Hip Pain At Night

https://www.popsci.com/sleep-pain-change-position/

If you have had hip pain at night long enough, you’re familiar with how frustrating it can be to find a comfortable sleeping position. Hip pain at night is one of the most uncomfortable experiences, leaving side-sleepers and back-sleepers alike frustrated, staring at the ceiling and tossing and turning from side to side. 

The real problem with having hip pain at night is the exhaustion it causes. Many of our clients are frustrated that they don’t feel as productive. They’re annoyed that they feel like they are less than 100% at work and around their families. Nobody says anything about it of course, but they feel like it’s noticed. 

Have you had a similar feeling?

Many of our clients have tried a number of things including: 

With every new thing they try, they get a little hope when it seems to be working. Then it stops working, and they’re left to wonder “was I just imagining that it helped?” It’s a frustrating cycle to be in, and it can leave you wondering if you’re the only one. You may have wondered what some of our clients wonder… “Is this my new normal? Do I just complain too much?”

The short answer is no, it’s not normal, and even though we don’t know each other yet, it’s unlikely that you’re complaining too much. Having hip pain (at night or otherwise) is not normal, and it can be corrected. You can get your energy back, improve your productivity at work and with your family, and feel like yourself again. The trick is finding the root cause. 

If your hips get tight through out the day, go to our blog “Tight Hips And How To Fix Them” and read how to stretch out your hips so you can move more freely.

How Do I Find The Root Cause?

The first step to finding the root cause is to separate the symptoms from the cause. In this case, hip pain at night is typically due to bursitis or joint pain. When you lay on your hip it causes compression of the bursa and joint. This can lead to pain in the groin as well as pain down the side of the leg. Here’s the catch: the joint and bursa are painful because of tight and overused muscles around the hip. The thing about muscles is they aren’t very smart. They only know how to tighten and loosen. So if they’re tight, the question becomes: why are they tight? 

Muscles get tight in response to weakness in other muscles in the same area. They tighten in order to give the joint more stability when there are other weak muscles in the area. The problem is this tightness also causes compression. This compression irritates the bursa and hip joint during the day. When you lay down to go to sleep, the pressure is off and the pain sets in.

How Do I Get Rid Of Hip Pain At Night?

The solution to hip pain at night is to isolate exactly which muscles are not doing their job. This can be done by a specialist physical therapist. Once the correct muscles are identified, you need to do the right exercises to isolate these muscles without activating the ones that are already compensating. This is the trick. Many times, the exercises you’re already used to doing are simply reinforcing the patterns that got you in pain in the first place.

When you start using these muscles, your exercises feel entirely different. Our clients will tell us that they’ve never felt like they knew how to use their hips, and now it all makes sense!

When these muscles are isolated and strengthened, it allows the muscles that have been compensating to relax. This takes pressure off of the joint and bursa during the day and results in eliminating the pain at night.

With the pain gone at night, you’ll sleep better, have more energy, and be yourself again! It all starts with a Discovery Visit at The Doctors of Physical Therapy. 

How Can Physical Therapy At DPT Get Rid Of Your Hip Pain?

  • Your treatment plan is tailored to your lifestyle to get you to be able to do the things that are most important to you. 
  • You will learn about the body, the muscles, and how everything is connected. 
  • You’ll understand how to take care of yourself so you can continue to enjoy being pain free and active well into the future. 
  • You’ll understand everything that’s contributing to your back pain, and have a plan to get it corrected.
  • Your DPT team understands where you are at, and designs a plan to help you get to where you want to be in as few, or as many steps as it may take.

If you would like to know more about cost, and what availability we have at our Physical Therapy Clinic in Scottsdale, then please just click the button below and complete the short form.