Chronic Pain Before Bed

Let’s imagine you’re getting ready for bed.

You’re putting the kids down. You’re taking the dog out one last time. You’re putting on your pajamas.

Finally, you’re about to get into bed… then it happens.

Shooting pain all throughout your back and neck.

You lay down and that tingling feeling is still there. At this point, sleep is impossible. Now that all of the distractions from the day are gone, it’s a lot easier to focus on your pain. Your entire thoughts are about your pain. Perhaps, you even feel a rush of stress, fear, and anxiety. You lay there paralyzed by fear and pain.

You’ve probably spent a lot of nights tossing and turning trying to find a comfortable position and trying to control your thoughts. It sometimes takes you an hour or more just to get comfortable without the pain so you can sleep.

Why is this happening and how do you fix this?

If this story is familiar, then you are experiencing and are a victim of Chronic Pain.

Read below to learn more.

What is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is simply a term for describing the different levels of pain that can affect you.

Chronic pain is also the process in which pain takes over multiple levels of your body, mind, and soul.

An injury or traumatic stress on your body can develop over time into chronic pain.

Consider the picture below as a great example:

As show above, pain starting with the outside of your body from an injury, if left untreated, over time your pain will slowly start to impact your behaviors, followed by your emotions, then your thoughts, and even the tissue in your body.

You may only feel pain in your body the first day, but a week later you may be experiencing the effects of that pain throughout your mind and emotions if left untreated.

Eventually your brain and your body will become traumatized so much that you can’t help but expect pain everywhere. Because of this constant pain, your body will train itself to protect itself from the suffering.

For example, if you’ve had an injury in your foot, your body may have an instinct to flinch or only bend so far because of the fear of injury. This is caused by the emotional responses of fear and anxiety from the injury that has carried into the brain. Your body will focus on the pain as a survival instinct to try to get rid of it.

The bottom line: chronic pain only accelerates over time if left untreated and can impact your entire lifestyle.

How does Chronic Pain start?

Chronic pain does not always happen as a result of injury. Sometimes, it’s a result of repeated behavior or posture that is not healthy.

Examples of this might be excessive sitting throughout the day, looking down at your phone for long periods of time (text neck) or not sitting up straight.

In the cases of injury, if your body is hurt and hasn’t been treated, you will slowly start to develop deeper levels of pain.

How do you address or reduce Chronic pain?

Simply put: You should seek out the advice of a medical professional.

Medication, meditation, and stretches are not always the right way to help you heal. Chronic pain must be addressed by a medical professional to help assess the full extent of your injury or pain so they can help you heal properly. In some cases, Chronic pain involves multiple levels of therapy and medical treatment.

Chronic pain must be taken seriously and you must see a doctor. Why? Because you may not realize how deeply your pain coping has involved other areas of your body. If your injury or pain is not treated holistically, your pain could continue to get worse and lead to bigger issues.

In the case of a back or neck injury, a good chiropractor will assess how deep the pain has gone and what other parts of the body the pain has affected over time.

Tips for reducing Chronic Pain:

• Seeing a chiropractor or medical professional
• Applying heat or ice therapy
• Deep breathing
• Visualization or relaxing your mind
• Massage therapy
• Acupuncture
• Adjustments

Treatment for Chronic Pain in the Neck, Back, or Hips

Chronic pain is the most common in the neck, back and hips because they are the most used parts of the human body. Bending, twisting, sitting, and other activities can cause your body to become unbalanced over time.

By seeing a Tulsa chiropractor such as Dr. Curtis Smith, you will get the treatment you need to heal properly.

Dr. Smith has been treating patients in Tulsa for over 30 years and has helped 1000s get the healing they need from chronic back pain and chronic neck pain. If you need help, contact us below to schedule an appointment!