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Upper-mid Back Pain Only After Sleeping

For about 6 weeks I have been experiencing mid back pain when I wake up in the morning.  The pain is so bad, I cannot go back to sleep, and NO position change helps.  I must get out of bed and start walking around or sit in a chair for the pain to start going away.  After an hour or two, the pain basically disappears.  The pain seems to be emanating from my spine, and tensing up the back muscles nearest the spine.  

I have been seeing a chiropractor/massage therapist for about 4 weeks now, and it has not helped, because the pain is only after I sleep!

I am 23 years old. I help my dad deliver produce 2 times a week in the morning, and I am also a full time sales associate at Sears selling electronics (which I'm on my feet all day.)  That may cause a little lower back pain, but it goes away when I'm not working.

I have used a contour pillow, slept in all different kinds of positions (back and both sides), I always sleep with a full body pillow, and nothing has seemed to help.

I would appreciate any suggestions, thanks!
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Avatar universal
Like many others here, my search for answers led me to this forum.  About 2 weeks ago I read through the whole thread, which was very helpful. I'm happy to report that I am doing much better, so I will add my experience here so it can hopefully help someone else!

History in a nutshell:
- I'm 30 years old and in good shape. I exercise 5-6x days a week, am of normal weight, and don't smoke.
- Pain started gradually about 3 months ago. Woke up with dull pain after sleeping in late, which progressed to more pain after only 7-8 hours and then excrutiating pain after 5-6 (about 1 month ago now).  Figured it was time to replace the mattress.
- For the past 6 months, I have been seeing an ART chiropractor for a recurrent shoulder injury.  I have spent a great deal of time working on my posture and have been doing lots of physical therapy exercises for my injury.  When I told her that I was starting to have more noticeable morning back pain, she agreed that it might be time for a new mattress.
- Well we bought a nice expensive new mattress, and I quickly learned that the mattress was not the issue. Something else was going on.
- I then consulted Google, which lead me here.  

What I've been doing:
- After reading this ENTIRE thread, I decided that I would first go the stretching route.  While I am in good shape, I also sit at a desk all day at work.  I also realized that since I had been so preoccupied with my shoulder injury, I had basically ceased doing a lot of the lower-body exercises that I had typically done before.  
1. For the past 4 days, I have spend at least ONE HOUR each day doing psoas/hip flexor stretching, tennis ball massage on my back and glutes, and a rolling pin on my IT bands and quads.
2. I've placed a small flat pillow underneath my bum/thigh area while sleeping.
3. I bought a microwaveable moist heating pad, and I've been keeping it heated and tied around my back for 1-2 hours before bedtime (this is when I do most of my stretching).  I heat it up one last time before bed and have been falling asleep with it on.
- These three things have brought me back to 90% after just a few days.  Lower body stretching has been the absolute key for me here!  I think rolling my IT bands a few times got rid of half of the pain alone.  They were so TIGHT and I didn't even realize it.
- My chiro gets back from vacation next week…..and now I think I can finally tell her what is causing the pain!

Lessons learned:
- Remember, your leg bone is connected to your hip bone, and your hip bone is connected to your back bone.
- Back pain can be a symptom of a problem elsewhere in the body! Check your PSOAS!!
- Desk workers beware: prolonged sitting is a hazard! Even if you have a nice chair and are comfortable during the day, it still may lead to other not-so-apparent discomforts.
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
About 6 years ago my wife and I replaced our mattress. With the new mattress, I woke up with a sharp pain in my upper back. My immediate reaction was that the mattress was wrong for me. I replaced the mattress and now 4 years later I am on mattress #17. This includes latex, Beauty Rest Black, Tempurpedic, Sleep Number, Sterns and Foster, and Purple.  About 10 pillows as well. It was not the mattress.
The problem was clearly getting worse. While sleeping I woke up after about 5.5 hours with back pain. The sleeping position makes a difference however it simply comes on about 2 hours sooner if I sleep on my side vs sleeping on my back. The pain gradually went away as the day went on.
My quality of sleep was getting very poor and it was affecting me very adversely in almost every aspect of my life.
I saw two different neuro surgeons. I had an MRI done on my neck (There was also pain in my neck) however the insurance company (Cigna) initially denied the authorization for an MRI on my upper back. The MRI on my neck found two herniated disks. This pain went mostly away when I went to a different mattress. Later Cigna authorized the MRI on my upper back. The findings were negative.  I could live with the neck pain which has almost always been present. The back pain was becoming unbearable.  One of the surgeons stated to me that there was nothing wrong with my back and even if there was that nothing could be done about it. He also told me it was posture and that I needed to get comfortable when I slept. That wasn’t helpful at all.  I was very confident that there was something wrong with my back. I received very little help from medical professionals and I knew that if there was help to be had I would have to find it myself. The doctors simply couldn’t unlock the cause.  
Internet searches found several forums with people complaining about the same condition. Not one single explanation as to the cause. Over about 5 to 6 years I picked up clues. Now just because I figured out this condition in my back does not mean that the same thing is causing your pain. I AM NOT A DOCTOR.
What is the trigger? In me it is the twist of the spine and not the alignment. Let me explain as best as I can without being a medical professional. If I’m lying on my right side, in a perfect world my face, shoulders, and hips would be pointed at approximately 9 o’clock. But in this imperfect world we live in they are not. On a soft mattress my hips roll back to perhaps around 10 – 11 o’clock and my shoulders roll forward to approximately 7 – 8 o’clock. My back is twisted. That is the source of the cramp. My wife could clearly see the twist once I realized what to tell her to look for.
Once I realized it was a twist of my back and not the alignment, I was sleeping well in about 2 days. I realized what I needed to feel for when trying out a mattress. I needed to feel my hips roll forward and my shoulders roll back. This happens on a very narrow band of mattresses. The first of which I will mention is the Posturepedic series. They have a hard spot in the middle that holds your hips up. This causes my hips to roll forward. The next is really not a mattress but a type of mattress. The continuous coil seems to provide the support necessary for my hips to roll forward. I am pain free on a $400 firm mattress from Sam’s Club with a very soft mattress pad on it. The third is the Firm Purple mattress.
The only medical professional that helped me was an Airrosti Physical Therapy Provider. To my knowledge he is the only person to ever successfully treat this condition. He was instrumental in helping me to realize the cause of my back pain. He is essentially prohibited to discuss specifically what he did to loosen up my back. If you type Airrosti Physical Therapy into a search engine you will find providers.
I am very sorry you are going through this. The likelihood that a mattress salesman is going to be able to help you with this is pretty slim. I hope in the future they become educated on this matter and learn to help people with this problem because at its peak I was literally dropping things as my right arm went numb. I was virtually asleep all day. For now, I am way better and I know how to buy a mattress.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Thank you for all of your information.  I do hope you come back and help our members as you know a lot about this subject.  We are glad you are doing better now.  
Avatar universal
I would get checked for ankylosing spondylitis. I am very active and had night time back pain on and off for several years. Just got diagnosed with AS and am very happy to finally know what is wrong with me.
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Avatar universal
sleep with keeping pilllow below legs (knees) it will be help full & try to do excercise  it will help to mobility of back.
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Avatar universal
I have the same problem since 2 months ago, exactly like what you all experienced.

Extremely painful back after waking up, and sometimes woke by the pain itself. Even hurt to breath. It gets better and disappear throughout the day.

I am so glad that i found this page & i am so thankful of your sharing.

I have tried the lumbar extension exercise yesterday night, without putting much hope. Surprisingly, i woke up without pain this morning!

I made a few assumption for this pain:
1) poor posture - i am working infront of computer at least 8 hours a day. Also, i din't care much about my sleeping posture.

2) stress level - i found the more stress i have, the worse the pain. I had the pain few years ago and some how it went away, recently i am very stressful and i doubt that triggered my back pain

I also found some way to ease the pain before i found this page.

-total relax on bed before falling asleep. Listen to soothing music and try to progressively relax the muscle throughout the whole body. I woke up with less pain using this method.

- Hot shower in the morning helps to relieve the pain faster.

- sleep on pile up blanket instead of pillow. (or a slope pillow)  , something like 20-30 degree angle with respect to bed. I found the normal pillow (90 degree wrt bed) is making the spine/muscle stressful.

i hope my message here somehow helps someone in need. Like what i gained from the others here. I am very thankful to all of you. Stay healthy and happy !
Helpful - 0
11050613 tn?1415815789
I would advise you to see a doctor to get the right diagnosis.
Helpful - 0
18586399 tn?1466053347
I felt back pain at the time of my pregnancy. During pregnancy we need to take special care while sleeping, so it is recommended to use pregnancy pillow. So, it provides me relief.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
I maybe have a solution to the problem that could work for some of you. First of all, I am not any kind of medical expert, but when I have some health problem, I'm trying to find what could be the cause of the pain and, believe it or not, internet helped me many times. Doctors not so much.
A few years ago I started to woke up in the morning with extreme pain and stiffness in the lower back. It lasted for a 2 or 3 years.
It felt awful, like some kind of rod was sticked through my back when I woke up. It was hard even to get up from the bed and I needed sometimes even an hour to become completely mobile and for the pain to go away.
I had better and worse nights. I was walking every day for many hours hoping it will go away. It did help, but not so much.
When it started to become really very painful every morning I knew I must find some solution or I'll become disabled.
So, after my research on internet I realized that most probably I have an inflammation in my back. I don't remember exactly the exact words from the article I found, but when we sleep, simply because we don't move, bodily fluids starts to go away from inflamed tissue and that's why it hurts like hell after sleeping. After we get up and start to walk, bodily fluids returns to tissue, so after a while we feel normal again.

I found a natural cure that worked for me. At first I wasn't sure will it work, but it did and even I couldn't believe it.
I read a lot about turmeric (curcumin) and it's a spice that fights cancer and curcumin is also the strongest natural anti-inflammatory substance. Unlike pharmaceutical drugs there are no any known side-effects and it can actually cure permanently such conditions.
This are ingredients I put in a little dish:
1. half of teaspoon of turmeric powder
2. 1/4 or 1/5 (smaller amount) of black pepper
3. small amount of olive oil only to cover turmeric and pepper.

I mixed it then with a spoon.
I was dipping bread into it and that's how I ate it. I took it twice a day - in the morning and in the evening.
Why black pepper? Because turmeric is not easily absorbed into body, so black pepper helps your body to absorb it and it helps a lot. Those are all scientifically proven facts and you can find on internet many researches that proves it.
Olive oil was only there so I can simply have a solution from which I can easily eat it. Olive oil is also healthy.

After only one week I started to notice that my pain started to change... it went for a while only to one side of the lower back and even if it was strong it wasn't severe anymore like it used to be. Pain felt like it's much more local than before.
After only 2 weeks of taking turmeric I woke up one morning without any pain and I couldn't believe it. I knew that it was gone and I couldn't describe how happy I was.
Weeks and months after that there were nights when the pain returned but it was nowhere near to the severity of the pain I've had before taking turmeric. After some time I stopped taking turmeric and the pain didn't return anymore.

All that happened some 2 years ago.
This week, similar things started to appear to me during sleeping, but in the middle part of the back and I never had that before. Once again, I'm starting to take turmeric with black pepper, so we will see in a week or two.

I'm writing all this, because I know how awful and how painful it is, so I would be really happy if this post will be helpful to some of you and even cure you.
It's really not expensive to buy those ingredients and you should try it. Take it for a few months if it is needed. Do not exaggerate with doses. It's not dangerous at all, but too big amount could be dangerous just like everything else.
Pregnant women should be more careful while taking it, because, in theory, great amounts of turmeric would not be good for you, so always be careful.
But don't forget, it's not a drug... it's only a spice... a food.
Good luck!
Avatar universal
TRY THIS SIMPLE SOLUTION. IT WORKED FOR ME....
I am writing this in June 2016. I remember reading through these pages in sheer panic back in 2010 when I began to have the same problems described by most people posting here. I solved my problem with a very simple solution. I feel guilty and selfish about not having bothered to post back. But better late than never.
So here is the simple solution that worked for me. It was recommended to me by my yoga-instructor who did the diagnosis and recommendation simply over an email. START SLEEPING WITHOUT A PILLOW. After about 4 days I no longer woke up after a few hours of sleeping flat. The lingering pain in the upper back took 6-12 months to complete go away. But by the end of 2011 my problem was history. The yoga instructor who gave me the simple solution said it was simply because of bad slouching posture when working at a computer, which I do. For the past 7 years I have been using a standing desk. I try hard to not slouch and I don't read heavy books while holding them in my hands and standing. Try this and let me know how it turns out.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I am so grateful for this forum. Out of nowhere, 5 nights ago I started experiencing many of the same symptoms listed above: horrible mid/upper back pain, can't roll over, can barely move, can't take a full breath (a very panic-inducing feeling). And like many of the people here, after less than an hour of getting up and walking around, I would feel fine. The first 2 mornings of pain were more like aches so I attributed to possibly sleeping in a bad position (not true). The 3rd and 4th mornings I was awakened at 4am-5am to debilitating pain, so I changed beds. Did not help!

Yesterday I came across this forum and right away I did a few rounds of cobra stretches on the floor (lumbar extensions). Also, I tried out sleeping on my back with a pillow under my knees. Note that I am a life-long side sleeper, so this is very different for me. I did also take 1 ibuprofen because I was still feeling a little achey from the night before.

This morning I was able to sleep until the alarm went off, 95% pain free! I will keep doing these things and may also look into adding vitamin D supplements – my last checkup indicated I was on the low end. Hope these notes help someone else, and thanks again for all the info thus far!

About me: female, 40s, normal weight, moderately active, no health issues
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I am so grateful for this forum. Out of nowhere, 5 nights ago I started experiencing many of the same symptoms listed above: horrible mid/upper back pain, can't roll over, can barely move, can't take a full breath (a very panic-inducing feeling). And like many of the people here, after less than an hour of getting up and walking around, I would feel fine. The first 2 mornings of pain were more like aches so I attributed to possibly sleeping in a bad position (not true). The 3rd and 4th mornings I was awakened at 4am-5am to debilitating pain, so I changed beds. Did not help!

Yesterday I came across this forum and right away I did a few rounds of cobra stretches on the floor (lumbar extensions). Also, I tried out sleeping on my back with a pillow under my knees. Note that I am a life-long side sleeper, so this is very different for me. I did also take 1 ibuprofen because I was still feeling a little achey from the night before.

This morning I was able to sleep until the alarm went off, 95% pain free! I will keep doing these things and may also look into adding vitamin D supplements – my last checkup indicated I was on the low end. Hope these notes help someone else, and thanks again for all the info thus far!

About me: female, 40s, normal weight, moderately active, no health issues
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hello everybody. I researched this same topic probably two years ago now, as I was having the same pain in my mid back every morning before I got up. Would wake me up and persist no matter which position I tried. Then I would get up and walk around and it would be gone. So either here or somewhere else I read that somebody else had tried doing flexibility exercises on an swiss ball. So I started doing backwards stretches over a swiss ball at the gym, three times a week after my free weight workouts. The result: a few weeks later the pain was completely gone and never returned (I work out three times a week religiously and likewise did these stretches three times a week over this period). Then, about four weeks ago I had to have an emergency appendectomy and was in the hospital for a week. It has now been about a month since the surgery and I have not been able to go back to the gym or do anything in the past month. The result: about two weeks ago the back pain returned and is once again waking me up every morning. I'm hoping to be able to go back to the gym in the next week or so, and will begin a modified version of these stretches (not touching the floor completely) as soon as I do.

Here is a youtube link of the type of stretches that I am referring to. Of course, when I first started, it took a week or two before I could touch the floor completely (palms flat on the floor) and I still position myself near a wall or something that can assist me if I fatigue, as I have worked my way up to about four sets (5-6 minutes each). That said, I think these stretches can work for anybody if you position your mid-back properly over the ball, even if you can only do an assisted version with 50% range of motion or something. Anyway, with the recurrence of my back pain, just saw this msg board again and figured I would share my experience. The link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twdaYIBr27I

fyi - I'm 35, male, quite fit
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Hi there,

Thank you so much for your post. I'm a 28 yr old female, fit and healthy and my pain came on immediately after an appendectomy over 18 months ago now. I've not had a night where my back does hurt after 4-5 hours asleep. Good to know it's not just me! Have had multiple MRIs, physio sessions, acupuncture and nothing seems to work.

Did you do anything else to help the back pain post surgery?

Thanks!
Avatar universal
MY SOLUTION! I also had pain in my upper left back after sleeping, and it wouldn't go away until I got up, walked around, or sat in a chair. Nothing I read on here worked, I found my own solution. To stop this from happening, I just lay on my side (either side) with my arm out, and elbow bent. Do not lay on your arm, you will still have the pain. If I lay on my back or stomach, I still wake up with these terrible pains, but as long as I lay on my side with my arm out and elbow bent, the pain is not there at all when I wake up. This was a very simple yet life changing discovery for me, and I hope it will help someone else.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi all.
Exact same issue, Im just as relieved to find others in the same situation working towards a solution.
30 year old, 6' male 180 lbs. Healthy.

Ive tried the trigger point release and it seemed to make the pain worse lol. I dont know if I was using too much pressure or if I targeted the wrong muscles around the spine that are more sensitive and fragile but it made the situation worse.

Im assuming in my case its not a magnesium or vitamin d deficiency as I supplement both. It may be related to acid reflux and nerve triggering as that is a bit of an issue for me, especially at night when horizontal.

Luckily I do have an adjustable bed, and starting tonight I will try sleeping with the top half slightly raised, with the head being about 8" higher as suggested by another member. Ill share my results.

My guess is that this does have something to do with a nerve or nerves being triggered and resulting in specific muscles in the affected area tightening up and as a result shortening. When we sleep, regardless of the firmness of the matress, out back and spine is being decompressed and stretched. It seems to me that these smaller muscles around the spinethen get stretched too much from laying down and thats whats causing the pain. This could be why the slight elevation helps as it prevents "over stretching" and decompression. If this is the case, then we still need to get the root cause of the issue, which Im assuming is related to triggered nerve(s).

Lets keep this thread going and help one another reach a solution!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi all,

It's been years and I still have this issue, but it's definitely not as bad as it used to be. I've figured out a major breakthrough for myself that I wanted to share with anyone else suffering with this problem. I've found that I can position my elbows/arms in a certain way while sleeping on my side and the pain is almost instantly gone. That is, if I wake up 4-6 hours later and I feel my thoracic pain aching, sleeping on my side with my elbows in this particular position makes it go away almost right away.

What is the position I'm talking about? I'll try to describe it. Lie down on your side and try to keep your arms/elbows as close as you can to your sides. In fact, try to tuck your elbow/arm underneath your entire body while sleeping on your side. Doing this has made a huge impact on my sleeping.

For example, if i'm sleeping on my left side, I try to keep my left arm/elbow as close to my stomach as possible (usually have a 90 degree bend in my elbow or so, but i don't think it matters). Sometimes I'll even tuck my left elbow underneath my left side and sleep entirely on my left arm. It might be uncomfortable on the arm/shoulder, but it makes a night and day difference on the thoracic pain.

Question for anyone reading this and experiencing the thoracic pain: When you sleep on your side, do you tend to round your shoulders or extend your arms forward away from your body as if you are reaching to grab something / hug something?

I'm starting to wonder if our pain is from rounded shoulders or just extending our arms too far forward causing discomfort in our rib cages while sleeping. If any of this helps anyone, please share! :)
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
ChrisBern - Thank you!  Thank you! Thank you!  I had the same symptoms as you and so many others (waking with mid-back pain after 4 hours every night and then fine after walking around for a half hour) -- a problem that I have been suffering with on and off for the past several years.  I read Dr. Sarno's book yesterday and last night I slept through with hardly any pain.  Truly a miracle - thanks for connecting me with this great resource.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Has no one ever told you to hold in your tummy muscles ever when arising from which ever position?  and when you sit, lie down, bend over , pick someting up???  Just every day life stuff. SHAME on them...

Try holding in your tummy muscles..
...the worse it could do is strenghten your tumy muscles and more importalntly tighten up the back muscles,
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
adjust your bed up with pillows or a wedge or a cheap adjustable bed from walmart on line. have the same thing. if the damage is done you can make it easier on yourself. will help a lot. good luck.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
adjustable bed, 325.00 wallyworld. ajust up till comfortable. old welder 46 years. comes with matress
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Avatar universal
I have had exactly same problem recently. It gave me very tough time. I used to woke up in the middle of night and cannot sleep afterwards due to severe pain. Sleeping on side or back didn't help at all. I had to get up and sit or walk and then slowly it used to reduce after several hours.
I have gone through MRI, it was normal. I went to Orthopedic, he said not related to spine. I went to surgeon, he said not related pancreas or anything. Subsequently, I visited neurosurgeon, he checked and said its not a neuro problem and you have "muscle spasm". He suggested me some physio-therapy exercises (SWD, IFT, US) and asked me to reduce weight. I am overweight (not yet obese) as per BMI. Physio-therapy and some medicines gave me great relief.
When I was in pain, I searched on internet and saw this thread. Therefore, I thought I shall write my experience which may be of help for someone like me...
Neeraj
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I have the same issues as everyone here. Had MRI, ultrasound, X-ray, physio, acupuncture. I work a desk job. Gave up martial arts but that hasn't improved things. People think its in my head. Glad to find a community that understands.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Guys,
I had same issue. After reading this blog, i was so worried that i might live rest of my life with this pain.
Tried different different things my self, and finally... I found resolutions to issue to me.
The night i slept on floor, i could sleep endlessly.  I woke up with my own wish.
Just put one blanket on the floor ( considering not wooden floor, instead its carpet on the floor).

Good luck.
Helpful - 0
9757458 tn?1405699369
How about lisinopril?
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Avatar universal
  severe back pain after 5 hrs sleeping
  Hi every body suffer from that
pain

Do you have a congenital twisted spinal column ? And Did you
try to twist your spinal column ?

or

Do you have a normal spinal column ? And you have tried to
twist your spinal column Strongly to be more flexible?

if this is happen

the solution is that

you have to accept your original spine

  try to go back to your congenital design

so

  you have to adjust your mattress to fit with your original
column's design by  slight elevate somewhere under your
back

put slight small tissue layers

I tried this and this pain disappeared

Pray for me God bless you all

Ashraf
Helpful - 0
7721494 tn?1431627964
Sounds like it is time to see your doctor and have this worked up. Get a diagnosis and then you can learn about the treatment options.
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