Home Remedy for Sore Neck – See Here

A stiff or sore neck is common due to the way we sleep and how we move our bodies. Therefore, waking up with a tired or overstretched neck can be a regular occurrence, especially for back sleepers. 

Sometimes, a sore neck is also caused by poor posture and neck misuse, when you’re always on your phone. The pressure on the neck joint and muscle causes stiffness and even displace the joints. 

While the feeling of soreness or stiffness can be gone in a matter of hours to a few days, this can interfere with your daily activities. To promote faster recovery, you need a home neck remedy, and we’ve got a number of them next.  

What Causes Sore Neck

Sleeping the Wrong Way

The most common reason for a stiff neck is the awkward sleeping position at night. When sleeping on your side or back, you can stretch the muscles with a prolonged sleeping position. 

There’s what people call a hunched position, which puts strain onto the soft tissues of your neck. When you’re sleeping, you can’t possibly know how your body moves. 

Sometimes, you wake up feeling sore all over, as your sleeping position may be weird. In addition, stress can also contribute to developing a sore neck, which is pretty normal. 

Poor Posture

Poor posture is also a major contributor, straining the muscles and ligaments that support the neck. Over time, you can feel that poor posture contributes to recurring neck pain, as the muscles slant forward in front of the shoulders. 

Teeth Grinding

Teeth grinding while sleeping is also the culprit to the soreness of the neck. The tightness and repeated clenching of the jaw causes painful contractions in the neck. As a result, you can feel tightness in the muscles. 

Osteoporosis

Finally, neck soreness can also come from bone diseases known as osteoporosis. It weakens the bone masses and strength, which results in the collapse of the spinal column – causing neck pain over time. 

Neck Pain Management

There is a lot of sore neck remedies that you can do at home. Some remedies only require you to practice good sleep and posture, to prevent muscle strain. 

Apply Ice

To reduce swelling and loosen muscles, you can apply a cold or warm compress. The heat improves the stiffness of the muscles, while the ice pack helps relieve pain.

Take a Warm Shower

Just like the warm compress, you can also take a warm shower to ease pain, and improve muscle stiffness. Target the area of pain with warm water for the first four minutes. 

Hot water therapy increases blood circulation and reduces inflammation.

Take Pain Relievers

Over-the-counter pain relievers work like magic in relieving neck soreness. Ibuprofen, Tylenol, and Aleve are some of the medicines you can take to calm the painful symptoms and reduce inflammation. 

Still, you need to avoid jerking and other painful activities.

Exercise and Stretch Neck

Neck stretches and flexibility exercises expand the range of motion and elasticity of the spine. Doing this can help relieve stiffness, but do these slowly to avoid straining the muscle more. 

Stretching daily can loosen the postural muscles, which then provide ease.

Change Position Often

Avoid standing or sitting in the same position for hours. Try to shift your position every twenty minutes, so you can relax the back and neck muscles. It also helps to use an ergonomic chair and table to avoid further neck damage.

Get a Good Memory Foam Pillow

While this isn’t a remedy, getting a memory foam pillow will prevent the neck soreness from happening again. This type of pillow adjusts to the shape of the head and provides support to the neck. 

As a result, you can have a night of uninterrupted and quality sleep.

Conclusion

Pain management for a stiff neck is manageable, as long as the pain isn’t chronic. You can always consult a doctor in case the pain is already unbearable, and affect your quality of life.