even a hot shower before going to bed that will
work too. The heat will reduce a lot of muscle tightness so you'll have a lot
less aches and pains and you'll have more flexibility in the back also.
Another note: most lower back injuries tend to resolve on
their own and are very short-lived. Usually, less than two weeks in duration.
If you feel that your sciatica pain is unrelenting, it's so severe that it's
causing disability... it's time to get it looked at. Pick up the phone call your
local chiropractor or doctor and get it looked at. When in doubt, always get it
checked out. So I really hope that this video helped you out and if it did
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We'd really like to be able to share with you
new videos in the future that could end up helping you out, especially with
sciatica pain relief. So if you have any comments or questions please leave them
in the section below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you for watching!