How long does a stiff neck last?
If you’re wondering how long a stiff neck can last, the short answer is anywhere between minutes to hours to days to chronic recurring pain from time to time. The good news? You don’t have to deal with a stiff neck. Driving, walking around your house, and talking to more than just the person across from you at the dinner table doesn’t have to be hard. Let’s talk about it.
So you have a stiff neck? Can you recall a specific moment where it became stiff? Just woke up with it? Has it been a recurrent problem?
Neck stiffness can encompass difficulty to move or use the neck and can be accompanied by pain and include a feeling of numbness or tingling in the neck, shoulder, arms or hands.
It can happen for many different reasons and how long it lasts depends on the cause and management. If the cause is sleeping in an uncomfortable position and happens only occasionally, it’ll likely feel better in a few days with rest, avoiding aggravating positions and when feeling better, gentle mobility/stretching exercises to prevent further stiffness.
Ice or heat therapy may also be helpful.
On the other hand, neck stiffness with other symptoms such as headache, fever and/or nausea may indicate a serious infection known as meningitis, or indicate other health conditions.
Some common causes of neck stiffness
There are many potential causes of neck stiffness, but here are a few:
Muscle strain/spasms, ligament sprains-sleeping in uncomfortable positions, poor ergonomics/desk setup and/or poor posture, including looking down at screens for too long, stress and tension
Trauma-MVA including whiplash, sports injuries
Arthritis
With muscle or ligament causes, how long a stiff neck lasts can vary: it can last a few days from causes like uncomfortable positions that are temporary (sleep, activity, work etc.) but if these positions are held for prolonged periods of time, sometimes months or years, then neck stiffness may take longer to resolve if the solution to the cause involves changing posture and movements including habits, lifestyle and integrating a mobility and strengthening rehab program.
Even though this may be the underlying cause, you may feel better within a few days with simple exercises, hands-on treatments, rest etc.
If the cause is trauma related, and depending on the severity (intensity, if there were other injuries sustained, such as head injuries including concussion or vestibular symptoms), the neck stiffness and treatment associated will vary.
Arthritis in the neck or cervical spondylosis can have no symptoms or symptoms.
These symptoms can range in intensity and can include neck pain and stiffness. Even though the underlying cause of arthritis cannot be changed, the management of symptoms and function can successfully be with exercises that can help relieve pain, strengthen weak muscles and stretch overused muscles to help you do/continue to do the activities you want to do.
If you’re experiencing a stiff neck for a few hours with low intensity pain/symptoms and it hasn’t gotten worse, or you can make the stiffness better with certain movements, it’s probably temporary and not a big issue.
However, if you have experienced neck stiffness for an extended period of time and/or with worsening intensity or symptoms, have severe neck pain following trauma, pain that radiates down your arms or legs (including weakness, numbness or tingling) or high fever, then it’s a good idea to get it assessed by a physiotherapist or primary care provider (especially if a fever is involved).
Where to get help from a physiotherapist for neck stiffness in Toronto
If you are looking to get started with physiotherapy treatment, please feel free to book in with one of our physiotherapists at Resilience Physiotherapy!
Our clinic is located in the Toronto Annex area and we specialize in physiotherapy treatment for orthopedic injuries and conditions such as neck pain, frozen shoulder and rotator cuff tears, and low back pain and injury.
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Written by Jessica Chiang, Physiotherapist