OK, long story short.

Last summer I woke up with a terrible migraine and went to the GP about it. I got a diagnosis of "wry neck" and some co-codamol and told the pain would go away eventually. It did, so maybe that was the correct diagnosis.

Last week however a similar thing started again. I was staying at a friend's house and woke up with terrible neck pain, which was so bad it was making me sick and brought me to tears, nothing touched it and it took 4 days to go away.

I'm now back home and was all ready to blame it on sleeping on a strange bed with different pillows when it happened again today. Thankfully here I have prescription-only co-codamol left from the last time it happened and it's the only thing that takes the pain away - and even then only for a few hours.

Anyone have any idea what could be going on? I've been doing neck exercises to try and relax the muscles/ease tension, but I haven't seen any improvement yet.

I get the occasional stiff neck which I usually put down to sleeping in an odd position. A friend of mine had similar problems but his was traced to a slipped disc.

My usual treatment (apart from painkillers) is to lie in a nice hot bath so the water reaches the top of my neck - 20 minutes or so does wonders (I think it increses blood flow to the affected muscles). If that isn't possible, try some heat packs or a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel.

Strange bed and a draft that you may not notice can do that.

I managed to twist my neck about 15 years ago by simply looking over my shoulder. I have rarely felt such pain, and I could barely move my head for over a week. The GP told me it was a muscle spasm (he used a different phrase), and the worst possible thing to do would be to keep it still. He told me to take a combination of co-codamol and Ibuprofen, both of which were available OTC at the time.

I still get it occationally, but not as badly as the first time. Usually it's after a night on an uncomfortable pillow.

When did co-codamol become prescription only? I was wondering why I couldn't find it in Tesco.

You can still buy it over the counter, but I get the stronger stuff for this, the normal stuff only takes the edge off.

Unfortunately I can't take Ibuprofen, otherwise I would.

Wikipedia says:


It's also addictive, so some may choose not to stock it openly, I suppose.

Excercising a poorly muscle makes things worse. Your muscles are in spasm maybe because your neck isn't quite lined up properly. Try a physio massage, or rest over a long period and try not to do any excercise or strain your neck, constanty trying to 'crack' it back 'in' will make it worse as this isn't the problem.

How is your general posture?
Mine has gotten better, but has been truly lousy over the last two weeks. As a result my neck and lower back are killing me, it seems to get worse if I have a lack of sleep. Not quite as much as your is by the sounds of things, but it's something to consider.

That's verbatim what my GP told me. Prior to seeing him, I'd spent several days in severe pain trying not to move my neck. The GP told me to take pain killers and try to move it normally, which seemed to work eventually.

Note, he did not say to exercise it - just not keep it still.

I could actually feel the muscle all bunched up, like a cramp. The muscle wasn't torn or injured as such, just permanently tensed up.

Of course, the advice was given after a physical examination. He did not diagnose me by Interwebs.

I have done similar after having slept in an awkward position though mine usually settles within 48hrs.
As long as you don't have any symptoms involving your arms, it should be okay. Take ibuprofen and cocodamol regularly. It'll get worse for a day and then the pain will ease. If not, see GP.

Is there any way I can prevent this happening in future? If I can get a special pillow or something I'm damn well going to do it.

If you don't have a problem sleeping on your back, you can get various pillows that offer more support to the neck. Kind of expensive though and not guaranteed to work.

A lot of muscular problems in the back and neck can be avoided by stretching properly, especially the legs. I've had a lot of similar problems with my neck and tried pretty much all of the advice given above; pillows, no pillows, keeping the movement or keeping still, sleeping in different positions, heat packs etc. Of all of these the best thing I found to alleviate smyptoms was to keep the neck as still as possible and allow the muscles to relax themselves, rather than forcing them further, but found out a couple of years ago that decent stretching of my legs prevented the problem from occuring almost altogether.

I'll second Matt's suggestion - the issue could be related to you legs, your posture. The body is a complicated thing, and simply because one bit hurts doesn't mean the cause is also located in the same place. Unless it's red and sticky, in which case there's a bit missing.

I don't know why you're neck is painful, but maybe Google knows.

I use an inflatable exercise ball instead of an office chair at home now, and I do find I have much less back problems for using that instead of the chair.
A couple of days using the chair at home and my shoulders are a mess.