10 Ways to Ease Rheumatoid Arthritis Morning Stiffness

According to Dr. Davis, some people who have RA describe morning stiffness as a feeling of being trapped in a 90-year-old body or a freezing or locking up of their joints. “Stiffness makes performing the simplest of morning tasks more difficult and often dictates the morning routine,” he says.

If you’re troubled by morning stiffness from RA, there are steps you can take — some before you even get out of bed — to wake up your joints and face the day.

Finding ways to ease morning stiffness can benefit you all day long. Use these tips to create your own personalized routine for managing the morning stiffness of RA:

1. Get a Good Night’s Sleep

2. Set an Early Alarm

Jessica Gottlieb, a mom with RA who has struggled with morning stiffness, sets her thermostat to kick up the heat about 30 minutes before she needs to get going in the morning; she sets her alarm for that time too. That half hour allows time for her joints to warm up before she has to get moving.

3. Take Your Medication Right After You Wake Up

If you take medication to manage RA symptoms, take the morning dose as soon as possible after waking up, advises Davis. Keep your medication and some water on your nightstand so you don’t even have to get out of bed first.

4. Warm Up Your Joints

Gottlieb keeps her medication and other essentials within arm’s reach on her nightstand: a heating pad, warm socks, mittens, and a book to read while she’s loosening up her joints in bed. Before getting up to take her morning shower, she uses the heating pad and puts on the mittens and socks to warm up. “My feet feel like my bones are made of glass in the morning,” she says, “but if they’re warm, I’m better off.”

5. Incorporate Gentle Movements

Start your morning by performing some gentle range-of-motion exercises to stretch and loosen your hands, wrists, feet, and any joints especially bothered by morning stiffness.

6. Prep for Morning the Night Before

Gottlieb suggests using evenings to prepare for the next day to ease some of the morning rush-hour strain. She makes lunches, loads school bags, and places her own essentials right by the door.

You can also experiment with prepping breakfast ingredients the night before or try no-cook overnight oats.

7. Experiment With Adaptive Devices

To ease the strain on painful hands, try using adaptive devices like wide-gripped utensils to help you prepare and eat breakfast.

Consider consulting an occupational therapist, who can help you make adjustments to your home and habits and offer suggestions to make things easier when you have morning stiffness.

8. Get Help With Morning Tasks

Gottlieb found that getting herself and her kids up and ready in the morning was tough, so she enlisted help. “I set up a carpool with a neighbor,” she says. “She drove the kids to school in the morning and I did afternoon pickups. This way, when I got out of bed, all I had to do was supervise breakfast and get the kids out the door.”

9. Ease Into the Day

Don’t push yourself at the start of your day. “Pacing activities or breaking up tasks in the morning can help with getting things done in a more tolerable way,” Davis says. Gottlieb takes steps to conserve energy whenever possible. “If I don’t need to go anywhere in the morning, I don’t get dressed with the kids,” she says. “If I have somewhere to be, I try to be showered and dressed before I wake them up.”

10. Work With Your Doctor

Working with your doctor is the most important component — he or she can help you find the appropriate medications to get RA under control and can advise you on dietary modifications and tips to get enough sleep — all of which can help ease morning stiffness.

The Takeaway

• Adjusting your morning routine can help ease the stiffness caused by rheumatoid arthritis, making daily tasks more manageable.
• Taking your RA medication promptly after waking up and employing strategies like warm compresses can help improve your mobility in the mornings.
• Consider gentle movements and adaptive devices to reduce strain on joints, which could provide significant relief from morning stiffness.
• If morning stiffness is persistent, check in with your doctor to potentially adjust your treatments or further explore the underlying causes.

Additional reporting by Erica Patino.