We want to get out of bed in the morning feeling refreshed and recharged, but for a number of people, those first few steps out of bed are filled with discomfort. It’s not uncommon to have soreness, aches and pains as your body takes on the physical challenge of a new day, but that doesn’t mean that it’s something you just need to learn to accept. In today’s blog, we share some tips for managing and alleviating physical aches and pains in the morning.
What’s Causing Morning Aches?
A number of different factors could be contributing to your morning aches and general discomfort. For starters, the soft tissues in our body have just experienced an extended period of inactivity. When tissues are inactive and not being stressed, they’ll contract a little. When you wake in the morning and ask these tissues to begin handling stress again, these tissues must activate and elongate. This process can be a bit uncomfortable, especially if you have some mild soft tissue degeneration as a result of years of wear and tear on your body. However, you can also help your body make this transition from an inactive to an active state with less discomfort, and we’ll touch on that in a bit.
Other factors that could be contributing to morning stiffness, aches and pains include:
- Poor sleep quality affecting tissue health
- Sleeping on an unsupportive mattress
- Undertaking intense physical activity the day prior
- Being dehydrated
The good news is that many of the above factors can be controlled and modified, meaning you can certainly take steps to reduce the discomfort you feel when you step out of bed each morning.
Combating Morning Aches And Pains
Reducing or eliminating physical discomfort in the morning requires you to take some small steps before you go to bed and right away in the morning. We’ll take a look at what you can do the night before and as you wake up so that you can start your day with less pain.
- Before Bed – Before you hit the hay, take some steps to make it easier for your body to wake up feeling refreshed. Start by making the bedroom a cool and dark place free of distractions so that you can get uninterrupted sleep. Also make sure that your mattress is supportive and that you go to bed so that you can get at least seven hours of sleep each night.
It’s also helpful to drink some water before bed or to keep a glass of water on your bedside table. While you don’t want to drink so much water that you wake up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom, you want to make sure that your muscles and soft tissues are adequately hydrated so that they can maintain some elasticity. You can also help keep these tissues flexible by performing a couple minutes of stretching throughout the day and before bed. Stretching helps your muscles stay flexible, and oftentimes it is morning stiffness that is causing your discomfort. Stretching routines before bed or stretching-related exercises like yoga during the day can help your soft tissues stay loose and flexible, in turn decreasing aches and pains upon waking.
- As You Wake – Before you get out of bed and attack the day, sit up slowly and take a couple of minutes to stretch your body. Oftentimes morning aches are the result of jumping out of bed and immediately putting the weight of our body on our stiff soft tissues. Help your body ease into the stress that’s to come. Sit on the edge of your bed and do some gentle stretches so that your muscles can more gradually transition from an inactive to an active state, which should help to minimize morning discomfort.
And finally, although we noted that intense activity the day prior could contribute to aches and pains in the morning, know that we do not want you to shy away from activity. This type of morning discomfort is simply the result of your body rising to a new physical challenge and becoming stronger, and it tends to fade rather quickly as you get moving. We know that it may be a bit uncomfortable, but if you try to avoid this discomfort by avoiding physical activity during the day, your joints and your soft tissues will become weaker and less stable. This will only serve to make your first movements in the morning more uncomfortable, so make it a point to physically challenge your body during the day so that it remains strong and capable of handling the stress you put on it.
If you believe that an underlying injury is contributing to your morning pain, you may need to take your care one step further and connect with a physical therapist or similar professional. We can figure out what’s causing your morning aches and set you up with a recovery program that helps you feel stronger each and every morning. For more information, or for help with a different physical issue, reach out to the team at OrthoRehab Specialists today at (613) 339-2041.
PT of Costa Rican National Soccer Team for 2007 World Cup in Victoria, CAN. Clinical Instructor for University of Minnesota Doctor of Physical Therapy Affiliations
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