Shoulder pain at night

Sleeping might be severely compromised when the person is in pain. As the direct consequence of sleeping troubles, you could end up unable to get your work done or do anything at all during the day, because you feel tired and lack energy.

Pain in Shoulder at Nighttime

Some people have problems with the shoulder at night. Human shoulder is extremely complicated in structure and there some 30 muscles, accompanying tendons and bursa sacks and of course 3 bones. In almost every movement of our arm, we tend to engage our shoulder and that’s why it can be exposed to some great strain and stress. To be able to perform at its best, you and your shoulder need to get some rest at night and this is impossible if the shoulder hurts.

This type of pain is constant and dull and the shoulder may feel stiff or swollen. At the same time, the arms and fingers may become numb or start to tingle. Changing the position in bed may be very hard while your shoulder hurts, because it worsens when you move around. Moving the arms up or down can also make the pain worse than before. For some people, suffering from compressed muscle tendons, raising the hand may be responsible for exacerbation of this condition.

What Can Cause Pain in Shoulder at Nighttime?

Injuries to the rotator cuff are identified as causes of shoulder pain at night in many cases. Rotator cuff is consisted of 4 muscles and they are responsible for stability of the shoulder and movements of the shoulder joint. This part of the shoulder is very likely to be the cause of the shoulder pain, since it is susceptible to different injuries. Overuse of the muscles, bad fall or some blow to the shoulder may all provoke such injury, as well as some racket sports. You could hurt rotator cuff when throwing the ball, painting the ceiling or simply by swimming.

People who suffer from bursitis, tendinitis, dislocated shoulder or arthritis may also experience shoulder pain at night. For some, sudden sharp pain in left shoulder, experienced during the night may indicate heart attack.

Possible Cures

Doctor’s initial reaction to shoulder pain at night is usually prescribing some medications to relieve the pain and allow the patient to get some sleep at night. He or she may prescribe some sleeping medications or, more often, some anti-inflammatory drugs. Rotator cuff injury may be diagnosed with X-rays or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans and then treated with some physical therapy or surgery if needed.

Sometimes, home remedies like gentle stretching before bedtime and cold compression after exercises may be all you need to sleep without pain. Try sleeping with some extra pillows supporting your painful shoulder because this also may relieve the pain.