Thread: nightime hip and thigh pain

I am a side sleeper and have been waking up at night with excruciating pain in my hips and down the thigh. It is a hot, throbbing, deep pain that runs down the outside of my leg, sometimes as far as my knee. The most painful area seems to be around the external rotators and it wraps around the hip and runs down the side of my thigh. If I extend my leg as straight as possible and flex my foot the pain eases up. If I move my legs into a fetal position, the pain increases. The pain is not in the hip joint. More like originating around the quadratis.

Anyone experience this before? Could it be bursitis? Pain was horrible last night and today the glute and outside of my thigh on that side are tender to touch.

Ideas?

I have this too . . . I'm interested in what others have to say. I just had surgery to remove a herniated disk in my lower back, but the doctor said the hip pain is not likely cause by that. I also had pain down the back of my leg, which was caused by my herniated disk. I can't seem to find anyone who knows what this mysterious hip and thigh pain is . . .

This sounds really painful! I suggest sleeping with a pillow between your knees/thighs (easy if you're a side sleeper) to ease the pressure. Most of all, I suggest you get it checked out by a doctor as it might be a number of things (pos. blood clots, bursitis, disc trouble...something Tylenol maybe can't fix). The pillow should help though, but difficult if you sleep on your back! :-)
Good luck!

I have a misalignment in my hips and a compression between my L4 and L5. What you are describing is what I felt - and sometimes still feel - when the misalignment is severe. I go see a chiropractor and a massage therapist. Sleep with a pillow under my knee and try to be more aware of my posture throughout the day.

{{{HUG}}}

I have felt this also recently and I think it is my mattress! I was wondering what it was and then stayed at a Comfort Inn recently with a really nice mattress and woke up for the first time without the pain. I am looking into getting a new mattress.

I am definitely not an expert but I experience this too. I have quite a bit of difference in size between my waist and hips and this causes my back to curve and my hip to dig into the mattress when I sleep on my side. The pillow between the knees may help. So might a "pillow top" for your mattress. I think it has something to do with the IT band being overstretched and then sort of spasming to compensate ..cr.:

Thanks, everyone. I have memory foam pillow top for the mattress and recently put a second layer of memory foam on the bed because of the recurring hip pain. One of my hips (the side that hurts) is higher than the other and tilted a little farther forward beyond neutral. When I talked to my doctor last year about the pain, he felt it might be inflammation of the ITB and I did some PT for that. I've been regularly working on stretching and streghthening the IT band since then. That is why I am thinking this might be one of external rotators. I have also been reading about bursitis which sounds l ike the pain I am experiencing. The treatment for that is ice, Alleve, stretching. I've been doing a lot of walking and hip work and I think that is contributing to whatever it is.

Souzan

Does it feel like your bones are aching? When I was 18 my large bones would ache when I slept. There were numerous other complaints that later my doctor & I put together as thyroid disease (hypo). Blood tests and a full thyroid panel confirmed it.
So...as with all mysterious complaints, my advice would be get your thyroid levels, including tsh, t3, t4 and thyroid antibody.

It could be your lumbar is out of wack. Go get an ajustment and see if that helps.
I have the same exact thing happening to me. I just had my second child, who is enormous, I tote him around religiously on only my left side. It gives me unbelivable pain in my hip and sometimes if I walk for long or sit for long I cant stand up! I can pop mine into place by myself now by lying on my back, bringing my right leg (the one with the pain in the hip) to my chest and rolling it over the left side while pushing down on the sacrum.

I have a wedge for side sleepers, a sleep number custom pillow and bed, and I will never go back. I have the same pain, but perm damage to lower back and hip. I can sleep now.

I'll try the wedge. I use a body pillow now to try to keep my hip elevated but a wedge would be better. Also using a Sona pillow for side sleepers to help reduce snoring. Husband says it works, he doesn't have to get up and go to the guest room in the middle of the night anymore.

This is very much what I felt like after my car accident- I also had issues walking up & down stairs on occasion- not all the time, more when I was fatigued- turned out I had rotated my pelvis in the accident & it has taken/is still taking months of physical therapy to correct- it also took going through 3 different physical therapist to discover that this was the actual problem, rather than just having unstable hips. also caused some lower back pain. My right leg was actually a full inch shorter than my left due to the pelvic rotation.

I used to have hip and lower back pain when sleeping, and recently bought a new mattress. It's made a huge difference. I bought one with strong, separate inner spring coils, and a layer of foam over the top. The coils provide a strong base, while the foam moulds itself to your curves and cushions. Bliss!

A new mattress isn't going to necessarily help the cause of your issue, but it may help with comfort.