Severe ear pain caused when I lay down at night.

I thought i too was the only person with this, mine only started a few months ago. It feels like a bruised ear, on the cartilage?! someone out there must know what it is??? I just get strange looks when i ask people about it lol.

I have the same pain in the cartilege of my ears.  This morning it is taking over an hour for the pain in my left ear to subside.  Sometimes I notice a similar pain in my ears after I eat something sweet.  So your post confirmed my suspicions that this had something to do with blood sugar levels.

thank God am not crazy, it usualy happend on my right ear but am also having neck pain, the pillow dont work i often while asleep, i keep fixing my ear and making sure its straight not bend and when i touch my ear it hurts soo much that i tell my husband lets switch position cause of my ear hurts and he though i was nuts, not anymore, hope someone have a logical explenation

 

my dermotolgist (sorry I don't spell very well) told me my red painful ear edge when i wake up or talk on the phone for a long time, is caused by pressure. He suggested I try to sleep on a pillow with a hole in it so my ear would not be smashed by the pillow. I cut a foam pillow up to make a rectangle with a hole in the middle. I put it over my ear then lay on my usual pillow. when I use it i wake up without ear pain, when i dont it hurts like you wouldn't believe. It didn't take me long to get use to it and now no ear pain.

I have been having the same type of ear pain for probably 20 yrs. I, too, tried cutting a hole in my pillow for my ear to fit in, but then I would wake up with pain in the surrounding area of my head. I have this problem with both ears. At one point I developed a pressure sore on my left ear which I had my dermotolgist remove because it was so painful. I have no idea why this happens. I have been to ear specialists as well as my regular dr, but noone knows why it happens nor what to do for it. I now sleep on a "tempurpedic" pillow, which has helped the pain to not be as severe, but I still have it. Thankfully, I can turn over and go back to sleep. This happens at least 3 times a night which can't be good for getting a good nights sleep. I expect this is the cause of my being tired so much. If anyone has any other suggestions, by all means, please post it.

I have the exact same problem, and the pain is excruciating. I am fifteen years old and this has happened since I was at least thirteen. nowhere else seems to have any suitable answers, my mum believes that I have managed to scratch the inside of my ear and I'm putting pressure on it when I sleep. but it's a relief to know I'm not the only one with this peculiar problem!

I have had this same ear pain for the last year and a half. I have tried many different pillows, none seem to help. My new problem is my head/skull hurts when I lay left side. It sounds like a heart beat and hurts to I can not lay on my left side anymore. Have not got it checked out but I have a strong feeling it is bc I have bad blood circulation. I've had bad circulation since I was 17 and now I am 28 and it seems to be getting worse the older I get. Does anyone else have bad blood circulation? I have read couple people mention that they did.

I just love the internet.  Like most of you thought I was nuts with this problem and almost embarrassed to complain about it.  I also get a similar problem when wearing a headband or hat that pushes on my ears.  I have some inner ear problems as well but agree that I doubt it is related.  I am going to try one of these advertised pillows - please let me know if anyone else has one they can recommend.  I would much rather go with that fix than medication.  Thank you all.

I also have pretty severe Rhenoids disease (numb fingers and toes in the cold) which is also related to blood circulation - any else?

I have a new direction for you all to research.  I have experienced the exact same pain that you have all described.  Extreme pain at night, usually begins around 8pm or later.  If you get up the pain goes away (or at least subsides) in about 30 minutes.  No doctors can give you any real answers.  The problem is the doctors are trying to treat your ear, not your body.

I have the exact same thing. When I sleep I subconsciously move because of discomfort and then when I lift my head off the pillow the severe pain wakes me up. I only have this in one ear and when I finally went to my doctor he said he couldn't see anything at all. Not even wax buildup which can sometimes lead to pressure pains. I thought maybe having my head to compressed against the pillow was "sealing off" my ear canal in a way and the pain when I moved was a change in pressure but I definitely should get this checked out further.

This is a very interesting and informative thread that relates to my problem directly too, but also has some common themes. 

It is extremely painful (the other day my pain was still present 3 hours after waking), doctors have no known treatment for it, it gets worse over time, is not caused by the ear folding, it hurts like hell when you raise your head off the pillow, i have no problems with my inner ear or infections, and people have come up with their own solutions that work for them. 

This is my situation:  I am 41, and have sleep apnoea and have used a CPAP machine for the last few years, which bascially forces me to sleep on one side (I am a side sleeper anyway), and my ears stick out slightly.  I must have sensitive outer ears though as they can also get sore from talking on the phone for too long too.

I have also just lost 14kg to help with the chronic reflux I had, and am in the best shape of my life, yet the ear pain was getting worse to the point of it happening every night.  Plus i was starting to get pressure sores on the outside of my ears (as mentioned in another post).  When i complained that the ear pain was waking me up and was so painful i couldn't get to sleep again, my doctor told me to take panadeine every night before going to bed, to basically help sleep through the pain (which wasn't strong enough anyway).  Getting fed up with it last week, I decided to experiment and figure out a cure myself.

What I have found best so far is using a firm pillow designed for side sleepers and not a soft one, and sleeping on the left or right edge of it so my nose is facing down towards the mattress slightly, causing the weight of my head to be on my temple and cheek and not my ear.  I have done this for a week now and have experienced no pain, so here's hoping it continues to work.  The other thing i have tried, though not as comfortable, is to place a smaller square cushion under the middle of your pillow, which also forces your head to roll down slightly and take the pressure off your ears.

I think what happens with the soft pillows when i sleep on my side is that my head settles so the weight of my head is solely on my ear, causing the pillow to act like a curved surface, and as the skull at the back of my ear is extemely hard, it was getting crushed during the night.  I'm not sure why i wouldn't shift position when asleep when it was starting to get sore, but maybe the circulation gets reduced which affects the sensitivity, so when the blood flows back into the ear as it is lifted off the pillow, this activates the nerves and the pain intensifies.

Anyway, these are just my laymen theories and solution, and i hope this may help someone else too :)

I have had the same problem. Because of a rotator cuff problem, I sleep only on my left side and as a result, I had developed pressure points on my ear. I went to the dermatologist and he diagnosed me with CNH (Chondrodermatitis nodularis helicis) not even knowing that I only sleep on one side. 

Thank God I am not the only one. I have pain in my outer ear cartilage when I lift my head up at night. I have asked my primary care physician about this 4 times whom states " your weird". I have gotten many second opinions from other doctors without a logical answer. My dentist said I need my wisdom teeth out. I'm am just relived that there are others. The pain in intense for 5-10 minutes, so I have to wait to turn my head over to ps rep on the other ear. I am up now waiting for the sensation to return in my outer ear cartilage. It's not my inner ear. It happens sometimes everyday or once every few months or years. I will say that it has been going on for years and I was pregnant 8 years ago. I can't really correlate the two, because I don't know exactly number of years because I like others, forget about it once I get up in the morning. My solution: a humidifier helps or ome odd reason.

I have had this problem on and off for over 20 years, usually after sleep, but i'm sure sometimes also when my ears have been hurt either by rubbing with a towel, using headphones or by a hairdresser. Last night was the first recurrence in about 3 years, but boy is it painful. It has hurt all day. I'm glad to have found this thread but there have been very few suggestions for immediate relief. Anyway, somebody did suggest a hot compress, which i've been using for the past 15 minutes, and... it seems to be working! next time, i'll try it straight away.  thank you whoever it was!