Bathroom Booby Trap Bedtime Can Kill Your Back Find a Good Sleep Position How I Learned to Love Getting Up in the Morning Pillow Talk Sit Up Straight Stand Up Straight Chained to the Computer The Mighty Office Chair What to Look for When You Buy a Bed		By Eveline Erni, P.T. It's dawn on Monday and you're doing the usual early morning crawl out of bed. Your neck hurts and your lower back feels like a mule kicked it. And what's that lurking at the back of your head? Are you detecting traces of a hangover from that Saturday night party? Well, there's not much I can do to help you with the hangover except a little advice on moderation. However, that neck ache and overly aggressive mule can be tamed with a little practical advice. To be blunt, the most dangerous place in your bedroom is the bed. I'm talking about bedroom activities, such as reading, watching television, studying, working and eating. If you like to use your bed in this fashion, you're not doing your spine any favors. First, a short anatomy and ergonomics lesson. Your spine is made up of three curves. You can feel them as a hollow area at the back of your neck, lower back, and a slight roundness of the upper back. Maintaining these three natural curves while working and resting would save many people a lot of pain, lost productivity and health-care costs. When you use your bed for reading, watching television, etc., you probably get comfortable by propping yourself up with pillows. This often violates the rule of maintaining a neutral spinal alignment. The hollow in your lower back is now reversed into rounding, the roundness of your upper back is more accentuated, your shoulders are hunched forward and your head is significantly in front of the shoulders (probably pushed forward by the pillows). Why should you care about this positioning? Once again very basically and bluntly, if bad positioning is maintained over an extended period of time, it puts strain on your muscles, ligaments and joints. Strain can develop into inflammation, pain and permanent changes (and they're not pretty). Subsequently, the a.m. blues set in, and pretty quickly if you're over 30! So how should you use your bed for watching television (a seriously favorite activity among the David Letterman set)? Don't use your bed as the home entertainment center. However, if you can't break the habit, then moderate the damage by getting up every 30 minutes and frequently rearranging your pillows. Finally, improve the ergonomics of your set-up: ’Ä¢ Your back should be on a gradual incline. ’Ä¢ Your lower back hollow should be maintained with a lumbar pillow. ’Ä¢ Put a pillow under your knees to keep them bent. ’Ä¢ Your head should rest back on a pillow so it can fall back past your shoulders and allow the neck to maintain its natural hollow.

	Copyright © 2005 Pivotal, Eveline Erni Physical Therapy. All rights reserved.