Today, I wanted to go through the 5 Tips for a Better Night Sleep. A common question that clients ask me is “How can I improve my sleep when I have pain?”
Hip pain is a common cause for interrupted sleep. Here are some causes or reasons why you have hip pain while sleeping, or why hip pain is waking you up.
- Mattress – It could be too firm or too soft. This has the potential to throw your body out of alignment and putting unnecessary stress on your spine.
- Overuse or poor exercise routine – You perform the same kind of exercise over again. Not enough rest and recovery between workouts or have a poor design program.
- Tight muscles
- Hip Bursitis
- Osteoarthritis or Tendonitis and a previous injury or surgery.
Here are some useful tips that you can implement right away:
- Change your sleeping position.
- Use pillows to decrease the stress on your hip.
- Ice the area that is painful.
- Perform hip stretches prior going to bed. Going straight to bed after you’ve done hip stretching can give you relief and therefore a better sleep.
5 exercises that will help ease your hip pain so that you can have a good night sleep
#1 – Backward Lunge
Begin in a standing position. Step one leg back. Tighten your abdominal area and glutes. Shift your hips forward and stretch out the front of your hip.
Backward Lunge
Start off with 1 set of 2 repetitions on each side, holding for 20 seconds. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to stretch the front of your hip.
#2 – 90/90 Stretch
Begin in a standing position. Step one leg forward, then lower your back knee to the ground. Your back leg, front leg, ankle, knee and the hip are all at 90 degrees. Tighten your abdominal area. Shift your hips forward and look for a light stretch in the front of your hip.
90/90 Stretch
Start off with 1 set of 2 repetitions on each side, holding for 20 seconds. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to stretch the front of your hip.
#3 – Supine Knee to Chest
Lie on your back on the bed, relaxing your upper body. Bend your knees and flatten your feet. Lift one knee towards your shoulder, then use your hands to pull it a little further. Return back to the starting position and repeat the movement on the opposite side.
If you want to intensify the stretch, straighten your non-movement leg as you pull your other leg towards your shoulder. If this movement puts unnecessary stress on your back, you can keep your other leg bent to keep your back in a neutral position.
Supine Knee to Chest
Start off with 1 set of 5 repetitions on each side. Perform the exercise in a smooth controlled movement with a good stop at the end position. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to stretch out your hip, especially flexion and to target your glutes, hamstrings and lower back.
#4 – Figure 4 Stretch
Lie on your back on the bed, relaxing upper body. Bend your knees, then cross one knee over your other knee. Lift your other leg and use your hands to pull it towards your shoulder to intensify the stretch.
Figure 4 Stretch
Start off with 1 set of 2 repetitions on each side. Perform the exercise in a smooth controlled movement with a good stop at the end position and holding the end position for about 20 seconds. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to target the deep rotators of the hip that are tight because of excessive sitting, back pain, and hip pain.
#5 – Pigeon Pose
Begin on all 4’s. Your hands are underneath your shoulders and knees are underneath your hips. Bring one leg across, then lean into it to stretch out your hip rotators.
Pigeon Post
Start off with 1 set of 2 repetitions on each side, holding for 20 seconds. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to stretch out the rotators of your hip.
Alternative Exercise:
Lie on your back on the bed. Bend your knees and widen your feet apart. Move your knees to one side, return back to the starting position and repeat the movement on the opposite side.
Start off with 1 set of 5 repetitions on each side. Perform the exercise in a smooth controlled movement with a good stop at the end position. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to dynamically stretch the rotators of your hips.
There you go! Give these 5 tips a go if your sleep is affected because of hip pain. These 5 exercises will help you relieve hip pain at night.
Take care!
Rick Kaselj, MS
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