To align your hips while sleeping, place a pillow between your knees if you're a side sleeper to keep them stacked and your spine neutral, or put a pillow under your knees if you sleep on your back to reduce lower back and hip strain. For back sleepers, a small pillow under the lower back can also help maintain natural spinal curvature, while side sleepers can use a body pillow for full support, ensuring the top leg doesn't fall forward.
“Sleeping on your back with a pillow under your knees, or on your side with a pillow between your knees, can help align your hips and reduce pain,” says Dr. Shekhman. Adjusting your position is one of the easiest ways to sleep with hip pain and minimize pressure on the joint overnight.
Using pillows to support your abdomen and upper leg can alleviate uncomfortableness while sleeping. If lying on your side worsens your hip pain, place a pillow or blanket at the small of your back and sleep leaning against it. This will reduce pressure on the hip you are sleeping on.
Common symptoms include:
Chiropractic care can help to realign the hips, reducing pain both in the hips and elsewhere in the body, and restoring mobility and function. This can help to avoid the need for invasive surgical interventions.
People with trauma, stress or mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression often suffer physical symptoms as well. In all of this, there may be one common link: the hips. Neuroscience indicates that the hips are a potential storage vessel for emotions.
If you're experiencing hip pain at night, and only at night, this may indicate a problem with your mattress or your sleep position. If we find no issues in your hips, you may want to experiment with a new mattress and/or sleep on your side with a pillow wedged between your legs to keep your hips better aligned.
Kneel on your right knee and place your left foot on the floor with your left knee in a 90 degree angle. Drive your hip forward as well as your torso, keeping your back straight. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds and repeat 2-5 times on each side.
Primary SPD Symptoms Include:
Sharp, aching, or burning pain directly over the pubic bone area. Audible clicking, grinding, or popping sounds when moving your legs. Pronounced difficulty walking, often resulting in a waddling or shuffling gait. Severe discomfort when climbing stairs, especially going up.
While some people may start to correct anterior pelvic tilt within a few weeks, others might require more time. If your pelvis has been tilted forward for quite some time, for example, it may take a bit longer to fix. However, as long as you stick with exercises such as those above, you will begin to make progress.
Muscle Weakness or Tightness: Tight hip flexors or weakened gluteal muscles can disrupt pelvic alignment. Poor Posture: Long-term poor posture while sitting or standing may result in pelvic misalignment. Injuries: Trauma from accidents or sports activities can displace the pelvic bones or sacroiliac joints.
Deep tissue massage targets the deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue surrounding the hip joint. This technique involves applying firm pressure to break down adhesions and realign muscle fibres.
Moderate vitamin D deficiency is associated with changes in knee and hip pain in older adults: a 5-year longitudinal study.
If the mattress is too firm, it will push on your pressure points and cause misalignment. Similarly, if the bed is too soft, it will allow your body to sink into the bed causing bad posture while you sleep, which can then lead to pain. The right mattress should make you feel like you are floating on air.
Red flags for hip pain needing urgent attention include sudden, severe pain after injury, inability to bear weight, significant swelling/redness/warmth, night pain disrupting sleep, fever, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, neurological symptoms (weakness/numbness), or a history of cancer, as these can signal serious issues like fractures, infections, or malignancy, requiring prompt medical evaluation beyond typical muscle soreness.
Stretching the hip flexor muscles can help alleviate hip pain, especially for side sleepers who experience discomfort at night. Exercises such as hip circles, glute bridges, and leg lifts can increase blood flow and reduce stiffness in the affected area.
Tight hip flexors cause symptoms like lower back pain, stiffness after sitting, pain in the front of the hip/groin, difficulty standing up straight or climbing stairs, altered posture (anterior pelvic tilt), decreased leg strength, and limited range of motion, affecting activities like running, squatting, and kicking. You might also feel muscle spasms, cramping, or a pulling sensation in the upper thigh.
Bursitis pain is usually sharp and worsens with pressure on the affected side, like lying down. Arthritis pain often comes with stiffness and reduced mobility, especially after rest or inactivity.
Sleep on your back. If changing your sleep position is hard, try putting a pillow between your knees or slightly behind your back to relieve pressure and keep your hips aligned. A mattress topper or more supportive mattress might also help. Dozens of conditions and injuries can make your hips hurt.
Pain felt on the inside of the hip or in the groin area typically suggests issues within the hip joint itself. Hip pain on the outer side of the hip, upper thigh or outer buttock typically is related to issues with the muscles, ligaments, tendons or other soft tissues, such as bursal sacs, surrounding the hip joint.
Is there truth to the idea that hip-opening poses can make us emotional? “There is absolutely truth to the idea that hip-opening yoga classes can make us emotional because we store unmet trauma and emotion in our pelvic space,” explains Meffan.
The hips are far away from the face or the heart, so the body often can find it 'more safe' to store deep emotions like grief or fear in this area of the body.
Prolonged periods of sitting, stress, and unresolved emotions can cause the hip muscles to tighten and contract, leading to discomfort and pain. Release and Expression: Understanding the connection between the hips and emotions opens up avenues for proactive health management.