This may be something you all have heard of before. But I got to thinking about all of the looking down we do as a society on our cell phones. I feel like I use my phone quite a bit to read stuff. Hardly ever do I hold it straight out in front of me. I’m usually sitting up holding my phone near my lap looking straight down at it. I was thinking about how hard this probably is on our neck.
So I started googling some things and learned about “text neck”. This has apparently been a thing for many years but only called text neck these days due to modern technology. But it’s linked back to sewing and book reading and other things that people hunch their neck down to look at. Now, I’m not saying this has caused eagle syndrome at all but I am saying for those of us who are affected with a lot of neck pain we need to take into serious consideration how much additional strain we are putting on our neck by activities that cause us to look down often.
I’m going to attempt to attach a link to this. The link states the more we bend our neck forward we can increase up to 50 pounds of pressure on the cervical spine!!! I have a lot of neck pain. I wake up with a lot of neck pain. It leaves me wondering if some of it could be from aggravation from looking down on my phone. My average daily screen time is pretty significant according to my weekly report. Sometimes I average three hours a day. There have been times I’ve averaged four hours a day. That’s quite extensive and when I see those numbers for myself I think about how ridiculous it is. However, I’m usually trying to read something that I think is important. I’m on my phone a lot in the evening and off and on during the daytime. Anyway, I’m going to attach this link I hope you guys take it serious and maybe it will help someone to lesson neck pain. I think being more consciously aware of trying to not look down may help. This is only my opinion. Maybe it will help someone with neck pain to improve it somewhat.
Thanks! I definitely notice if I spend too much time sitting at a desk looking down, reading etc. I think there’s been mentions in discussions about posture & how it can make necks painful…I hope that you’re able to find a way to either get your neck more comfy or reduce screen time!
Hi bjane,
I have posted a link in the past to info about Upper Cross Syndrome which is essentially text neck. There are exercises you can do to help your neck recover from too much looking down. They aren’t aggressive. Essentially what happens is the muscles in the back of your neck & your upper shoulders get stuck in an extended (lengthened) position while the muscles on the front of your neck & chest end up in a more contracted (shortened) position. This throws your upper body out of balance & causes pain. It can also reduce the natural kyphotic curve in your neck which then puts strain on the cervical discs & nerves.
Getting the muscles retrained to their natural lengths helps to even everything out & helps reduce pain but the process can take some months.
YouTube has a number of videos that explain Upper Cross Syndrome along w/ various gentle exercises that can be done to help correct it.
Yes good information for those who may find themselves looking down at their phones or reading books often. Try to be more aware of positioning of the neck. 