Random

Sleeping positions are important. If your neck is not properly supported, you might find yourself with a stiff neck when you wake up, and it is NOT fun to have a stiff neck. I had one the other day, during my exam, so I couldn't write properly. But no I was not sleeping during the exam, I meant that I had a stiff neck while I was doing the exam, I got it in the morning, and it hurt.

When you wake up in the morning, hear a crack somewhere around your neck and your neck starts to hurt when you move, don't panic, it's just a stiff neck, your spine is not broken or anything, but the bad news is that you're going to suffer that pain for at least 2 hours.

Stiff necks cause your neck to feel pain when you turn beyond a certain range. At the start, you can only move about 5˚ clockwise and counter-clockwise, and this slowly improves over time. It can last up to 3 days, and it hurts a lot when it does. At this stage, you're probably going to feel pain every 20 seconds as you turn your head quite frequently.

When you first get a stiff neck and you're in a car, be prepared to feel pain VERY frequently in your neck, because car rides are bumpy, and bumpy means causing your head to turn, be it up or down, left or right, at that point in time your head cannot handle it

When it does start to improve and you feel yourself able to turn 30˚ both sides quite comfortably, you will still feel very afraid of turning your head because you don't know at which point it might hurt.

In 2 hours you should be able to turn at least 60˚ clockwise and counter-clockwise without any pain

When you can finally turn 90˚ on both sides, you can start to manually handle your neck. Rubbing the back of your neck with your hands will help, then occasionally try to turn beyond that. The pain will be a lot less throbbing compared to when you just got it.

But that's not the end yet. Even when you can turn 140˚ on both sides, you might still not be able to turn your head upwards fully. Continue to rub your neck from time to time.

Stiff necks are really painful when you need to turn your head. And when writing, it's incredibly agonizing because you have to turn your head to read the words you're writing, and when you do, you feel a sharp dose of pain strike the back of your neck, and then you would have to stop writing and possibly cry out (No I didn't). So be sure to have a good pillow that will support your neck high enough when you're sleeping, say at a 20˚ angle. Sleeping without a pillow is fine, but try not to sleep flat. Lean to one side, as lying flat means your neck is straight, and it's going to be straight for at least 6 hours, which could result in a stiff neck.