Are you feeling pain or difficulty from moving a slight of your head? If you are feeling soreness and feeling pain to turning your head to the side, you are having a stiff neck. Sometimes this stiff neck comes with shoulder pain, headache, arm pain, or neck pain. In this article, we are going to know how to get rid of a stiff neck?
If you ever faced this before, you may know how painful is to have a stiff neck. As long as you are feeling a stiff neck, it creates very difficult to do any work though it won’t last long, just a few days or a week.
Nowadays it’s a common problem for people to having stiff pain for some new reasons. A report from National Health Interview Survey 2009, said that about 17.5% female and 12.6% male suffered from pain in the neck.
This article discusses the causes of a stiff neck, symptoms, and some ways in which you know how to get rid of a stiff neck. Let’s start.
Symptoms of Stiff Neck
If the muscles of the neck, bones, or nerves get damaged or cracked then most commonly the stiff neck will happen. Sometimes for meningitis and muscle spasms, the stiff neck can also happen. Some signs of the stiff neck are-
- Lymph Nodes can be swollen
- Muscle strain or muscle spasms create muscle tight
- The headache would be shown while having a stiff neck
- Having difficulty moving the head
- Neck pain
- Holding the head in a position can create more pain
- Shoulder pain or stiffness in the shoulder.
Causes of stiff neck
So many people are using digital devices now and most of them are facing this problem often. The muscles of the neck will be overstretched if someone looks at the screen of a digital device for a long time. For the stiff neck, there are so many reasons and we divide it into two types. These are-
- Common Causes
- Uncommon Causes
Common Causes are-
- soft tissue sprain or muscle strain
- Sleeping in a bad position
- Injuries from accidents or falling
- Lots of pressure on your neck
- Seeing device or something for a long time without changing the posture
- Putting your neck in an incorrect position for a long time
Uncommon Causes are-
- disorder of the cervical spine can create stiff neck
- Virus Infection
- A disorder like this which can create stiff necks are-
- spinal stenosis
- degenerative disc disease
- Trauma
- facet joint osteoarthritis,
- herniated disc
- Nerve Entrapment in Neck
How to Find That Your Stiff Neck is Serious or Not?
If you are just facing the common causes of the stiff neck like, muscle strain, bad position of sleep or staying in a bad position for a long time, etc, would cause you to feel neck pain, shoulder pain, or headache. These are not the sign of a seriously stiff neck.
But with these symptoms, if you feel extra fever, fatigue or unexplained drowsiness, headache( for a long time), nausea or vomiting, change in mental state (mood swings or confusion), dizziness, weight loss, etc, then you are in serious stiff pain.
Also if it causes by a disorder of the cervical spine, virus infection, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, trauma, facet joint osteoarthritis, herniated disc, nerve entrapment in the neck, etc, it is a serious problem.
For this, you should see doctors as soon as possible. And for the normal stiff neck, you can just follow some treatment or remedies at home.
Prevention of Stiff Neck
Until the stiff neck becomes serious, it is really easy to prevent it because it will not stay for a long time. Changing your lifestyle or some routines is enough to decrease your stiff neck. So here is some treatment, if you have a stiff neck then just follow them.
Treatment at home for the normal stiff neck-
For decreasing your stiff neck, you can do change your position of sleep, exercise, limiting how long you will look at your smartphone, create a good environment of working on the computer.
Some exercises and remedies are-
Chest-opener exercise
For this exercise, you just have to do these-
- Take a lengthwise foam roller on the floor and sit with your back to the roller.
- After sitting, try to lie on the foam roller slowly and move the heels to the bottom. Then turn your two-hand to the side and it will stretch your chest.
- If you feel enough comfortable, you can change sides and stay 60 seconds or more.
Cobra pose exercise
- Lie on the floor with keeping your front side to the floor and then push your hand on the floor slowly.
- Make your neck in a neutral position and look staring at the floor.
- Let your elbow hugging your sides and to lift your chest just do inhale and exhale.
- Stay there until you feel uncomfortable.
You can also do low-impact aerobic exercises.
Stretch
Stretching is a good method for decreasing your stiff neck. Some kinds of stretches are-
- Do rolling your shoulder front to the back.
- Shoulder blades should be squeezed together for some time.
- Change your head position from side to side just after few seconds.
- From one side to another side, move your ear to the shoulder.
Apply cold or heat therapy or take pain relievers
to relieve neck inflammation, apply an ice bag to the back of your neck for 20 minutes. Also, you can apply a hot waterbag to the neck, it will increase your blood circulation and will make you feel relaxed. You can take a warm bath or shower, it can also help. If the pain is very bad and you are in a hurry to work, take some medicine like acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), etc, which are painkillers.
Apply some massage and reduce stress
For pain, sometimes massage helps us a lot. For the neck, the massage will loosen the muscle. It also can stretch the muscle. You can try chiropractic care and the acupuncture method. Do meditation sometimes and make a limitation on your physical exercise.
Create a Healthy Workplace and Limit The Time For Smartphone
It is common now to work on the computer for a long period but if someone didn’t maintain a break time and good posture while working then, surely, he will feel pain in his neck or head or back. Some ways to get rid of stiff pain while working-
- Create a comfortable place fr keeping your chair where you can keep your knees lower than your hips and your feet straight in the flour.
- While sitting, make your back straight and the level of the desk should be in the level of your arms.
- Keep your computer at your eye level. And if the mouse and keyboard are ergonomic, then it will be better for you.
- Take a break every hour and walk around for a little.
For the smartphone, it is likely the same.
- Use earphones and keep your phone at the level of your eye
- Don’t keep staring for a long time, distract yourself for some time.
Practice good posture and pillow for sleeping
To keep your neck strong and flexible, don’t do the bad posture for sleep. Most people get to suffer from stiff necks just for this reason.
- Firstly change your sleep environment.
- Put a strong and straight mattress in the bed and use a neck pillow.
- Before sleeping, relax in position and sleep only with your side or back.
Also, there are some other ways are, you should not drive for long and also you should not stay at the reading table for a long time.
Conclusion
Though the pain of a stiff neck is so annoying and very bad for our daily life, you can just follow the right way to get rid of a stiff neck. Don’t be so lazy about getting treatment. Remember your health is first of all.
By maintaining an ergonomic atmosphere at work, choosing a good bed and pillow, practicing good posture while sleep will help you to remove the stiff neck.
We hope this article will help you know how to get rid of a stiff neck.