Text Neck: What Looking Down All Day Does To Your Spine

Neck and shoulder tension has become one of the more common complaints we see, and a good deal of it traces back to posture rather than injury. The term that has stuck is text neck, though the phones are only part of it. Laptops, tablets, paperwork and car dashboards all pull the head into the same position.

The mechanics of a forward head

An adult head weighs somewhere in the region of ten to twelve pounds. Balanced directly over the shoulders, the neck supports it efficiently and the muscles do relatively little. As the head travels forward, it acts on a longer lever, and the muscles at the back of the neck and across the upper shoulders have to pull harder to stop it dropping further. The further forward it goes, the more they work.

Held for a few minutes, that is unremarkable. Held for hours a day, most days, it becomes a sustained load the neck was not designed for.

What tends to show up

• Aching at the base of the neck and across the tops of the shoulders
• Tension headaches that build through the afternoon
• Reduced ability to turn the head comfortably to one side
• A feeling of tightness that returns within hours of stretching
• Discomfort between the shoulder blades

Why headaches often come with it

The nerves serving the upper neck share pathways with nerves that supply parts of the head. When the joints and muscles of the upper cervical spine are irritated, the resulting pain can be felt across the back of the head, behind the eyes or at the temples. People often treat these as unrelated headaches when the neck is closely involved.

The curve matters

A healthy neck has a gentle backward curve that helps distribute load. Sustained forward posture tends to flatten that curve over time. Once it flattens, the discs and joints sit under a more even and constant pressure rather than sharing load the way the curve allows, and the supporting muscles stay switched on far longer than they should.

Practical changes that help

• Raise the screen. Monitors at eye level, phones held higher rather than resting in your lap
• Break the position. A short change of posture every half hour does more than one long stretch at the end of the day
• Strengthen the upper back, so the muscles that hold the shoulders back can do their job
• Check the car and the couch, which are often worse than the desk

When posture advice is not enough

If the joints of the neck have already lost normal motion, stretching and screen height will only take you so far, because the restriction remains. An examination can establish how the neck is moving, where motion is missing, and whether the curve has changed, which determines what actually needs addressing.

Persistent neck tension or headaches are worth having looked at. Strand Spine Institute offers a new patient consultation and exam for $49 in Pawleys Island. Call (843) 979-CARE (2273).