Whiplash Injury

Since the same position is maintained for 6 to 8 hours during sleep, if the pillow height is incorrect, continuous stress is placed on the damaged cervical spine tissue, leading to severe morning stiffness. When lying on your back, you need a pillow about 6 to 8 cm high to support the neck curve, and when lying on your side, a higher pillow to compensate for shoulder width is required. Lying face down is the most harmful position for whiplash patients because the cervical spine remains fixed in a rotated state for a long time. Applying a warm compress for 10 to 15 minutes before bed helps reduce muscle tension and improve sleep quality. From the perspective of a Korean medicine clinic, night is considered the time when blood returns to the liver to strengthen muscles; based on the principle that the liver governs the recovery of muscles and ligaments, sleep is the golden time for ligament and muscle recovery. If your neck stiffens further in bed, it means that damage is accumulating during the recovery period, so it must be corrected. Furthermore, since Yang energy enters inward during sleep and the body's surface defenses loosen, directing air from an air conditioner or fan onto the neck allows cold wind and moisture to invade weakened meridians, exacerbating morning stiffness. For those with irregular sleep patterns due to shift work, the rhythm of Qi and blood recovery is easily disrupted. At Dongjedang, we help make sleep a time for healing by combining internal treatment—which involves loosening stiff muscles with acupuncture and pharmacopuncture—with herbal medicine tailored to your constitution to clear blood stasis and simultaneously improve sleep quality and recovery.