How Do You Fix a Crick in Your Neck? Causes, Fast Relief and How Long It Lasts

This article was written by Dr. James E. Toney Jr., DC, a chiropractor at Arrowhead Clinic. Dr. Toney graduated from Georgia Southern University with a BA in Biology and minors in Chemistry and Business Management, and completed his education at Life University, where he received a Masters in Exercise Science and Sports Chiropractic with an emphasis in Sports Injury, and a Doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine. Reviewed and current as of January 2026.

Quick answer: Most of the time you can fix a crick in your neck at home within a day or two using gentle movement, heat or ice, water, and rest. If your neck is still locked up after a few days, if the pain is getting worse instead of better, or if you can't turn your head at all, that is when it is worth having a chiropractor examine you.

No matter the cause, you will notice your neck is stiff, sore, and sometimes quite painful to move after sleeping in an awkward position, straining a muscle, or moving your neck weirdly.

A crick in the neck can be caused by a singular movement or by sleeping in a bad position. Most people do not realize how much they turn their head and use their neck throughout the day until they can't.

Neck pain can be a debilitating issue if it isn't treated. We want to help you relieve the soreness and get you back to your full range of motion as quickly as possible.

This guide covers how to fix a crick in your neck step by step. We answer what is a crick in your neck in plain terms, how to manage the pain, how long it should last, how to sleep while you have one, and where to seek medical attention if it doesn't go away on its own.

What this article covers, and what it doesn't. This guide is about the everyday crick — the kind that comes from sleeping wrong, sitting badly, or turning your head too fast. It is not about neck pain from a car accident. If your neck started hurting after a collision, read our whiplash injuries page instead, because that is a different injury with a different timeline and different documentation needs.

Related post: The Main Symptoms Caused by Subluxation of the Cervical Spine

What Is a Crick in the Neck?

A crick is a sudden, sharp neck pain caused by a twitching, stiff, tight, or knotted muscle that limits how far you can turn your head.

This pain can come out of nowhere, and even though you'd like to get rid of it immediately, it can last for a few minutes, a few hours, or even a few days. It may even be felt in the upper back, causing back pain.

It can be triggered by the smallest movement of the neck, and although there are ways to fix the neck pain, there is no sure way to prevent a crick entirely.

A crick in your neck can be extremely painful and even debilitating. It can interrupt your daily tasks and make even the simplest activities seem impossible.

What Does a Crick in the Neck Look Like?

From the outside, there usually isn't much to see. What people notice is the way you hold yourself. If you have a crick in your neck, you will probably:

• Tilt your head slightly to one side instead of holding it straight
• Turn your whole body to look at something rather than rotating your head
• Reach up and hold or rub one side of your neck without thinking about it
• Keep your shoulder raised toward your ear on the painful side

When someone says "I have a crick in my neck," or "I got a crick in my neck and can't move," this is almost always what they are describing — not a visible injury, but a loss of easy movement.

What Do People Call It?

There is no single medical term for it, which is why the same problem gets searched for in so many different ways. People type "crick in neck," "crick in my neck," "neck crick," "crick neck," "what is a neck crick," and "what is crick in neck," and they all mean the same thing. Some people say their neck feels "cricked," or describe waking up with a "cricked neck." Others reach for words like "neck crank" when the muscle feels wound tight.

Whatever you call it, the underlying issue is the same: a muscle in your neck has tightened or spasmed and it hurts to move.

Is a Crick the Same Thing as a Crook or a Kink in Your Neck?

Yes. "Crick," "crook," and "kink" all describe the same sudden neck stiffness — the difference is regional, not medical.

A lot of people say "crook" rather than "crick." If you grew up hearing it that way, you probably search for "crook of the neck," "crook in neck," "crook in my neck," "crook of neck," "crook of your neck," "crook in the neck," "crook neck," or "neck crook." Every one of those describes exactly what we cover on this page.

"Kink in neck" is the third common version. Someone with a kink in their neck has the same tight, guarded, hard-to-turn feeling, and the same remedies apply. You may also hear people say they have a "tweaked neck" after a sudden movement, or a "crooked neck" when their head is being pulled to one side by the tight muscle.

One thing worth separating out: a crooked neck that persists, where your head is genuinely held at an angle and won't straighten, is not the same as a passing crick. That is worth having examined rather than waiting out.

What Causes a Crick in Your Neck?

Most cricks come from holding your neck in one position too long, sleeping awkwardly, or moving your head suddenly.

When people ask what causes a crick in your neck, the honest answer is that it is usually something ordinary. The most common triggers we see are:

• Sleeping position. By far the most common. A pillow that's too tall, too flat, or bunched under one shoulder leaves your neck bent at an angle for hours.
• Sudden movement. Turning your head fast to check a blind spot, or looking up quickly, can make a muscle grab.
• Sustained posture. Hours at a computer, a phone held low, or a long drive all keep your neck muscles loaded in one position.
• Muscle strain. Lifting something awkward, carrying a heavy bag on one shoulder, or overdoing it at the gym.
• Stress. People hold tension in the neck and shoulders without realizing it.
• Dehydration. Muscles and joints don't work well when you are low on fluid.
• Cold or draft exposure. Sleeping under a vent or an open window can leave muscles tight.

If you are wondering what causes crick in neck pain that shows up specifically overnight, the answer is almost always the pillow and the position. What causes a crick in the neck during the day is more often a sudden movement or a long stretch of bad posture. And what causes a crick in your neck after sleeping is simply that your head sat at an angle your muscles didn't like for six or eight hours straight.

Why Does Your Neck Hurt After Sleeping?

Because your neck spent hours bent at an angle your muscles couldn't hold comfortably, and they stiffened around it.

This is the single most common way a crick starts. Neck pain from sleeping is so common that most people have experienced it at least once. You go to bed fine and wake up unable to turn your head.

It is also why most people read a page like this one first thing in the morning. The typical version of this goes: "I woke up this morning and can't turn my neck." "I slept wrong and my neck is killing me." "I can't turn my head to the left." "I can't check my blind spot and I have to drive to work." If any of those sound like your morning, you are in the right place.

If your neck hurts after sleeping, the cause is usually mechanical rather than serious. Your pillow, your mattress, or the position you drifted off in left your cervical spine out of its natural curve. The muscles on one side got stretched, the muscles on the other side got shortened, and by morning they had tightened up to protect the area.

A crick in neck from sleeping typically follows a predictable pattern: worst in the first hour after waking, easier once you move around, sore again if you sit still too long.

The same night can produce a few different complaints. Some people get a stiff neck from sleeping and simply can't rotate. Others get a sore neck from sleeping that aches rather than catches. Plenty of people describe both a stiff neck after sleeping and a dull neck pain after sleeping that lingers into the afternoon. All three are the same mechanism.

This is one of the most searched problems there is, and it gets typed a hundred different ways — "neck pain from sleeping," "neck pain sleeping," "slept wrong neck pain," "sleeping wrong neck pain," "why does my neck hurt after sleeping," and "why does my neck hurt when i turn it" all describe this exact situation.

How Do You Relieve Neck Pain From Sleeping Wrong?

Sleeping neck pain relief comes down to three things in order: warmth, gentle movement, and not sitting still afterward.

If you are looking for how to relieve neck pain from sleeping wrong, the chiropractors at Arrowhead Clinic in Georgia recommend starting with heat rather than ice, because the problem is a tight muscle rather than a fresh swelling. Then move within the range that doesn't hurt, and keep moving lightly through the day.

That same sequence is the answer to how to fix neck pain from sleeping wrong, how to get rid of neck pain from sleeping wrong, how to relieve neck pain from sleeping, and how to fix neck pain from sleeping. There is no separate technique for each phrasing — warmth, small movements, repetition.

What Should You Do If You Slept on Your Neck Wrong?

If you slept on your neck wrong, resist the urge to force it. Neck pain from sleeping wrong responds better to gentle movement than to aggressive stretching.

Start with heat rather than ice. A warm shower aimed at the back of your neck, or a heat pack for fifteen minutes, will loosen the muscle enough that you can begin moving. Then move slowly and only within the range that doesn't hurt.

For a slept on neck wrong fix that actually helps, the sequence matters: warmth first, gentle movement second, then keep moving lightly through the day rather than holding still. Sitting frozen at a desk all day is the fastest way to turn one bad night into three bad days.

Sleeping wrong neck pain almost always improves within 24 to 48 hours if you keep moving gently. If it doesn't, that's your signal to have it looked at.

Why Does Your Neck Hurt When You Turn It?

The muscle that is in spasm is doing its job — badly. When a muscle is irritated, it tightens to stop you from moving the joint it protects. So when you rotate your head, you are pulling directly against a muscle that has decided movement is dangerous.

That is also why the pain is sharp and sudden rather than a dull ache. It is a protective reflex, not damage.

What If You Woke Up With Neck Pain and Can't Turn Your Head?

Waking up with neck pain and finding you can barely rotate at all is alarming, but it is common and usually still muscular. A pulled neck muscle can't turn head situation — where rotation is genuinely blocked rather than just painful — is something we see constantly, and it usually resolves in a day or two.

Here is what helps when you woke up with neck pain can't turn head at all:

• Apply heat for 15 minutes before you attempt any movement
• Turn only as far as the point where it starts to pull, then stop and return to center
• Repeat that small range every hour rather than doing one big stretch
• Support your neck with a rolled towel when sitting

Here is when it stops being a wait-and-see situation. Go to an emergency room rather than waiting if your neck stiffness comes with a fever, a severe headache, numbness or weakness in your arms or hands, or if it started after a car accident or a fall. Those combinations need imaging, not a heat pack.

When Should You Not Try to Fix a Crick in Your Neck at Home?

Stop home treatment and get medical attention if your neck stiffness comes with a fever, a severe headache, numbness or weakness in your arms or hands, or if it started after a car accident or a fall.

Home care is appropriate for a crick caused by sleeping, posture, or a sudden movement. It is not appropriate when any of the following are also present:

• A fever alongside the neck stiffness
• A severe or unusual headache
• Numbness, tingling, or weakness travelling into your shoulder, arm, or hand
• Neck stiffness that began after a car accident, a fall, or a blow to the head
• Pain that is getting worse each day rather than easing
• Loss of coordination, or trouble with your balance

Being honest about the limits here matters: a chiropractor is not the right first stop for a neck stiffness that comes with a fever and a headache. That combination needs an emergency room, not an adjustment.

How Do You Get Rid of a Crick in Your Neck?

Gentle massage and stretching, alternating heat and ice, staying hydrated, short-term over-the-counter pain relief, and chiropractic care are the five approaches that work for most people.

If you have a crick in your neck, try the five pain management and treatment options below. This is the same list we walk patients through, and for most people the crick in the neck goes away within a couple of days.

1. How Do You Massage and Stretch the Crick Out of Your Neck?

You can use your own hands, or someone else's if they are willing, to fix the crick in your neck.

Lightly rub your neck and upper shoulders and back where the muscles feel tight and knotted. Do not rub too harshly and be careful not to hurt yourself further, but usually a massage can loosen up a tightened or spasmed muscle.

If you want to stretch your neck gently, lay down on a flat and soft surface like a carpeted floor or bed, and slowly turn your head from side to side. Do not turn your head until it is painful — just enough to slowly work out the kinks.

This is the answer to how to get a crick out of your neck that most people reach for first, and for good reason. It is free, it takes two minutes, and it works more often than not.

2. Should You Use Heat or Ice for a Crick in Your Neck?

Hot and cold packs are some of the easiest ways to diminish pain symptoms after an injury.

Heat packs help to reduce muscle spasms and ice reduces inflammation. If you know what works best for your body, try that. A simple rule that works for most people: heat when the muscle feels tight and stiff, ice when the area feels hot, swollen, or freshly injured.

For stiff neck relief specifically, heat is usually the better first choice. If you have been searching how to get rid of a stiff neck and nothing has worked, it is often because ice was used on a muscle that needed warmth. You may want professional advice, and if so, contact a chiropractor to learn about what will work best for a stiff neck. If you know what caused the crick in your neck, you will better be able to determine what type of treatment will work best for you.

3. Does Staying Hydrated Help?

The importance of drinking water cannot be overstated. Dehydration can cause muscle and joint issues, especially in the neck.

Women should be drinking 2 liters of water a day, and men should be drinking 2.5 liters of water a day. That's about 8-10 glasses of water daily. It may seem like a lot, but it is necessary in order to stay properly hydrated.

Hydration can not only help heal cricks in the neck, it can help prevent them from ever occurring in the first place.

4. Should You Take Tylenol or Ibuprofen?

We believe in natural pain remedies, but if you are in need of relief, many people take a small dose of over the counter medication like Tylenol, ibuprofen, Advil, or aspirin.

This medication can help you feel better and decrease your inflammation in the short term, but a long-term and permanent solution is still necessary, so do not learn to rely on these types of pain medicines as your pain remedy.

If you are searching for medicine for neck pain because nothing else has touched it, that is usually a sign the problem needs an actual diagnosis rather than a stronger painkiller.

5. When Should You Schedule an Appointment With a Chiropractor?

We believe that the natural and safe treatments that chiropractic care offers are the best choice when you have a crick in your neck.

Similar to a physical therapist, chiropractors specialize in treating soft tissue injuries to the neck and back and are trained to properly realign your spine, which relieves tension and reduces pain symptoms.

Chiropractors can eliminate neck stiffness and prevent future issues, so you never have to wake up in the morning with a stiff neck again.

Book an appointment rather than waiting it out if:

• The pain hasn't improved at all after three or four days
• It keeps coming back every few weeks
• You feel numbness, tingling, or weakness going into your arm or hand
• It started after a car accident, a fall, or a sports injury
• You are relying on painkillers just to get through the day

How Do You Get a Crook Out of Your Neck Fast?

There is no instant fix, but heat followed by small, repeated movements is the fastest route — usually noticeable relief within an hour and real improvement within a day.

The fast version of the routine above looks like this:

• Heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Shower, heat pack, or warm towel.
• Massage the tight side. Thumb pressure into the knot, held for 20 to 30 seconds at a time.
• Move within the pain-free range. Slow rotations, ear-to-shoulder tilts, chin tucks. Small ranges, many times.
• Keep moving through the day. Every hour, not once.
• Heat again in the evening, and set your pillow up properly before bed.

Can You Get Rid of a Crick in Your Neck Overnight?

Sometimes. If you catch it early, apply heat, move gently before bed, and sleep with proper neck support, it is entirely possible to wake up loose again. But how to get rid of a crick in your neck overnight is not something anyone can promise. A muscle that has been in spasm for a full day usually needs more than one night.

What you can control is not making it worse overnight — which comes down to your pillow and your sleeping position.

Should You See a Chiropractor, Go to Urgent Care, or Go to the ER?

See a chiropractor for a crick that persists or keeps returning, go to urgent care if you cannot function and need same-day evaluation, and go to the ER if there is fever, severe headache, arm weakness, or a recent accident.

Most people never need to make this decision, because most cricks resolve on their own. When the decision does come up, here is how we would frame it:

A chiropractor is the right choice when the problem is mechanical — restricted joint movement and muscle guarding. That is nearly every crick that has lasted more than a few days, and it is almost always the answer when the same crick keeps coming back every few weeks. At Arrowhead Clinic our facilities have in-house X-ray machines, so if imaging is needed to understand what is happening in your cervical spine, it can be done during the visit.

Urgent care is a reasonable option if you simply cannot function, want a same-day medical opinion, and are not near a chiropractic clinic that can see you.

The emergency room is the right choice, without waiting, if your neck stiffness comes with a fever, a severe headache, numbness or weakness in your arms, or if it started after a crash or a fall. Motor vehicle accidents are the second leading cause of ER and hospital visits in the United States, and neck injuries from a collision are not the same thing as a crick.

A physical therapist works on the same soft tissue as a chiropractor and is a good fit for longer-term strengthening. Chiropractors, similar to physical therapists, specialize in treating soft tissue injuries to the neck and back.

How Long Does a Crick in the Neck Last?

Most cricks resolve in one to three days. A stubborn one can linger for a week.

There is no fixed number, because it depends on what caused it and how quickly you started moving again. As a general pattern:

• Hours to one day — a mild crick from a single awkward movement
• One to three days — the typical crick from sleeping wrong
• Up to a week — a strained muscle, or a crick you kept aggravating by holding still

When people ask how long does a crick in your neck last, or type "how long does crick in neck last" into a search bar, the more useful question is whether it is trending in the right direction. A crick that is 20 percent better each day is behaving normally. One that is the same on day four, or worse, is not.

What If the Crick in Your Neck Won't Go Away?

A crick in neck won't go away for one of a few reasons: the underlying joint isn't moving properly, the muscle keeps getting re-irritated by the same posture or pillow, or what you are dealing with isn't a simple crick at all.

Persistent or recurring neck stiffness can point to an underlying problem in the cervical spine — restricted joint motion, disc irritation, or a nerve being compressed. Those don't resolve with heat and stretching because heat and stretching aren't addressing the cause.

If you are past the one-week mark, or if this is the fourth time this year, an examination is worth more than another week of guessing.

How Should You Sleep With a Crick in Your Neck?

On your back or your side with your neck fully supported — never on your stomach.

How to sleep with a crick in your neck determines a lot about how you feel in the morning. The goal is keeping your head in line with your spine all night — and the advice for how to sleep with crick in neck pain is the same as the general advice for how to sleep with neck pain of any kind.

On your back: Use a thinner pillow, or one with a raised edge that fills the gap under your neck. A small rolled towel tucked into your pillowcase works well.

On your side: Your pillow needs to be thick enough to fill the space between your ear and your shoulder, so your head doesn't tip toward the mattress. A pillow between your knees keeps your spine aligned.

On your stomach: Don't. Stomach sleeping forces your head to stay rotated for hours, which is what causes most cricks in the first place.

If your neck is painful on one side only, sleep on the painless side. And if you are wondering how to sleep with a stiff neck more generally, the same rules apply — support the curve, avoid rotation, and don't sleep in a position you couldn't comfortably hold while awake.

The best way to sleep for neck pain is whichever of back or side you find you can actually stay in. There is no benefit to a "correct" position you abandon at 2 a.m. If you want to know how to sleep to avoid neck pain long term, the pillow matters more than the position.

How Do You Keep a Crick in Your Neck From Coming Back?

A combination of regular preventive treatments and tips to take home can prevent future cricks from ever occurring. Some great ways our chiropractors have advised patients to reduce the likelihood of cricks occurring are:

• Stretch your neck muscles daily by rotating your head and gently pulling it to each side
• Be sure you are using the correct type of pillow when you sleep, and avoid pillows that are too big and leave your neck in an awkward position
• If you work at a computer all day, take frequent breaks and hold your head in a comfortable position — not too close or too far from your screen
• Raise your phone to eye level instead of dropping your chin to look down at it
• Carry bags across your body rather than on one shoulder
• Stay hydrated

Beyond that, building some capacity in the muscles helps. If you want to know how to strengthen neck muscles safely, start with isometric holds — press your palm against your forehead and resist without actually moving your head, hold for ten seconds, then repeat to each side and to the back. No weight, no fast movement, no forcing.

Why Does Your Neck Crack, and Should You Crack It Yourself?

A lot of people try to crack their own neck to release a crick. The sound itself is usually harmless — it's gas releasing from the joint. But the answer to why does my neck crack when you're doing it forcefully, repeatedly, and by wrenching your head with your hands is different from the occasional pop during normal movement.

Forcing a crack while a muscle is in spasm often makes the spasm worse, and repeatedly cranking on a joint that is already irritated is not a treatment. If your neck needs to move better, a trained chiropractor moving one specific joint is a different thing from you twisting your whole neck at speed.

What Happens on Your First Visit for a Crick in Your Neck?

Your first visit is a free consultation. We examine your neck, use in-house X-ray imaging if it is needed, and build a treatment plan from what we find.

Arrowhead's facilities have in-house X-ray machines to help diagnose injuries, so you are not sent somewhere else and asked to come back another day. After determining the full extent of a patient's injuries, Arrowhead's team of medical doctors, chiropractors, and injury treatment specialists builds a custom treatment plan.

We also offer same-day appointments, which matters for a crick more than it does for most complaints — the whole problem is that you woke up with it today and you need to be able to turn your head today.

Your initial consultation is free. If you want to know what a visit involves in more detail before you book, our What To Expect page walks through it.

Who Treats Neck Pain at Arrowhead Clinic?

Several of our chiropractors treat neck pain and spinal injuries specifically.

Dr. Darris Gentry has been a practicing chiropractor for over 20 years. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and Life University, one of the country's top chiropractic schools, and he enjoys treating patients who have back pain, neck pain, sciatica pain, and spinal trauma from all sorts of accidents.

Dr. Roy Vogel has been a chiropractor with Arrowhead Clinic in Decatur, Georgia since 1992 and brings over 26 years of experience caring for patients with debilitating head, neck, and back pain. He offers a range of treatments including physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Dr. Calvin Erhabor is board certified by the National Board of Chiropractors Association and is a member of the Mississippi Chiropractic Association and the Georgia Chiropractic Association.

Dr. Justin Zellweger has advanced training in pediatrics and pregnancy, and is certified by the Titleist Performance Institute, which is relevant if your neck stiffness is connected to a golf swing.

Dr. James E. Toney Jr., DC holds a Masters in Exercise Science and Sports Chiropractic with an emphasis in Sports Injury, alongside his Doctorate in Chiropractic Medicine.

Arrowhead Clinic was founded by Dr. Harry W. Brown, D.C., a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and a graduate of Logan College of Chiropractic, who opened his first chiropractic office in Savannah, Georgia in 1977 and a second in Jonesboro, Georgia in 1979. Arrowhead quickly became the largest chiropractic facility in Georgia.

Where Can You See a Chiropractor for a Crick in Your Neck in Georgia?

If you believe you have a crick in your neck and you need chiropractic treatment to get rid of it, Arrowhead Clinic has been helping patients in need for more than 48+ years.

We can help relieve your pain, stiffness, and soreness, and even help you prevent future incidents from occurring. We offer same-day appointments, and our facilities have in-house X-ray machines to help diagnose injuries. After determining the full extent of your injuries, our team of medical doctors, chiropractors, and injury treatment specialists builds a custom treatment plan.

Arrowhead Clinic has treated over 400,000 accident victims in the last 48+ years. We have 18 clinics throughout Georgia and South Carolina, with a patient capacity of over 1,500.

If you woke up with a crick in your neck in Atlanta, Savannah, Marietta, or Duluth, there is an Arrowhead Clinic near you. The same goes for Albany, Buckhead, Brunswick, Decatur, Garden City, Hinesville, Lithia Springs, McDonough, Newnan, Riverdale, Statesboro, Thomasville, and Valdosta in Georgia, and Bluffton in South Carolina.

So if you are searching for a chiropractor near me, a chiropractor near me open today, a walk-in chiropractor near me, or asking whether there is a chiropractor open now who can see you before work — call us and ask. We offer same-day appointments and your consultation is free.

Call (800) 961-7246 to schedule your free consultation, or click the banner below.

What Do People Ask Most About a Crick in the Neck?