June 18, 2022

Why Do I Have Shoulder Pain At Night?

It’s challenging to get a good night’s sleep, but if you suffer from shoulder pain at night, the odds are stacked against you even more from getting rest.

Is A Pinched Shoulder Nerve Keeping You Up?

Pinched shoulder nerves happen when bone spurs form around the spinal discs.

With age your vertebrae compress, your discs thin and bone spurs grow around the discs to strengthen them. This causes pressure on the nerve root in the spine.

Pain typically occurs in one shoulder only and will worsen if you turn your head.

You may also feel “pins and needles” in your shoulder.

Burning Pain In Shoulder

Shoulder pain can also feel like a burning sensation; known as bursitis, it can be caused by repetitive motions or positions that put pressure on the bursae around a joint. Leaning on your elbows for long periods is one cause of bursitis and this leads to an injury from overuse.

Bursa are small fluid-filled sacs that sit between tendons, muscle or bones, allowing fluid movement. Movement without the bursa will not feel smooth or friction-free.

Tendonitis feels like a burning bursitis pain but the cause is the tendons this time obviously as tendons are wearing down and then become inflamed. Inflammation happens due to repeated movements of the muscle tendons in your shoulder.

Tendonitis is common in professional athletes such as baseball players, particularly pitchers, who suffer from tendonitis. If you aren’t a paid hurler of baseball, you may be in a situation where you are lifting heavy objects and repeatedly using shoulder tendons then you are likely to get tendonitis.

Crook In The Neck

A crook in the neck or crick in the neck is not an actual medical term used to describe issues with the neck or how they are linked to shoulder pain. A commen cause of this type of shoulder pain at night is sleeping with poor posture, such as your neck being at an awkward angle or having a pillow that’s too thick for you.

Without a proper diagnosis, you may not be able to discern the difference and where or what the root cause of the pain is.

In addition to shoulder issues, you could have cervical or thoracic spine problems, as well as issues with your neck so it’s important to visit the correct professional so that it can be diagnosed properly.

It’s also important to understand how the crook in your neck may be related to shoulder pain or if it is at all.

When shoulder pain is actually coming from the neck, it is wise to seek treatment as one or more nerves running from the neck into the shoulder could be at risk.

There are eight nerve roots branching from each side of the cervical spine in the neck, and they’re labeled C1-C8. Nerve roots C3 through C8 all pass through a specific part of the shoulder.

Pinched Nerve In Neck Headache

Pinched nerves in the neck cause headaches by compressing the nerve which generates a feeling of pain along the nerve’s pathway.

These headaches often feel like pain radiating from the back of the head to the forehead. Tenderness in the area of the neck muscles on the side where the pinched nerve is located.

Cervical Radiculopathy is a medical condition where a nerve in the upper spine becomes compressed.

Pain in the neck or shoulders is often a symptom of cervical radiculopathy.

By being able to accurately assess and find where the pain is, this can be a good way for doctors or other medical professionals to give the person a treatment course of action.

Pain Behind Ear Base of Skull

Pain behind and not in the ear is tough to narrow down because the underlying issue could be infection, inflammation, or injury. Symptoms of pain behind the ear depend also on if it is ear, bone, muscle, nerve, or joint that is affected.

There are a number of reasons why pain behind the ear and or at the base of the skull can occur. There are also symptoms as well and they can include things like eye pain, jaw tenderness as well as things like skin changes or rash, and even tooth pain.

Easy Cozy Wellness offers body massage and acupressure as well as foot massage and reflexology treatments that can help you with a pinched shoulder nerve as well as some of the other associated medical issues such as a crook in the neck or burning pain in the shoulder. You need not suffer from shoulder pain at night keeping you awake.

Please head over to our contact page and get in touch with our office or go to our calendar to book with one of our therapists. Also be sure to ask us about our new Head Massage options that we’re launching.