Waking up achy and sore is never fun. Your muscles and body can feel sore, stiff, and ache all over. Sometimes they can even start aching before you fall asleep. In terrible cases you wake up in the middle of the night feeling sore and then have trouble getting back to sleep. This can cause trouble sleeping as well as cause trouble with feeling rested when you wake up in the mornings. It doesn’t just have to be caused by getting old.

Finding the root cause of what is causing your aches and pains in the morning will help you be able to fix the problem quickly to get back to restful nights.

Causes for Muscle Aches & Soreness

Viruses & Underlying Conditions

The first step you want to take is to make sure you don’t have any underlying conditions that are causing your aches and soreness.

Muscle aches can be caused by inflammation in the body. Inflammation in the body can be caused by a number of things. If you have had a recent viral infection, or still have a viral infection this could cause aches in your joints and muscles. Thyroid disease, Lyme disease, and Rheumatoid arthritis are other conditions that can cause muscle pain.

Low vitamin D levels can cause inflammation in the body as well as auto-immune conditions, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Your doctor can run some tests to see if you suffer from any of these. Most of them can be diagnosed with a blood test. If you are getting over a viral infection, letting the virus run its course and being completely healed should help with your muscle pain and soreness.

Sleep Routine

If you see you don’t have an underlying condition causing your pain in the mornings then look into your bedtime routine. Not just what you do before bed, but also what you sleep on, how you sleep, and when you sleep can all play a factor on your quality of sleep.

Your quality of sleep is just as important as your quantity of sleep. If you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night, but you are waking up multiple times and not getting normal REM cycles during the night. Chances are you will wake up not feeling rested.

Things that can cause you to have poor quality of sleep are your pillow, mattress, and even your bedding. If your pillow is not suited for your sleep position, it could cause you to sleep in an awkward position causing some aches and pains in the morning. Same goes for your mattress. If you have an old mattress that is in some need of updating you may want to think about that as a solution to your body pain.

The temperature you sleep in can also affect your sleep quality. Keeping your bedroom between 65-70 degrees is ideal.

Another thing you can do is have the same sleep schedule even on the weekends. This helps your body stay in a routine allowing your body to naturally know when it is getting close to sleep time.

Avoiding caffeine, not going to bed hungry and turning off the screens before bed can also help improve your quality of sleep.

Stress

Chronic stress can spike your cortisol levels. The increased level of cortisol levels can increase your body’s inflammation. Which can lead to your body feeling achy or painful. Especially if you are feeling tense throughout the day your muscles will be tightened. This can cause your body to feel tighter and give you a feeling similar to muscle fatigue.

If you have trouble with stress the first thing you need to do is learn to combat it. This can be through meditation, prayer, exercising regularly, cutting out stressors in your life when able to.

Exercise

Exercising should be a part of all of our daily routines. The trouble with exercising is having too little or too much can cause aches and pains when rolling out of bed. Exercising can help joints stay lubricated, relieving inflammation in the body. Having too much exercise though can cause muscles to have no time to recover. This can keep your muscles in a fatigue status causing aches and pains more than normal after working out.

Too cut back on too much muscle soreness from lack of recovery time, aim to have 2 rest and recovery days in your week of workouts.

Diet

Your diet can cause inflammation too. So take a look at what you are eating to see if it could be causing more inflammation in your body. Foods that cause extra inflammation are refined carbs like white bread and pasta, French fries and other fried foods, sugary beverages like soda, and processed meats like hot dogs.

Foods that are high in anti-inflammatory properties are oily fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, ginger, and turmeric.

Lifestyle Solutions for Muscle Aches & Pains

A simple fix you can try to stop morning aches and pains is to stretch or do some yoga first thing in the morning. This can help loosen up your joints and any stiffness you wake up with.

If you have time in the mornings you can take a warm bath. The warm water will relax your muscles to help soothe any pain.

Hydration. Hydrating can have so many amazing effects on your body. So getting a big glass of water first thing in the morning may also help with pain.

Stop smoking.

Takeaway

Finding the cause of your pain and aches is essential. Feeling sore, stiff, and achy can cause trouble in your daily life and even in your overall sleep. Getting good quality sleep is essential to waking up rested. Investing in a good pillow and mattress may be essential in helping you get good sleep.

If you suspect you have an underlying condition talk with your doctor who will be able to run some tests to rule out anything of concern. Inflammation can happen in the body by a number of different things.