Bedside lights

Bedside lights are an important factor in the health of your cervical spine. Craning your neck to get enough direct rays from the traditional lamp certainly contributes to neck pain, and eye strain too; it may undo the best laid plans of your chiropractor and optician.

There is fortunately a fairly simple solution, though the graphic above isn't it. It's not clearly seen but we have two fittings, with a couple LED lamps each; one is run from solar and the other from mains; that's not a subject for discussion here, and something of a luxury. 

The lamps can easily be adjusted, both shining over the shoulders, one for the good wife, and the other for me. Three watts is quite adequate for each, providing ample light without either of us having to crane our necks.

As an aside, I expect every chiropractor has a cupboard full of gifts brought by grateful patients; notice that beautiful embroidered cushion. I use it daily and think of Joy often. 

A padded and quilted headboard is not difficult to make, look on the net for directions, and certainly makes sitting back and reading a lot more comfortable.

It took me a few hours to make the frame and we did the quilting together; it's one of those tasks where two people means you can do it in less than half the time.

If you have neck troubles, and a conventional bedside lamp, I urge you to make the change; it's simple.

The two on the left are powered by the utility which often fails; then we use those on the right; batteries charged by the sun are the source of their energy.

Bedside lights

Bedside lights should be directly above and between the pillows in a double bed and directed over your shoulder.

You will need a simple light fitting that can be attached to the wall, with two heads that can be rotated.

• A length of conduit
• Three core wire if the fitting is made of metal, as it has to be earthed.
• A switch, and a plug.

Attach the fitting to the wall about one metre above your bed. If it is higher you can't easily reach it to switch it off; if you place it lower you may bump your head on the lamps. You may want to practise a little to find a height that suits you.

Next, attach the switch to the wall directly below the lamp; perhaps your light fitting has one built in, but then you have to reach up higher. This to my mind is the ideal.

Then plug the conduit to the wall directly below the fitting to the switch, and then another down to the skirting; it just neatens things up so you don't have untidy wires hanging down. Use a level so everything is plumb.

Run the wiring from the lamp, through the switch, to the plinth at floor level and along to the nearest plug socket. Only the live is broken as it passes through the breaker; let the neutral pass straight through.

Make sure the fitting is earthed, and plug it in at the socket; it is very basic electrics for most men, and I've no doubt a good many women.

LED lamps are the future; today make the decision never to buy another incandescent lamp. I don't like CFLs either; they are filled with mercury and use about three times a much electricity.

You will immediately feel the benefit in your neck and less eye strain too. Many of us have either a reversed lordosis in the neck from an old whiplash, or a curvature due to a short leg, or injury to the spine. Couple that with twisting your neck to get sufficient light and it will cost you at least an extra half a dozen visits every year to the chiropractor, and a lot of pain. Old fashioned bedside lights are the pits.

You may be wondering, why am I trying to do your chiropractor out of business? I can assure you we like patients who get better and stay well. Those who keep coming back with niggling pain are never happy, and they don't refer us their friends and neighbours. If it is something as simple as the correct bedside light that will keep you and your chiropractor happy, then do it.

One small thought may be relevant. If you wake in the night and like to read, then perhaps two separate lamps may be the answer, one above each of your heads.

Often there's a trigger that sets off your neck pain, and it is often unknown. You go to bed at night, wake up in the morning with no difficulties, stretch or move slightly and you have a severe, uncompromising spasm. It may be an invaginated capsule that causes a severe torticollis, or irritation of the joints of Luschka causing tingling down your arm. Or an upper cervical or occipital subluxation that sets off your migraines.

Make sure that your bedside lights are not the underlying cause of your problems. They are very pretty, but have no place in the bedroom. Or, have them, and a reading lamp above your head. Remember, roughly three feet up is probably the right height.

Chiropractic help

It is time for a new movement in health care, away from making patients chronically dependent on their doctors for medication and manipulations. If your chiropractic help isn't emphasizing exercises, changes of posture, evaluating your position at the computer and factors like bedside lights, then it may be time to make a change.

On that subject, if you possibly can, move away from spending long hours on the laptop to a conventional computer. Have someone who is knowledgeable check out the ergonomics of your station.

And if your doctor has only more pills to offer from for your neck pain, then it is definitely time to make a move to chiropractic help; and perhaps a regular massage. We don't have the perfect solution to your neck pain, because there isn't one. Ask any professional and they will admit that chronic neck pain is a toughie.

Research shows that if you have had neck pain for over five months, you've got it for ever, whatever the treatment. An occasional, but regular chiropractic adjustment in a maintenance care program, coupled with exercises and a massage is our solution to the problem; it isn't perfect.

Cervical facet syndrome

There are five joints between each pair of vertebrae in your neck. All can give you beans, but the most common is the cervical facet syndrome. They become worn after injury and scoliosis and are a great source of pain, but the chiropractic adjustment is the treatment of choice.

Are there dangers associated with chiropractic manipulation? Yes, there certainly are, but incidents are so few and far between that to all intents and purposes you can ignore them, unless you are a young woman, smoker and on the pill.

Roughly one in six million persons will have a stroke within 30 days of a chiropractic manipulation, and there's no certainty that was the cause anyway. An equal number have consulted their medical doctor in that period of time. Researchers now agree that it was going to happen anyway, regardless of who you consulted.

Chiropractors have very low malpractice insurance premiums for a good reason; claims are rarely successful.

Nevertheless, if you are having more than 15-20 chiropractic help treatments per annum for the same condition, then it is time to be thinking about factors like bedside lights, computer ergonomics, sleeping posture and a daily set of gentle exercises.

LED lights

They make especially good bedside lights as the light is concentrated in a small beam with no waste. Positioned above your bed, and beaming over your shoulder they make for the perfect reading environment.

Useful links

• Cervical facet syndrome.