Does head position cause imbalance?
It’s been a beautiful weekend here, and I’ve been enjoying doing lots of things outdoors. I try to spend as much time as possible outside when the weather’s nice, and I’m kind of an outside person by nature.
Most of my time was spent at the beach this weekend, which is certainly one of my favourite places to be. Yet it actually made me notice something about my balance that has really never occurred to me before…
When lying on my stomach and with my head at a 45 degree angle, I often get ‘drop attacks’ or feelings of sudden imbalance. The same goes for when my head is tilted at a 45 degree angle the other way.
Is it the angle that my head is at that is causing the feeling of imbalance? Is that even possible?
I know with some conditions like benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), where your head is at can make all the difference as to how you feel in terms of balance or imbalance.
This makes me wonder even more if I should check out getting some kind of ‘adjustment’ (as is often helpful with BPPV) to see if it improves my balance symptoms, as I think it would be oddly coincidental if sitting straight up just happened to improve my balance symptoms.
But I wonder… is this a common symptom with balance disorders? And is it a good sign that head positions actually change the nature of how I feel? It gives me hope that there is some kind of treatment associated with my condition anyway.
7 Comments, Comment or Ping
Dizzy Dame
I would encourage you to have a physical therapist/rehabilitator to do a few tests. When checking me for BPPV they had me lay back with my head dangling over the side of a table and then get up as fast as I can; they tried this with my head in different positions to see if any caused any nystagmus.
The fact that you are able to aggravate your symptoms just by moving your head is a worthwhile indicator to pay attention to. If it doesn’t confirm your suspicion at least it is one other thing you can be satisfied you’ve looked into.
Good luck!
Jul 7th, 2008
Vertigo Guy
Your comment just reminded me that I need to give my neurotologist’s office a call. They were supposed to book appointments for VRT, but I never heard back… too many things on my to-do list…
Interesting about the BPPV. I had the same tests, but no nystagmus was ever visible. I find it weird that I can aggravate my symptoms, but never present nystagmus. Did you ever end up showing nystagmus?
Thanks for your comment!
Jul 7th, 2008
Dizzy Dame
I did not show nystagmus, and for this reason the “drive thru” physical “therapist” believed I was lying about my dizziness. *eyeroll*
I should win every acting award out there if I can pretend for this amount of time, let alone one single hour. lol.
Jul 12th, 2008
Vertigo Guy
I just returned from a visit to a very nice VRT physiotherapist, and she actually videotaped my nystagmus so I could watch it. It was pretty weird!
So I’m definitely showing nystagmus, which she said is a good sign… I’ll provide more details in a new post.
Jul 30th, 2008
Dizzy Dame
Oh? Did you get to wear those groovy goggles that tape your eye movements?
Jul 30th, 2008
Vertigo Guy
Sure did! I described it a little bit in one of my newer posts.
Aug 1st, 2008
C.S.
I find this interesting, because both time I awoke into a whirling room of vertigo was when I was sleeping on my back. And yesterday after my first (and hopefully last) real bad episode of vertigo, each time I tried to lay back and relax, the spinning started again. It seemed the only position that did not cause vertigo yesterday was when I was curled up in a ball, face down.
This was so unnerving, that I ended up propping myself into a position whereby I was dozing on my face. If sleeping on my back was causing my vertigo, and I toss and turn all night, I wanted to resist sleeping on my back. It seemed the ideal sleeping device would be one of those massage chairs that has a hole cut out for the face–yet how uncomfortable and, for me, unnatural as it’s opposite of what I’m used to all my life!
I am so anxious about having a recurrance of vertigo that I slept face-down–no easy task–most of the night but noticed in the morning I had rolled onto my side. I had an awful neck ache and, sure enough, slight vertigo again–though not nearly as severe–when I awoke today.
I really hope I can go back to the lifestyle I knew where I can go to bed at night in any position I wish and fall asleep peacefully without having to worry about waking up with a start and finding the whole world spinning out of control. But now on top of the vertigo, I find I am extremely anxious about vertigo. A compounded problem, to be sure!
Mar 9th, 2012
Reply to “Does head position cause imbalance?”