SI Joint/sleeping

[Catrin]

I've SI joint issues on one side that my chiro has been working on. I've also been experimenting with finding different sleeping positions so I don't sleep on my side so much (probably a futile effort) as I've hip bursitis on both sides. I've been noticing that when I try to sleep on my back that it helps a lot to elevate my feet 4 or 5 inches at night. This really makes little sense to me, but there it is. I can't sleep with anything under my knees, but apparently elevating my feet is different. I thought I would mention it in case it might work for others. I do have a new mattress that certainly helps - and am trying to train myself to sleep with something between my knees when I am on my side which is my preferred position.

[ny biker]

When my lower back is really bothering me, I fall asleep on my back with a pillow under my lower legs. It does usually help. It changes the angle of my hips and flattens my lower back, I think.

But I also prefer to sleep on my side, and I have a small temperpedic pillow that's peanut-shaped that I keep between my knees. It usually helps prevent hip pain. When my hips hurt anyway, it usually means I've been neglecting the piriformis stretches and the foam rolling on my quads.

[Catrin]

That pillow sounds interesting, I've been using my old neck pillow that I've recently replaced but it is a bit large. I'm better on exercise days as I've done all my stretches, I'm not so good at those on rest days...I really need to change that. It's not bad but am trying to prevent it from getting worse. I've enough problematic bits!

[OakLeaf]

Possibly related: my PT has me doing some exercises to mobilize my pelvic joints (SI and pubic), which were so locked when I first saw him that he didn't believe that my massage therapist knew what he was talking about when he said I'd have some SIJ mobility at the end of a massage ...

anyway, the exercises consist of lying on my back with a wedge (i.e. a small folded towel) under my sacrum. For one exercise I pull my knees to my shoulders (knees apart, feet together), hold, release just to tap the ground and repeat. For the other exercise, still lying on my back with the sacrum wedge, knees bent, feet on the floor, I put a medium-sized ball between my knees and a yoga strap just above my knees, and do alternating abduction and adduction - the resistance means that rather than my knees moving, the femurs push and pull the halves of my pelvis while the wedge keeps the sacrum still.

Aaaaanyway, what I've noticed is that I really have to concentrate to keep my pelvis neutral, because if I tilt it even slightly to the posterior (which is where it likes to live), the wedge doesn't do its job, and I don't get the benefit of the exercise. Raising your feet is probably going to encourage your pelvis to tilt posteriorly. Beyond that I'm really not clear as to the biomechanics, whether the weight's going onto the sacrum and off the ilia or what, but you might be experiencing something similar to what I do when I do the exercises.

[ny biker]

That pillow sounds interesting, I've been using my old neck pillow that I've recently replaced but it is a bit large. I'm better on exercise days as I've done all my stretches, I'm not so good at those on rest days...I really need to change that. It's not bad but am trying to prevent it from getting worse. I've enough problematic bits!

This is the pillow I use.

http://www.tempurpedic.com/Travel-Size-Pillows/Tempur-Pedic-All-Purpose-Pillow.asp

I also tried this one:

http://www.healthyback.com/products/Healthy-back-improve-your-back-health/Healthy-back-leg-spacer/104

I was able to try both out in the store and decided I liked the one from Tempurpedic better.

[Catrin]

Thanks NY Biker! I've seen various versions of the second one in local stores but they just look too large for me. Tempurpedic versions are more spendy, but their products seem to be working for me. I need to wait a bit for another purchase as I just hit the Walking Company yesterday for new shoes for work that doesn't hurt my feet (yayyyyy) but I will look into getting one of the peanut pillows in the next month or so.

Oakleaf, thanks for your take on this. I see my "guy" Thursday morning and will ask him about this. I don't want to hurt myself further but if it helps then that's all the better. On the positive side this, and my hip bursitis, is much milder with the new bed and it doesn't happen every night. I look forward to hitting the sack again :cool:

[Crankin]

I have a whole set of exercises to keep my SI joint from being locked, but none of what Oak described. Similar, though. Thing is, with all of the visits I had to the PT (a manual/McKenzie therapist), my joint was only actually locked once, maybe twice. It's been much better since I've been better about doing the exercises, but some days, I go to bed fine, and wake up with the ache, but it goes away after awhile. I also use a heating pad, for about 10 minutes, when I get into bed, a couple of nights a week. I have a fairly new pillow top bed, not the firmest, but the next one down. I hated the feel of the Tempurpedic, I felt like I had no support and it just felt weird. It's actually been better since the cycling season has ramped up. Hiking or walking sometimes irritates it, but if I do the exercises it helps. I mostly cannot run at all.

[ny biker]

An important lesson I learned years ago: good shoes are worth paying more for.

[Catrin]

An important lesson I learned years ago: good shoes are worth paying more for.

Yup, while my major foot surgery in 2004 put an end to cheap shoes for me - my increasing knee/hip issues make a good fit even more imperative. I've very high arches, a wide toe-box + narrow heels so it's always been a challenge. Yesterday I discovered The Walking Company and their exclusive clogs with built-in orthotics that pretty much make me feel like I'm walking on clouds and they are no more expensive than the shoes I've been wearing over the years. It's early days yet, but frankly, so far the built in metatarsal orthotic already feels better than the $400 custom ones I had made a couple years back by a podiatrist.

Oh yes, they even have SANDALS made with the same internal orthotics :cool:

[OakLeaf]

Yeah, what I meant by posting that was mostly a long way of getting around to how, for me, tucking my pelvis seems to change the way the sacrum fits into it. But, for anyone who might be helped by and/or might want to ask about those exercises, there they are! :)

[Catrin]

Oakleaf the exercises are interesting and I will give them a shot. It sounds like, for you, tilting the pelvis posteriorly causes your exercises to be ineffective? I'm still wrapping my head around what might be going in with my hips. I will touch base with my ART/manual/PT-Chiro on Thursday to see what he thinks. He HAS been adjusting my SI joint and that is something that he only does if there is a decided need for it - it's not his first tool that he uses. It certainly feels better afterwards for a few days, just need to figure out what I'm doing that's causing the problem. Perhaps just arthritis - assuming that causes SI joint issues.