♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
- Hi folks. I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet. - In our opinion,
of course Bob.
- Today we're gonna tell you how to sleep pain-free
with neck pain or, and
or a pinched nerve.
So if your neck,
you have neck pain
also you have pain going down your arm,
we're gonna show you how to sleep
with all these problems. - Right.
- So we'll go over the different scenarios
that you might run into. - Okay.
- So let's first talk about,
let's say, yeah you're having neck pain
and it's going down one
of your arms. - Okay.
- Let's say, it's going down my right arm.
We're gonna start by you're lying-
- So that pain going down the arm is likely
because you know, you have a pinched nerve
and it's a good chance to it's in your neck,
your lower neck, probably. - Yeah.
So the thing you wanna do if you're lying
on your back is you still wanna keep another pillow
right here and support that arm.
It's just going to feel a lot better.
It's gonna put less pressure
on the nerve as it comes
down the neck. - Yep, yep.
- It's gonna give it support.
Now, if you're on your side,
let's pretend now it's my left arm, Brad.
- Sure. We're gonna pretend.
- We're gonna pretend.
(Brad laughs)
We're on my side.
I actually want you to use two pillows to support it.
I want you to put one down here.
- Yep. - And then one under the arm
and supported by that pillow.
- Yeah. Otherwise this one kind of falls forward.
- Right. This is gonna go like that.
- Yeah.
- And I would highly recommend you do not lie
on the painful side.
- Yeah. - I mean,
'cause that's just gonna make it worse in the year.
You know, you won't be able to sleep if it's,
if it's hurting all night long, so.
- And also when you're on your side, aside from the arm,
you know, the pillow, you might want
to put two pillows
or fold this one
so your head stays neutral. - Exactly.
We'll get into that Brad. - Okay.
- We'll talk about that too. - We'll cover that
in a little bit.
- I would also highly recommend that you actually,
this has nothing to do with sleeping
but when you're sitting in a chair,
just take a pillow and support that painful arm.
- Yep. - If you're watching TV
or whatever, this makes a big difference.
- Yeah. - I've had many patients
that said that alone started calming
their arm pain down, so.
- It takes the stretch off
that nerve. - Right.
- It just doesn't take much.
- My- - Oh my goodness.
- Jumped out of my pocket.
- How did that fall? - Put it back in there.
- All right. Next one law about if you're a back sleeper.
So you sleep on your back. - Mhm.
- That's where Brad was starting
to allude to this fact.
If you're on your back,
you wanna actually use just one pillow
or a thin pillow.
Because if you have too many pillows,
you're going to be up like this.
And your neck's going to be bent in a poor position.
You want to be back like this
so that your ears actually lined up with your shoulders.
You're in good alignment all the way
along the spine. - Oh yeah.
- Okay. And also again, like you said
if you have arm pain, you support it that way.
If you're on your side
and you're...
Well, I'm sorry Brad.
I'm going to skip to heavier. - Oh yeah.
- The thing you want to try is maybe
a roll towel in the pillow. - Yep.
- So this will actually provide a gap.
Does this thing open? - Oh, yes.
- So I put the rolled towel here
and this is something you can try
and you can try different thicknesses
of the towel. - Mhm.
- And what this does, if you're lying on your back
is actually fills in that gap there
where the neck curves and it,
for some people, this is
this is comfortable.
They have trouble sleeping this way
unless they have some extra support there.
Now, if you find this helps out,
you might want to, you know,
go ahead and purchase one of the sleep rolls
like this.
This is a McKenzie roll.
It's not as dense as a towel.
- Typically more comfortable
for sleeping all night long. - Yes.
It's the same thing.
You slide in there. - Yeah.
- And you go ahead and use it.
- When you're experimenting with a towel,
it should feel comfortable right away.
- Yeah.
- If it doesn't,
if it feels like a bump there - Yeah.
and it's still uncomfortable, the towel is too big.
You need to unroll it and roll it up so it's...
Or use a different size towel so it's smaller.
- Yep. And it's again,
if it doesn't it feel good,
don't use it. - Right. Exactly.
- I mean, these are just suggestions to try
so that you can able to sleep better without pain.
- 'Cause everyone has different body shapes.
The neck pain is a little different depending
on where the nerve is pinched.
What level of vertebra.
So, you know, we can't tell you that you just have to work
with your body and you'll find out
'cause your body will say,
'Oh, that's the right place'.
- You got to do an experiment basically.
- Yep. - You got to,
you're the subject.
(both laugh)
- So, what about stomach sleeping Brad?
- Well, Bob, we've gone through this before
and typically and almost always,
don't sleep on your stomach.
It's gonna either create neck pain
or make the neck pain and arm pain worse
because your neck has turned one direction.
We call it end range, stresses the neck.
So just avoid that. - Yeah.
- There are people out there that sleep that way
all the time, they have for a long time.
And there's some people they can get away
with it and it's, that's okay.
But typically we're not going to.
Especially if you have
a bout of neck pain. - Yes, exactly.
Or the arm pain. - All right.
Let's say you're a side sleeper, Brad.
That where I was getting to before.
In that instance, because when you're sleeping on your side
you gotta fill in this gap here.
So your head's not like this or like this.
So a lot of times you got to use two pillows.
- And this will vary, you know.
If you're a thinner person
you won't need as much of a, you know,
you might need thinner pillows.
- Right, if you have smaller shoulders.
- Yep. Or if you're one real broad shouldered person
like Bob, he's has got those like a football player.
(Bob laughs)
No, seriously, if you've got broad shoulders.
You're going to need a bigger pillow.
- See, I always get by
with one pillow. (Brad laughs)
- Because I don't have broad shoulders.
But yeah, you don't want your head doing this.
- Yeah. - You want it straight
in the middle.
So I'm actually going to use two pillows here.
I actually have that towel
in here again. - Yep.
- So again, you might want to use it
to fill in the gap here.
And again, if you find this too thick
put a thinner towel in there.
And again, this is just a lot more comfortable by the way.
It's just- - Right.
- It's made out of foam.
It was made for this job. - Right.
- So- - That's why they call,
'The sleep roll'.
- That's right, exactly.
- The McKenzie Sleep Roll.
- All right.
And again, if your arm is hurting
you got to support your arm on pillows.
- Like we did- - lots of pillows.
- Yep. - All right.
If you're going to watch TV in bed,
I don't want you propping your head up
with multiple pillows. - Right.
- Like this, you know.
Let me put, I'll put one more on there, Brad.
By the way, we got to sleep evasion pillow here, Brad.
- Oh yeah. - It's got springs in it.
- Yep.
Oh yeah. Here we go. - Yeah.
- Gotta get propped up so you can see that screen.
- Didn't you do this one night
and you had a neck pain for a couple of days?
- Well, I was
on a couch actually. - On a couch.
- It wasn't- - It was like this, right?
- Yeah. And boy, did I had severe neck pain
for 2 1/2 days.
- Yeah, you paid the price. - Yep.
So what I, well I just quit watching TV that way.
But if you want to insist on doing that-
- You may want to go ahead and purchase a-
- A wedge.
- A neck wedge.
- A sleep, a sleep- - A bed wedge
is what they call it. - A sleep wedge.
- It's not a leg wedge, they're shaped differently.
So you're going to, you want to make sure it looks
like a triangle. Go ahead, Bob.
- This by the way are...
*Well, I have to show it for the back too
'cause it's just so nice for that.
- Oh sure.
- Oh no. This is the back one.
The other one is a nice back one.
- Right.
- But anyway, I go in and use a pillow with this.
- Yep. - Thin pillow.
- A thin pillow
and you can just comfortably, you still,
you have good posture,
but you're able to watch TV.
- Yeah. And you're keeping that neck more
in that neutral position versus that flexed forward-
- And you could do this on a couch too.
- Sure. - Yeah, I mean.
- Depends on the shape of your couch
and how- - Right.
- Some TV couches...
We don't have to babble about couches.
You saw. - Yeah but I'm just saying,
if you like to watch TV on your couch all night,
- Yeah. - Every night, it wouldn't be
the worst thing to do that. - Right.
- If you got night pain maybe just quit watching TV
for a while.
- I want to talk about a contoured pillow.
I, a lot of people like 'em.
You know, they're contoured to fit-
- Oh yeah. There's memory foam on-
There's memory foam. - Mhm.
- But they're very difficult
to pick one that fits you. - Yeah.
- My daughter went through this.
She found one, she really liked
but she went through a couple before
and you can't return them. - Yeah.
- It's like a toothbrush. - Yeah.
(both laugh)
- So hopefully a family member
or friend has one you could try.
- Right.
- And I don't know how the answer to that problem.
- Right, because of the shape of those fit
to that one, one or, you know- - One person, yeah.
- Size body. And if you're a thinner person
or larger person, that's not going
to fit everyone, you know.
- The other thing, I'm gonna mention this.
It's worked for some people.
You'd actually take the, it's a pillow,
pillowcase collars is what you're going to do.
So you're gonna take a pillowcase, fold it in half.
- Now we're going old school. - Fold it in half again.
And, I don't want to hit my mic.
- Don't worry about it, Bob.
(Bob laughs)
- So you're actually going
to tape it in place. - Yep.
- I don't like to use a pin because it-
- I suppose your (indistinct). - It pocks my neck.
- Yeah I got you. - But anyway,
it gives it just a little bit of support
and some people like it.
And actually they can sleep better with it on.
- Right. It's one of those, it doesn't cost you anything.
- Yeah right. - It's worth a try.
- I tell you. - It's amazing
'cause when I first saw this I was like,
'That ain't gonna work'.
It's not big enough. - Right, right.
- And you said you've had patients-
- I've had patients like that.
It's funny. I always use this for my vertical patients too.
- Oh sure. - Like all the time.
'Cause they don't have a collar and it's a reminder
for them not to- - It's one of those things,
the worst thing that can happen is nothing.
- Nothing, right. - There just isn't any factor.
- Exactly. So, that's it.
By the way, this pro video is part of a series
of videos on neck pain. - Mhm.
If you want to check it out,
go to bobandbrad.com.
Go to the program section,
find the one on neck pain. - Mhm.
- There's probably what?
20, 30 videos on neck pain?
- Yeah, we don't have 'em all counted
but you look at the titles of 'em.
Pick out the title that fits your problem.
Launch the video.
They're typically around 10 minutes long
and their big benefit is there's a PDF printout
with a summary of the video.
Print it out, has the exercises listed on there.
So you don't have to go back
and you know, review the video all the time.
And all this works very well, you go with this.
And as far as the cost is to you,
- [Both] Zero.
- We don't even ask for your email.
We're doing it
for you. - There's no obligation
on your part whatsoever.
You can just go in there.
We're doing this as a gift to you.
Brad and I are bent on the idea of trying to help
as many people as we can. - Right.
- And so hopefully this will be some help to you.
- There you go.
- Thanks for watching. - Enjoy.
(upbeat music)