When your body is positioned the same way for multiple hours, it may be common to wake up with different aches and pains. This is why creating the perfect sleep environment is important. Your mattress, pillows, and bedding all play a role in sleep quality and how you feel in the morning.

Sleeping with hip pain can be uncomfortable. It can wake you up in the middle of the night or even keep you from going to sleep. There are different causes of hip pain and some may fixable.

Hip Pain and Sleeping on Your Side

Complaints of hip pain aren’t uncommon for people who sleep on their side. If you had no preexisting injuries or conditions, your hip pain most likely comes from the way you sleep. If your mattress is too soft or hard, different pressure points in your body can be trigged, causing pain and discomfort.

If you’re a person who doesn’t move a lot when sleeping, your joints can swell, resulting in hip pain.

If you have a hip affected by an injury, condition, or previous nights of side sleeping, turning to the other side won’t fix the problem. This can worsen the hip pain as gravity puts more pressure on the hip.

Waking Up With Hip Pain

While things like injuries and side sleeping can cause hip pain when you wake up, you should still see a doctor if problems persist.

Hip conditions like bursitis can cause persistent pain in your joints. This condition happens when the small bursa (cushions) for your joints becomes inflamed. This inflammation occurs after excess high-levels of sports or exercise.

How to Sleep With Hip Pain

Try sleeping on your back.

Gravity will cause your body to be unbalanced when sleeping on your side. To avoid this, try sleeping on your back. Sleeping on your back is the best sleeping position for people who want to keep their bodies aligned and balanced.

Use extra pillows.

There are different pillows for different sleep positions. For example, there are elevated wedge pillows for back sleepers and knee pillows for side sleepers.

Knee pillows help stabilize your hips so they are more aligned. This helps you avoid hip pain in the middle of the night or when you wake up.

Invest in a better mattress.

Learn what works best for your body. You may need a softer or harder mattress. Consider the different types of mattresses available and take time to see what your body likes best.

The BetterSleep app can help you perfect your sleep environment. Try the app today and start experiencing quality rest.