I elevated the head of my bed for my POTS. Good little dysautonomiac, I am. Well, ever since (and its been about a month now) I wake up with bad shoulder pain. Sometimes its one shoulder, somtimes its the other, and sometimes its both. It often goes away after I stretch and "pop" my shoulders, but I'm often sore through out the day.

I will admit to an increase in the amount of tossing and turning I do, and there have been several times I have woken up in the middle of the night, and half asleep, I've definately popped it back in. Also, sometimes I slide down the bed, and have to climb back up it, which definately makes my shoulders angry.

My question is, is there anything I can do, short of putting my bed back down, to stop this from happening?

Also, my 9 year old brother and I were playing the "punch buggy" game in the car, and he lightly hit my left shoulder, popped it out of place, and brought tears to my eyes. It didn't go back in until hours later. All day long I'm rubbing my shoulder and commenting on how sore it was.... and my parents are calling me a baby and a weakling for getting beat up by a 9 year old... nothing like hypermobility to make you look weak! But I think its the opposite, I think hypermobility makes us tougher bc we go through more.

I'm not sure about what to do with the bed/sleeping thing. My bed is flat but I sleep with a contoured memory foam pillow with another flat-ish soft pillow ontop to keep my head raised. I know what you mean by feeling like a weakling sometimes. Last night I was at my friends and got a drink. I had to carry the juice bottle with two hands to my boyfriend for him to open it in front of new strangers that dont know my condition. It was a little embarrassing, but it save my hands a lot of unnecessary pain and dislocations. I agree with you that hypermobility and EDS makes us stronger. We may have a lower pain threshold, but our tolerance is much higher than most.

How is your head elevated at night? Stack of pillows or blocks under the feet of your bed? If it's pillows that could be the trouble & maybe putting a brick or block under the feet of the head of your bed would help?

I took plastic bed raisers and put them only under the head side. I would have used bricks but I found those first. So too many pillows is not the problem. I'm thinking the angle might be too off... Like I elevated the head too far.

Have you tried a heating pad on a low-low temp under your shoulders while you sleep? If you can do a lower angle & have it still work for the POTS that could help too.

Lowering the angle might help.

Any thought of using something to make you sleep deeper? When I was having trouble with tossing and turning putting my shoulder out a few years ago, my doctor put me on 50 mg trazadone, and it worked like a charm. Wouldn't make me go to sleep if I wasn't going to already, but it made me sleep just that little bit deeper. At least for me, if I'm tossing and turning, it's probably because I'm not 'out' properly.

~Blaze

Well, you can try to do some gentle shoulder strengthening (i mean really gentle). Its not an instant fix, but its better than a quick fix sometimes. Put a pillow between your elbow and your side and gently (geeeently i tell you) squeeze the pillow. Hold it for a few seconds, relax, and repeat like...5-10 times, working your way up.

My shoulders dislocate in my sleep too and i know its because of the position i sleep in. The last resort you can go to is a shoulder brace (just when you sleep at night)... but that can really be problematic, because your muscles will relax as the brace is holding your shoulder in for you and when you take it off in the morning... the first thing your shoulder will likely do is drop out.

Sooo, personally, pt helped with my shoulder issues, but i still have them to an extent, just not as bad as before. I also use pillows to prop my shoulder in place when it just wont stay in at night. Taping is also another option that worked pretty decently for me, its better than the brace (which i also tried *sigh*) because your muscles are still working, the tape is just an aid/reminder for them to keep working.

its all in training your muscles to do the work that your ligaments cant i hope that helps a bit and is at least encouraging *hugs*

I think I'm going to try the strengthening and lowering the angle. Thanks!