It’s estimated that around 620 million people in the world suffer from pain in their lower back! Many of these people also report experiencing this discomfort specifically when they wake up, which can range from mild discomfort to severe pain that impacts daily activities.
While some might dismiss morning back pain simply as a result of sleeping with bad posture, being part of the ageing process or just as some temporary pain which they expect to pass quickly – it can be a sign of underlying health issues that need attention.
The reasons people wake up with lower back pain are varied and complex. Factors like poor mattress support, inappropriate sleeping positions, or even late-night activities before bed can play significant roles. Additionally, medical conditions such as spinal disorders, chronic diseases like fibromyalgia, or even pregnancy can manifest as pain in the lower back upon waking.
What Causes Lower Back Pain In The Morning?
Sleep & Sleeping Posture: Improper sleeping postures can be a major reason contributing to waking with bad lower back pain. An old or overly firm mattress can force the spine into a bad position, which if maintained for a long period of time overnight, can lead to pain and discomfort. On the other hand, a pillow that does not cushion the curve of your neck increases tension in your muscles. Sleeping on your stomach exerts much more weight against your spine and can consequently lead to pressure and pain.
To reduce the risk of waking with pain, it’s a good idea to have a sleeping position that keeps your back in its normal alignment, like sleeping on your side with a pillow between your knees. This ensures the spine’s normal curvature is maintained, whilst also supporting your hips in a neutral position to prevent any twisting of the pelvis.
Fibromyalgia: This is an ailment that is chronic in nature and is characterised by the spread of muscle and soft tissue pain and tenderness throughout the body; it can manifest itself quite severely in the lower back and cause some pretty significant and unwanted pain. Most patients suffering from fibromyalgia have a tendency to wake up with lower back pain every morning that can be very intense. This usually emanates from things like poor sleeping patterns or an increased tightness of your muscles due to a lack of movement for a long period whilst being asleep.
Management of the back pain related to fibromyalgia involves things, which include – but are not limited to – pharmacologic (medication), physical therapy (such as chiropractic care),and newer more developing treatments such as red light therapy – which has been shown to be a revolutionary way of dealing with the lower back pain caused by fibromyalgia.
Sciatica: This is a symptom with several causes, characterised by pain that normally travels down from the lower back through back of the legs, following the course of the sciatic nerve. Most of the time, these compressions come from a herniated disk, bone spur, or a narrowing of the spine (foraminal or spinal stenosis), hence compressing part of the nerve and therefore leading to inflammation and pain most of the time, bringing about numbness and tingling most often in the affected leg. For some, the back pain that is felt with sciatica can be a sharp and jarring when waking in the morning, with the condition also making it painful to perform certain activities.
Treatments often include manual therapy (such as chiropractic care), exercises and heat applications or, in certain cases, pain medication.
Disc degeneration: Degenerative disc disease is a term that refers to the symptoms of pain and possibly radiating weakness or numbness that come from a degenerated disc in the spine. Degeneration of the disc is a normal part of ageing, however, damage to the integrity of the disc reduces its ability to cushion the vertebrae and provide flexibility. People with this condition often realise that their level of pain increases after periods of inactivity—such as during sleep—because their discs are not re-hydrating effectively overnight.
Pregnancy: During pregnancy, changes in the body take place that can really put the back through more than the average added strain. As the uterus expands, the forward shift of gravity strains your lower back. Hormonal changes also make the ligaments and joints in the pelvic area become more relaxed and loose; it allows for more movement and often causes lower back pain when waking.
To manage some of the lower back pain in the morning that pregnancy can cause, activities such as prenatal yoga which can strengthen the back and reduce pain, are advocated. As a pregnant woman, you can also visit a chiropractor for different types of treatment that can help to improve the severity of your lower back pain.
Kidney Stones: Severe pain in the back, side, lower abdomen, or groin can indicate a kidney stone. With kidney stones, the pain is usually radiated through the ureteral tract, and pain then defers to the lower back during stone movement. A person with kidney stones may wake up in the morning with a backache in a reclining position, as the stones try to move, and the pain has either just come on or worsened after being constant and immobile for some time.
With kidney stones, you’ll ultimately need to pass them in order for the pain to go away. This will involve staying hydrated to help the stones pass more easily, and potentially taking pain medication which can be prescribed by a doctor to help you better deal with lower back pain caused by kidney stones.
Spinal Stenosis: Generally affecting the lower back, spinal stenosis is where the central canal of the spine becomes too narrow, thus putting pressure on the spinal cord. Symptoms of spinal stenosis usually include pain, numbness, weakness of muscles in the lower limb, even tingling; the lower back pain tends to be worse in the morning following rest at night because lying down for longer increases pressure in the spine, which then means in turn that the symptoms of spinal stenosis can become worsened overnight.
Treatment for spinal stenosis may include chiropractic care, with exercises and advice to help strengthen the muscles and better stabilise your spine. You’ll also likely be prescribed some medications which help relieve pain and inflammation too. In severe cases, surgical interventions may be required to decompress the affected nerves.
Chiropractic Care for Lower Back Pain
Chiropractic care provides a non-invasive remedy to a number of sources of lower back pain. In the treatment, the chiropractor uses a range of different chiropractic techniques that help get rid of the pressure that the nervous system is being exposed to.
This reduction in pressure is important because it can minimise the pain or discomfort associated with such conditions as sciatica, disc degeneration, or the kind of lower back back pain being caused by pregnancy.
Moreover, the methodologies improve functionality in the body rather than simple relief in pain. One of the major benefits of seeking chiropractic care for your lower back pain is that it can lead to improved sleep quality. Through reducing back pain and improving spinal posture, chiropractic care means that symptoms of chronic conditions like fibromyalgia are less likely to be triggered through sleeping with poor support.
In effect, chiropractic care involves not only the elimination of the current symptoms of back pain but also it reduces the chances of suffering from back pain in the future.
Red Light Therapy for Lower Back Pain
Red Light Therapy, sometimes called Photobiomodulation (PBM), introduces a completely different treatment that helps to solve the problem dealing with some of the reasons you may be waking up with lower back pain. It uses low-wavelengths of near-infrared light to hit the skin and muscle tissues leading to reduced inflammation and better cell regeneration.
When PBM deals with inflammation it is helping deal with one of the direct causes of lower back pain, and therefore works incredibly well to relieve the discomfort and pain in the long-term. Secondly, photobiomodulation promotes cellular regeneration which means it can also help repair injured tissues in the low back, promoting better recovery with time resulting in spinal health.
With fibromyalgia in particular, red light therapy has emerged as a promising new treatment. As it works by enhancing cellular energy production it can be incredibly beneficial in responding to the symptoms from fibromyalgia, like pain, inflammation, and stiffness of muscular tissues. To learn some more about how red light therapy can help treat fibromyalgia specifically, you can read this in-depth blog we wrote about it here.
Get Chiropractic Care & Red Light Therapy at Active Care Chiropractic
If you are waking up with morning lower back pain, then it’s time to visit Active Care Chiropractic. Our practice is staffed with 3 experienced and very friendly chiropractors who focus on diagnosis and treatment designed to get to the bottom of your morning lower back pain. We also have on-site, two state-of-the-art red-light therapy machines: a full-body NovoTHOR and a Thor LX2 photobiomodulation machine. The NovoTHOR treats all parts of the body, while the LX2 focuses on specific smaller areas for a more concentrated pain treatment.
At Active Care Chiropractic, we are dedicated to helping you take back your mornings and garner lasting relief from the pain in your back. Your back doesn’t have to win this one; give us a call today to set your appointment and be on your way to living pain-free with a combination of our chiropractic care and state-of-the-art technology.