Summary

Aline, the author, shares a personal 20-minute night routine consisting of stretching, applying heat, and massaging, which significantly improved her sleep and reduced pain associated with teeth grinding and a sedentary job.

Abstract

Aline has struggled with teeth grinding and the associated pain for years, exacerbated by a sedentary 9-5 job. Despite previous efforts to mitigate pain, such as regular exercise and an ergonomic workspace, it wasn't until she implemented a simple night routine that she experienced significant relief. This routine, which takes about 20 minutes, involves stretching the neck, shoulders, and jaw, applying heat to sore areas, and massaging the affected muscles. Aline emphasizes the routine's effectiveness during a particularly stressful period of her life, such as when working on her monograph. She also advises avoiding screens for at least an hour before bed to enhance sleep quality. The implementation of this routine has not only reduced her headaches and muscle soreness but also improved her overall sleep and life quality.

Opinions

Aline believes that the combination of stretching, heat application, and massage is key to alleviating muscle tension and improving sleep.
She acknowledges the importance of avoiding stressful tasks and screen time before bedtime to ensure better rest.
Aline suggests that consistency in this routine is crucial, as she notices a return of soreness when she neglects it.
She finds personal enjoyment and relaxation in the massage component of her routine.
Aline credits this routine with making a significant difference in her sleep quality during a highly stressful time in her life.

An Easy Night Routine that Improved My Sleep

A simple three steps 20-minute night routine that reduced my headaches, pain in the neck and shoulders

Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash

I have been living with teeth grinding since I can remember — always using mouth guards to avoid wearing my teeth. I never had insomnia or anything like that, but as stressful times happened throughout my life, waking up with a headache and jaw pain was inevitable. Also, working a 9–5 sitting job looking into a screen all day isn’t the best for the neck and shoulders — as a consequence, mine are recurrently sore.

Exercising regularly, drinking coffee only in the early morning, having an ergonomic workspace, and avoiding stressful tasks at the end of the day were important for a life with fewer (or no) headaches, but until I was faced with my monograph (coding, writing, acquiring data, processing data, etc) I hadn’t taken some tips for better sleep seriously.

Even though I was under a lot of stress, most days I woke up without a headache or a sore jaw. I still apply this routine and, when I stop doing it, I usually miss it — because I will have some soreness that wouldn’t have happened if I was doing this 20 minutes routine.

This routine is based on a stretch-heat-massage sequence (not necessarily always in this order). The stretch releases some tension, the heat comfort that tension and relaxes the muscle, and the massage is more relaxing (at least for me) after the heat.

Stretch the neck, shoulders, and jaw

This one doesn’t even take 5 minutes, but the difference can be felt in moments. Sometimes I get fancy and search for different stretches, but most of the time I go with the basics:

Side bend the neck and hold for 30 seconds for each side;
Rotate the neck 5 times clockwise and reverse;
Bring the arm (once for each arm) across the front of the body at about chest height and hold it with the other arm for 30 seconds;
Open and close (fully and slowly) the jaw 10–15 times.

Apply heat — especially in the neck and jaw

Before I stretch, I usually prepare my thermal bag to apply the heat where it is the sorest. After stretching, I put the bag on my neck (where it was the sorest that day) and once it gets a little cooler I put it on my face (a little on each side of the mandible and my forehead). Usually, 2 minutes in each sore place (or sensible) can make the difference already.

Disclaimer: is important to be careful with the thermal bag — it has to be enrolled with something to not cause burns.

Massage in the sore places

Depends on the day, but massaging the face, shoulder, and neck with a massager or with my hands is always enjoyable. For teeth grinding, there are a lot of special massages in the mandibular area. For me, these are the massages that are the most effective:

Massage both sides of the lower jaw making circles clockwise and reverse;
Press a little more firmly (also while doing circles) just below the ears, behind my jaw;
Massage with an up and down movement — thought all of the jaws.

Usually choose one movement for each area that feels good at the moment and repeat for 30 seconds to 1 minute and do that at least for one area in the neck, one in the arms/shoulders, and one in the face.

Extra: avoid screens at least for one hour (more, if possible) before sleep

Probably the hardest one on this list, and the one I didn’t take it seriously for a long time. But it’s a game-changer.

Even though I wouldn’t schedule stressful tasks such as reviewing my teacher’s notes in the evening, maybe I would have some message or e-mail that would come in and keep my brain thinking about what I should be doing or planning how I should do it.

That was a problem for me because in the last hour of the day I don’t have the energy or willpower to perform well in a task, so it’s kinda obvious that I should be just resting for the next day — that was already planned.

This is something I still do every day, both for stress and as a means to try to rest more meaningfully — have that one hour to relax however I want, regardless of whatever could be required of me or awaken my thoughts.

In this post, I covered a very simple to implement 20-minutes night routine that improved my sleep, especially considering the consequences of working on a computer every day and living with bruxism/teeth grinding. This routine has improved my sleep quality, thus, my life quality in a very stressful moment of my life.

I’m Aline, the author of this article. Find me here and here!