Lower back pain when sleeping

Quite often I see people in the clinic who can’t sleep on their backs or their stomachs without pain. When you know why this occurs you can set about fixing it quickly and easily.

It’s a very common problem and even more common is the advice people are given which does not fix the cause of the problem. You have probably heard that you should put a pillow under your knees if you want to sleep on your back soundly because it takes the pressure off your lower back. This may be correct but does not address the problem. A perfect example of this is a client who came in to see me last week for neck pain. She also happened to complain about foot pain as well. I noticed she has her feet bound into a pair of orthotic sandals so tightly that her feet were bulging around the straps. I asked her why she had done this and it was because if she walked bare foot or even in ‘normal’ shoes her feet were extremely painful. She told me it felt like she was walking on the bones of her feet. I asked her to take her shoes off and walk around for me. Her feet fell down and her arches no longer existed. I showed her how she could use her muscles to lift her arch back into place and then retain that whilst walking-and throw away those shoes. I asked her to start walking around the house bare foot and do some exercises to get her toes and feet moving again. She had not done any of this in years. When I saw her a week later she told me that for the first time she walked bare foot and without pain in many years. She also told me that it didn’t feel like she was walking on her bones anymore. I explained to her that now she was using her muscles to walk and retain her arch rather than letting the arch flatten and continually compressing the joints. The shoes she had did indeed give her some relief but continually worsened the problem. Her feet were getting weaker and weaker and also more painful. However, now she was addressing the cause of her problem and finally was going to fix it.

Likewise, if you have problems sleeping on your back or stomach there is a very good chance that it’s simply because your hip flexors are too tight. We tend to sit all day at our computers, driving to and from work or all day, then come home and sit on the couch in front of the TV. This continual sitting shortens our hip flexor muscles which then can cause us pain. When these are tight we can also have pain when standing for long periods (or even short periods of time). It is important therefore to keep these muscles lengthened especially if you are at a desk sitting all day. I do these stretches 5-6 times a day. All you need to do is start doing the lunge stretch. If you have pain sleeping make sure that you do it before you go to bed as well. Then your lower back will stop being pinched by your tight hip flexors and you will soon be sleeping pain free.

By the way, I don’t recommend you sleep on your stomach because it puts your neck in a poor position.

Here’s the correct way to do the lunge stretch:

The lunge stretch-the good, the bad and the ugly

The good…

• From a standing position place one foot back behind you in a comfortably wide stance. Make sure you keep the back foot facing forward, do not let it turn out. You may have to look at the back foot to check because it can feel like its straight when its not.
• Bend your front knee so that your front shin is vertical, this will put your weight through your ankle and protect your knee.
• Bend both knees a little and allow the back heel to come off the ground.
• Make sure your hips are facing forwards
• Ensure that your back is upright and not leaning forwards
• Your weight should be placed evenly between both feet
• You MUST tuck your backside underneath you by using your abdominals to lift your beltline up. ( a pelvic tilt)This decreases the arch in your lower back which will then give you a stretch through the front of your back thigh.
• Hold for 15 seconds and change sides
• Relax, breathe, smile and enjoy
• Do this several times per day to stretch out the front hip especially if you are sitting a lot ( who doesn’t these days)

…the bad and the ugly

• bending the front knee too much which stresses the front knee
• turning the back foot out
• arching the lower back
• leaning the body forwards over the front leg instead of being vertical
• allowing the front knee to fall inwards, keep your shin vertical
• forgetting to relax, breathe, smile and enjoy