Why does my neck keep cracking?

About a week ago I was driving my kids to school. As I was getting ready to make the left to get out of our neighborhood,look right then left. When I moved from right to left my neck made a loud cracking sound.  The crack didn’t hurt but boy was it loud.  Then later that day my neck felt like it needed to be popped again. This told me that I've been slacking on my neck exercises. 

My work and personal life can get very stressful at times. The kids will have multiple school projects, which of course happen the same time my work picks ups. It's hard to maintain ideal posture while meeting deadlines, let alone make the time to exercise and stretch daily. 

If you are wondering why I care about my neck cracking occasionally. I know that even if the crack or pop doesn’t hurt it’s telling me that my neck is not stable. If my neck just cracked once then I wouldn't be worried. However, the fact that I was getting the sense that my neck needed to be cracked several times in one day tells me my neck strength is not good. 

Over time if your neck is not strong it will develop arthritis or you will develop a herniated disc. The crack is simply the sound of your neck bone adjusting itself back into place, so the sound is not “bad”. But it tells you one of your neck muscles is pulling that bone out of place several times throughout the day. That constant shifting is what causes the wear and tear on your neck.

Thankfully I know several things I can do to stop my neck from feeling like it needs to crack all the time. Doing one or all of the following tips will help you have a healthy quiet neck. 

Here are my best tips to stop your neck from cracking. 

1. Supportive Pillow: If you sleep with your neck tilted or flexion in one direction you are putting stress on your neck. The trick to finding the right pillow, if you are a side sleeper, is that the pillow holds your head in line with your spine. You want your head to stay straight over your shoulder as it does when you are standing. If you are a back sleeper you might try sleeping without a pillow since that would keep you in the best possible alignment. If that isn't comfortable you want the lower profile pillow that is still comfortable. 
2. Adjust Your Workstation: We spend hours in front of screens. And truly we can get into the zone while working then look up and realize we’ve contorted ourselves in some really unnatural positions.  This makes the set up of our workstations very important. The better the initial set up is the less stress we can put on our bodies when our minds are on the tasks at hand. 
3. Posture: Practicing good posture is one of the best ways to reduce muscle tension in your neck. When we slump forward our neck muscles have to constantly work. Eventually they get tired and sore from being overworked. So throughout your day remind yourself to sit up straight getting your head over your shoulders. It gets easier over time and with practice you won't have to think about it any more, it will be natural. 
4. Stretch: Typically when you think of stretching your neck is not what comes to mind. But our necks work hard for us everyday so finding a few stretches that help your neck relax at the end of the day is important. A good neck stretch at the end of your hard workday can help relax the tension in your neck and shoulders. 
5. Physical Therapy: The fastest way to find the root cause of your neck cracking is to see a physical therapist. We look at our clients from head to toe, ask them about their lifestyle to really understand what is happening in their day to cause their specific neck troubles. Having someone that can help you work through:  What is normal and what is not? How hard to push yourself? Explain how other parts of your body affect your neck?  This is what we do for our clients every day to get them correct the simple issues today that become devastating problems tomorrow. 

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