Feeling tight and stiff in the morning?
It is something that comes up in clinic often. Patients complain that their symptoms are worse in the morning when they wake. There are reasons why our bodies can stiffen up overnight and we have taken the opportunity to explain it a little.
Why you feel stiff?
Most of the time, that tight feeling when you wake up is a result of overnight changes to the lubrication in two different features of the body: the joints and the fascia. The fascia is an outer coating of muscles, with a lubricant in between, that allows muscles to move past each other in groups without friction. In certain situations — like when your body temperature drops, when you’ve been still for an extended time, or when lactic acid builds up in the muscles and fascia during intense exercise — the lubricant becomes thicker and more viscous and the layers of fascia can’t glide as easily, leading to feelings of stiffness.
When you sleep, many of those thickening situations occur: you’re usually still for a long time (say, eight hours) and your body temperature tends to drop. Your joints may also contribute to feeling stiff in the morning. In healthy joints, a thick fluid lubricates the space between the ends of your bones, which are capped with cartilage, to help them move freely and comfortably. Whenever you’re still for a long period of time (like when you’re sleeping), the cartilage sucks up the lubricant like a sponge, making your joints feel creaky.
How to feel better
The good news is that the remedy for stiffness in the morning — whether it’s caused by your fascia or your joints — is the same: movement. While you’re still in bed and lying on your back, start by doing a full-body stretch, like a cat or dog does when they first wake up, by extending your legs and arms wide and in opposite directions. Then, try pointing and flexing your toes, or stretching just your arms and torso, mimicking the cliche “just woke up” stretch. To bring fluid back into your joints, try gently bending and unbending your knees and elbows, rolling your wrists and ankles or gently nodding your head from side to side. If you still feel stiff once you’ve gotten out of bed, try marching in place, continuing to bend and re-bend any joints that feel stiff.
If your back and the sides of your body feel tight, you could try a gentle stretch, like a loose forward hang toward your toes with slightly bent knees, or side bends and cat-cow yoga poses. Studies suggest that a regular yoga practice can be effective in reducing discomfort associated with joint and muscle stiffness and chronic back pain. Do whatever feels good. If you have a dog, taking it out first thing in the morning might get your body’s juices flowing and help you feel nimble more quickly.
If it’s cold in the morning, try a hot shower. While it’s healthy and normal to feel a little tight after a night of stillness, you might feel even more tight if your baseline flexibility is already limited. You can lessen this by staying limber and maintaining an active lifestyle in general.
If you don’t already stretch regularly, adding even 15 minutes of stretching to your day may help you feel less stiff upon waking. If you sit in front of a computer for work, try moving around and changing positions throughout the day.
If you’re waking up frequently with a stiff neck and shoulders, you may want to re-evaluate the position you sleep in most often. If you’re a side sleeper, for example, your pillow should support your head so that your neck is in the same line as your spine. You can ask about the pillows we have in stock and how they might help you with neck stiffness.
If you consistently wake up with a stiff lower back, you may also want to consider whether your mattress is the culprit. There isn’t one universal mattress type that will cure all tightness, but experts recommend different firmness levels depending on your needs. If your joint stiffness lasts for longer than an hour after you’ve gotten out of bed and persists for weeks or even months, you should give us a call. Joint stiffness that lasts for an hour or longer could be an early indicator of arthritis. Most of the time, morning tightness will naturally recede as you go about your morning. But everyone has a different threshold for what is bothersome.
If it troubles you, some movement and stretching first thing in the morning may be enough and if not, it might be time to come into the office for a full assessment