Neck pain is, well, painful. When we experience physical pain in our neck, we feel uncomfortable, irritated, and can’t seem to stop thinking about it.

The biggest cause of neck pain is poor posture. One of the best ways to avoid this ailment is to have good posture as you move through the activities of your day.

When sleeping, try to sleep on your back or side. Avoid sleeping on your stomach, because turning your head to the side creates a twisting pressure on your vertebral joints. Do not use overly large pillows or multiple pillows. If you do, you will extend the neck out of its optimal neutral position. Try to use feather pillows as they form more easily to the shape of your head and can help you avoid neck stress.

Neck pain is a common complaint, and impacts more than 80% of Americans at one time or another. While there are many reasons for neck pain, one of most frequent causes of neck pain is poor posture.

Luckily, poor posture is also something that most of us can control. So it makes sense that if we try to improve our posture, we might be able to reduce or eliminate our neck pain.

When we have good posture, we are using all the muscles of our lumbar spine and pelvis to support our body weight, and, additionally, when sit or stand straight, our neck is able to support our head without stress.