5 Steps to Manage your morning stiffness with Ankylosing Spondylitis

5 Steps to Manage your morning stiffness with Ankylosing Spondylitis

I’ve had terrible morning stiffness due to Ankylosing Spondylitis for over 20 years. The severity of the morning stiffness is so intense that I felt like carrying a ton load of weight on me. The movement on the bed is incomparably strenuous that being immobile seems a better option. But then, being immobile means gathering more pain in the process so eventually you have to break the deadlock. The first motion initiated to raise yourself out of the bed is laborious and arduous and most of the times it just doesn’t happen by yourself. My dad used to raise me up from the bed almost every day during my youth with moist eyes. The other morning activities viz. Brushing, Bathing, clothing yourself etc. all seem tremendously painful and inconvenient. I have since overcome the morning stiffness with great relief by employing a routine that has helped me immensely. I no longer seek assistance in executing my morning daily chores of the day, from the time I get out of the bed until I walk out of the house for my work schedule. Okay, so let’s get started. 5 tips to help you manage your morning stiffness due to Ankylosing Spondylitis.

1. Balanced Mattress

I’ve experimented extensively with my sleeping mattress and as it turns out, it is the single most contributor in aggravating the morning stiffness. When you lie down on the bed the entire body is in contact with the mattress and the pull of the gravity intensifies. Now, imagine if the bed is soft, your weight pulling toward the ground is more since the mattress is offering less resistance to the weight of your body. This leads to more pain. Imagining further, if the duration of laying on the mattress is about 6 hours then the pain is increased manifold owing to the immobility of the body on the bed and the incremental weight added on the mattress due to immobility. I say incremental weight because although the weight does not increase in number but due to the immobility, the body stiffens up and therefore after every passing hour the weight exceeds the ability of the body to be in motion and hence the excruciating pain in the morning.

Now, since I’ve got your imagination and with it the laws of physics, you might conclude that a hard surface is what will suit our AS body. True. So, I tried sleeping on the floor. No mattress just plain hard floor! Surprisingly, it had even more adverse effect on my body. The pain that I encountered after having slept on the hard floor is considerably more as compared to the pain delivered by the soft bed. Why? Because the floor offers too much resistance to the body. The structure of the body is made of bones and the major bones are the ones affected by AS. So, the bony structure of our body gets too much of rigid support wherein the hard floor surface pushes your body from below and the bones feel the uncomfortable push with the already persistent inflammation around the bones. This leads to excruciating pain, again!

The idea, as you might have figured out by now, is to balance out both the above scenarios. Get hold of a mattress that is neither too soft of too hard. It should be able to hold your body like mother’s hands carrying the baby in them. Not pushing up nor pulling down. Just right. The weight of the mattress should be equal of the weight of the body. This science works efficiently. So, get hold of a mattress that suits your body and use the concepts written above to maintain the balance right. Your morning stiffness will be reduced by 15% – 18%. Mine did.

2. Sideways sleeping posture

The sleeping posture is a self-controllable form. When I slept on my back, I realised that the pain during the night is on the higher side. The lower back is under constant pressure from the weight of the body when slept on the back. You can find evidence of this phenomenon, if you check the dents on the mattress due to this sleeping pattern. The crater like dent on the mattress along the lower back is predominant. This scales up the stiffness in the body by dawn. The trick is to habituate yourself to sleep sideways. If the left Hip joint (Sacroiliac joint) is under the phase of pain then sleep on the right side of your body and vice-versa. This way you protect the lower back from the pressure of the body and the painful left (or right) hip joint as both are along the sideway posture. The morning stiffness will be reduce by 7% – 8% if you employ this technique. Again, mine did.

3. Soft warmup with Hot water

Once out of the bed and into the washroom, go slow. Treat everything in slow motion. Be careful about your body and keep listening and acknowledging it. Even if you feel great, go slow. It’s the start of your day and you do not want to begin it with a gripping pain. I have enough rare references from my lifestyle when I felt great in the morning and hastened things to put myself under pricking pain which then lasted for about a fortnight. The body after an immobile sleep activity contracts and therefore has bright chances of a pulled muscle or an aggravated inflamed joint. A normal body will deal with this situation by warming up to expand the chassis. But for a body ridden with AS, immediate warming up is out of question. I devised a pattern of taking a hot water bath in the morning to alleviate the inflammation in the joints which also help in releasing the contracted muscles. I call it soft warming up. Bathing involves movement of the hands and washing the body. I do not bathe for the first 5 minutes. If I tried to bathe I often crumbled under the pain of the movements that my hands offered. I relax under the shower (Bathtub will do great, if you have one) or pour hot water on myself intermittently. My bathing does consume more water and time but it is worth it to start your day on a positive and confident note. If you closely listen to your body you will find the difference. The body will now be free and relaxed.

4. Synergic Exercises

I know, normally you should exercise and then take a bath. Release of perspiration is cleansed during bathing. I tried exercising and then going in for a bath for many years. This process always aggravated the pains. The doctors recommend exercise but no doctor will specify the time at which the exercises should be undertaken. I have re-worked the schedule of exercise and found that the best period for exercise for an AS body is after a bath. I therefore called it as soft warmup before the actual exercise. After the soft warm up the body is more relaxed and is ready for stretching and light weights. It has had a considerable effect in releasing the morning stiffness.

The duration of the exercise is of extreme importance. Do not over-exert your body. The areas in which the pains are prominent should not be put under the strain of exercise. Carry out the exercises along the major joints which are having less or no pain. This way you condition the parts of the body to be more resilient when the pain strikes these areas in the near future. You are preparing for the future. AS strikes where it finds weakness along the joints. So, build your body for the future.  Both the soft warm-ups and synergic exercises have helped me deal with morning stiffness and I have found the reduction to the tune of 20% – 22%. Practice them and they will surely come to your aid.

5. Be aware of the Battle ahead

The morning is not the entire day. It’s just the beginning. You have begun well but never lower your defenses. Be aware of the battle laid down ahead for the day. I don’t mean to bog you down by saying that you need to constantly think about AS but rather be aware of the body through your mind. The mind will play an equally important role in your healing. Keep your mind positive and treat every moment on its merit. I have had uncountable numerous days when flashes of pain have left me broken. I’m sure the same has been the case with you.  AS will break you and beat you. You overcoming the morning stiffness battle is a start but there will be many more battles during the day. I will share my tips to encounter them and win in another detailed post. As for now, once you have conquered the morning stiffness phase, I urge you to keep up the spirit and get on with it with zeal and confidence.

You can beat this! And Thanks for reading.