Sleeping With A New Partner
Posted by terrepruitt on May 3, 2014
So I have a new bed partner. One that my husband doesn’t actually mind me having. Remember when I said my back was in pain, but it wasn’t muscle pain? One day I couldn’t even lift my elbows up out to the side. I was worried about how I was going to teach my Thursday morning Nia class. Doing Nia and using the foam roller helped. So I did a post about using a foam roller to roll it out so I would remember to use it. Click HERE for that. It worked great. I had to roll it out or roll on the foam roller often, but it worked. Then I started thinking . . . “Why is my back bothering me in the first place?” I started paying attention. I noticed that after I slept in a specific position was when my back hurt. And that same position also hurt my shoulder. I think my hips were being effected by this position too! It is a cross between an on-your-side position and an on-your-stomach position. Where I kind fold my upper body in half. I came to the conclusion that I needed to stop folding in on myself. I thought if I slept more on my side with my upper body “open” instead of the half-side-half- stomach-fold it might help. So I am sleeping with my foam roller.
🙂 Yes, I know they make body pillows so that might work, but why get ANOTHER thing when I can use something I have? Plus I think a pillow might be soft enough to still allow me to fold more than I want, whereas the roller keeps me propped up. I don’t fold at all. So I slept with my foam roller for a few nights and my back pain stopped.
So, now, I sleep on my side with my leg on the roller. The roller keeps my hips more in alignment. I say “more” because I don’t think they are IN alignment but more so than when I let my leg rest on the bed. And I have the roller down low enough so that the arm on the side I am lying on has a place to be and I actually use the roller (almost the “top” of it) to keep my body propped up. My “top” arm which rest on the roller doesn’t allow me to fold in on myself and rest my shoulder/arm on the bed.
Honestly the roller is not all that comfortable and so the hardness of it would keep me awake at first. But not having my back hurt all day was worth it. Plus the first few nights I would actually wake up a bit to move the roller to the other side when I switched sides. Now . . . since my back feels better, if I want to turn over I have been leaving the roller only on one side. I think that not folding over on at least one side is helping.
I am now using my foam roller as a preventative tool and not just a restorative tool. Nice.
How do you sleep? Do you have a lot of pillows? Do you have a body pillow? Do you wake up sometimes with a crick? Do you wake up with pains in your shoulder(s)/hip(s)?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Zurandrya said
I sleep with four pillows strategically positioned all around and between me.
However, I still wake up several times during the night repositioning and adjusting.
Maybe I’ll check out your newest companion. Thank you kindly for sharing! 🙂
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terrepruitt said
:-). My mom used to sleep with about a million 😉 pillows. I imagine there are a lot of things that can help keep us in alignment. Thanks for visiting.
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Sonja said
I’m sorry to hear you are having pain at all. You are in such great shape it surprises me. When I have back or shoulder pain I roll my semi flat pillow under my neck and try to stay awhile on my back. I really only sleep well on my side like you do…so it is really to force my spine in my neck to align in a curve. Rene takes a hard tennis ball, and puts it under his neck instead of a pillow, and stays there like that for a long time. I used to actually toss the pillow entirely when I had back pain, but I find I dont need to do that anymore. One more thing I do for shoulder pain is I pull my neck upward, releasing the spine. I make a reverse strangle…with my hands like this. Thumbs on my chin, fingers on the back of my neck, sitting upright in a chair, and pull up. I cant do it for very long, but I can also help others by using the chin bone, not the neck, to lift. Slowly rock your head, or have someone else rock your head as you pull upward. Good luck and I hope you can feel better soon.
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terrepruitt said
I am most comfortable on my stomach-side, not really my side. Wow, I cannot imagine sleeping on a tennis ball.
As I said in the post using the roller has made me feel a lot better. Plus (what I didn’t mention in the post), I believe my mom not being in limbo any longer has relieved a lot of the stress that was being held in my back. The horrendous “dying process” was very stressful.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Sonja!
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niachick said
WOW. I love this. I’m taking my roller to bed tonight!!! I don’t have a body pillow but I do have a pillow that is designed to be put between my knees when I sleep on my side to keep my hips level. I rarely sleep on my side anymore because both arms fall asleep and it becomes really uncomfortable. I’m going to sleep with my roller tonight and see if that does the trick!!! I’m glad that your husband approves!!!
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terrepruitt said
Yeah, the roller is a little too hard, IMO, to have between my legs. But it allows me to do a little bit of my stomach-side thing.
And, yeah, I have woken up with one or both of my arms asleep. Ha, ha, ha.
Let me know what you think about the rlloer after you sleep with it. 🙂
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My French Heaven said
I thought you were going to talk about bedbugs for a minute. I’m glad your new system works!
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terrepruitt said
ACCCKKK! No. I would be saying, “Sleeping with a new BED!” if that were the case!
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dwoermann said
That is VERY funny you are sleeping with a foam roller. I would not care for that and would spring for the pillow but to each her own!
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terrepruitt said
Ha, ha, ha! I do not need another pillow or THING. You should see the bedroom as it is. 🙂 I also don’t sleep with it every night. Perhaps if I did I would buy a pillow. But I also think a pillow would be too soft. I need something to keep me from rolling over onto my stomach. I think I could just roll over onto a pillow.
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kelleysdiy said
What a great invention…..foam rollers…I remember trying to sleep with those awful big hard rollers…yuck!
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terrepruitt said
Yes, foam rollers for hair were a great invention.
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kelleysdiy said
hahaaa
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terrepruitt said
🙂
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