Achy Mornings Getting You Down? It May Be Time to Replace Your Mattress

You Deserve to Sleep Through the Night Again!

Have you been having trouble sleeping through the night? Or perhaps you wake up feeling aches and pains or overall uncomfortable?

Imagine waking up, fully rested after 8 hours of sleep. As you gently awake, you move to sit up… only to be hit with an ache in your back.

The aches in your shoulders and neck quickly follow as you move, but as you go to stand up, they are eclipsed by the dull ache in your hips and legs.

How can you feel so terrible after a full night's sleep? Your mattress may be to blame. Don't believe us?

Call our office for a free consultation with our physical therapist and find out how your mattress impacts your morning aches and pains.

Diagnose the source of your aches and pains with PT

Your first visit with a physical therapist will involve a conversation about your symptoms and medical history, as well as some simple tests.

Be prepared to answer questions about past injuries that may be contributing to your current aches and pains.

Your diet, exercise routine and daily activities will also be discussed. This is to give your therapist an idea of the possible cause or causes of your aches and pains.

You will then be given a series of tests, based on your description of your symptoms. These will involve posture and range of motion exercises, and possibly some strength and resistance tests.

When your therapist knows where you are experiencing aches and pains and has determined the likely causes, your personalized physical therapy treatment plan will be drawn up.

Ready to say goodbye to your aches and pains?

A 2008 study found that 1 in 15 to 20 cases of chronic pain can be attributed to sleep problems.

One of the biggest causes is something called long-term malpositioning. In short, your body is in the wrong position for too long.

Bad posture, poor workstation positioning, even sleeping on the wrong mattress and pillow can force your body into positions your back, hips, shoulders, neck, and head are not meant to be in.

The result is morning achiness, even if you have adequate sleep at night.

Will a new mattress help me?

The level of support you need from your mattress will depend on your typical sleep position.

People who sleep predominantly on their back will find they have low back pain if their hips rest on top of the mattress.

Side sleepers may experience aches and pains in their hips and low back if their knees rest below their hips.

Stomach sleepers may wake up with back pain because their shoulders are resting behind their hips.

While properly positioned pillows can do a lot to alleviate morning aches, they cannot take the place of a mattress that supports your natural sleeping position.

How do I know if I need to change my mattress?

According to Spine Health,

“Sleeping on the wrong mattress can cause or worsen lower back pain. Lack of support from a mattress reinforces poor sleeping posture, strains muscles and does not help keep the spine in alignment, all of which contribute to low back pain.

Sleep comfort is also sacrificed if a mattress does not match one's individual preferences. A mattress that provides both comfort and back support helps reduce low back pain, allowing the structures in the spine to really rest and rejuvenate during the night.”

While the Better Sleep Council recommends replacing your mattress every 7 to 10 years, the way you feel in the morning is a better indicator that it's time to replace your sleep surface.

If your mattress was once comfortable but now seems to be at the root of your aches and pains, it may be time to replace it.

Physical changes like injuries, surgery and weight change can also change your body's position as you sleep, necessitating a faster change in your mattress.

How can physical therapy relieve my aches and pains?

While it may seem strange to consult a physical therapist for aches and pains that may be caused by your mattress, their expertise may be just what you need.

As experts in posture and movement, a physical therapist can assess your body's position while you sleep and make recommendations for the type of mattress that best supports your body.

They will also assess your posture and movement for any underlying conditions that may be contributing to your morning aches and pains.

The physical therapist may develop a physical therapy treatment plan aimed at improving your posture, strengthening your body and improving your sleep.

Ready to wake up feeling comfortable after a good night’s sleep?

With a little bit of work with a physical therapist and a little bit of time, you can say goodbye to morning aches and pains and hello to a restful night's sleep. Contact Washington Physical Therapy and Rehab today to learn more!

Improve Your Overall Health with These 5 Stretching Benefits

Do your joints and muscles frequently feel stiff and achy, especially after a long day at work or a tough workout? Are you exercising regularly but not seeing the improvements you want? If you’re not regularly stretching, this could explain why!

Our physical therapy team would be happy to help you develop an effective stretching and mobility routine to enhance athletic performance, improve your physical health, and prevent injury. Call Washington Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation today to schedule an appointment!

5 Evidence-Backed Benefits of Stretching

Research shows that stretching improves your health in several ways.1 Here are 5 reasons to start adding mobility work into your weekly gym routine:

  1. Reduces muscle tension. Chronically tense and tight muscles have restricted blood flow and may not activate as effectively. Stretching (especially with tools such as foam rollers) alleviates this tension and help muscles contract more efficiently—then relax more fully.
  2. Increases the range of motion in your joints. Joints that move better, work better! Stretching helps your joints move fluidly and throughout their full range of motion. This improves movement efficiency and function, which means better performance.
  3. May reduce your risk of injury and low back pain. Stretching prepares your body for exertion, improves posture, helps correct muscle-length imbalances, and maximizes flexibility in the hips, shoulders, and ankles—all of which are essential for improved injury prevention and spinal health.
  4. Improves circulation. In addition to improving muscle mechanics, enhanced circulation can accelerate your recovery, reduce post-workout soreness, and increase your energy levels.
  5. Helps ease stress. There’s a strong link between physical tension and mental tension.2 By alleviating physical tension with a consistent stretching routine, you can ease psychological stress, too. Plus, evidence shows that stretching before a workout improves your “psychological readiness” and helps you get your head in the game.3

3 Tips to Improve Your Stretching

Not all stretching was created equal. Here are three tips from our physical therapist staff to ensure you’re stretching the right way:

  1. Never stretch “cold.” While stretching may reduce the risk of injury, it may actually cause tissue damage if done without a proper warm-up. Warming up ensures your tissues are literally warm enough and pliable enough to withstand the demands of stretching. Before any stretching session, try a simple 5-minute routine such as light jogging or cycling that gets your heart rate slightly elevated, your limbs moving, and your blood flowing.
  2. Practice dynamic and static stretches. It’s not clear that static stretching pre-workout causes injury—assuming, that is, you’ve adequately warmed up your body as previously discussed.4 In fact, studies suggest that a combination of static stretching and dynamic sports-specific movements before a workout can improve performance and optimize range of motion.3,4 Your best bet is to do both static and dynamic stretches—static isometric holds increase range, while dynamic moves prime your muscles and central nervous system for activity.
  3. Make sure to hold your stretches long enough to elicit true changes in the tissues! A quick 30-second quad stretch isn’t going to do anything meaningful. Just like stretching a rubber band and then letting it go right away, your connective tissues will just go back to their normal position after a short stretch. This is due to a phenomenon called “creep.” How long is long enough? Static stretches should be held for at least 90 seconds to 2 minutes in order to elicit true changes in muscle and tissue length. So get that timer out!

One final tip: understand your body and your particular needs. Not everybody has the same areas of mobility limitations, postural imbalances, adhesions, scar tissue build-up, and so on. In fact, some people have too much mobility in certain joints and should focus on stability and strengthening rather than stretching in these areas.

Do you need help establishing an individualized and effective stretching and mobility routine? Call our physical therapy clinic to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist today.

Sources:
  1. American Council on Exercise. (2014, October 7). Top 10 Benefits of Stretching. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from
  2. Shaw, W., Labbot-Smith, S., & Burg, M. M. (n.d.). Stress Effects on the Body. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from
  3. Park, H., Jung, M., Park, E., Lee, C., Jee, Y., Eun, D., . . . Yoo, J. (2018, February 26). The effect of warm-ups with stretching on the isokinetic moments of collegiate men. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from
  4. Samson, M., Button, D. C., Chaouachi, A., & Behm, D. G. (2012, June 01). Effects of dynamic and static stretching within general and activity specific warm-up protocols. Retrieved July 9, 2019, from

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