Text Neck - Weighs on Your Cervical Spine

Smartphones are fabulous pieces of technology. Many of us can’t imagine life without them anymore (or ever, if you’re young enough). As great as these devices are they don’t come without their problems (and we’re not talking about software updates).

Text neck is the epidemic of hunching over to look at our phones. The forward lean caused by this position can potentially ruin the natural curvature of our cervical spine. A story in the Washington Post about text neck details just how bad and problematic this issue is becoming. The poor posture brought on from staring at our devices can lead to earlier degeneration of the cervical spine. As the article states, our heads weigh just over 10 pounds. As our neck bends forward and down to look at our mobile devices, the weight and pressure placed on our cervical spine increases. “At a 15-degree angle, this weight is about 27 pounds, at 30 degrees it’s 40 pounds, at 45 degrees it’s 49 pounds, and at 60 degrees it’s 60 pounds.” That’s a lot of weight and excess stress being placed on the spine for long periods of time each day, month, and year. Muscle strain, pinched nerves, herniated disks – these are all potential problems caused by text neck that might one day require surgery. One way to help keep your spine in alignment is to invest in a cervical pillow. Sleeping with the right cervical pillow can help relieve pressure in your neck and keep your spine in proper alignment all night long. This is just one way to help combat the problems posed by our smart devices.