Arm Pain After Sleeping
Answered by: Susan Eagles
Question from: Suzzanne
Posted on: February 24, 1999

If I sleep in the wrong position, I wake with a sore arm and collar bone. Is there any kind of massage ointment quick to hand that I could use?

You should be able to find a cream or oil in your health food store that contains St. John’s Wort or White Willow. St. John’s Wort relaxes the area to allow healing. White Willow is a pain reliever similar to aspirin.

Clove oil calms pain and spasm. For a massage oil, mix ten drops of clove oil to a quarter cup of olive oil. Rosemary oil, made similarly, eases muscle pain.

A quick home remedy is a mustard plaster. Mix dry mustard powder to a paste with warm water, spread on a clean bandage or cloth and wrap the cloth with a clean towel so that the mustard does not come into direct contact with your skin. Apply to the sore areas to increase circulation for relief of pain. Mustard can burn the skin, so care must be taken not to leave the plaster on too long.

If none of the above ingredients are available, a gentle massage, with olive oil if you have it, will relax the tension in the affected areas, encouraging the blood flow and healing.

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