Detailed guides to painful problems, treatments & more

I woke up with it

 •  • by Paul Ingraham
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Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.

@NurseKelsey:

No one warned me that in your 30s you can wake up with injuries you did not have when you went to sleep. That’s some bullshit.

As you might imagine, that tweet got a lot of “just wait until your 40s/50s/60s” replies.

“I woke up with it” is an amazingly common start for stories of painful problems. I have been professionally fascinated by it for 20 years now. People can wake up with 🤬 runners’ knee. Without ever, y’know, actually running. THIS MEANS SOMETHING.