For anyone with chronic back pain who drinks frequently ... here's something that might help with reducing back pain. First off, I've had a 4-level lumbar fusion cage surgery back in 2016. The highest relief percentage of overall pain from my back to to my toes was 70%. (That was a higher number than 6 other very qualified ortho surgeons had given me!).
Once I healed from the back surgery (front and back to insert the artificial discs properly), my back and legs were relieved of about 70% of pain and muscle issues. But typical after a major lumbar surgery such as mine, I started experiencing SI joint inflammation pain about a year and a half later.
Ibuprofen is the BEST pain reliever for me - especially for sleeping (other than Ambien sleep med that I became addicted to and could write a book about the negative side-effects that came with it!) but I realize taking 800 - 1000 mgs of Ibuprofen every night before bedtime is adding HUGE RISK to kidney failure/disease issues, so I take it now ONLY when the pain is driving me about crazy.
But many ounces of liquor prior to bedtime ALSO helped desensitize my back pain while sleeping ... four about 2 - 4 hours. After four hours of decent sleep, I no longer could get BACK to sleep due to the intense back pains. Tossing from side to side a bazillion times by daybreak had me in major sleep depravation most of the time. Never mind the back pain I had all day from the tossing and tossing those many hours after waking up during the wee hours of the morning.
This summer I made an appointment with a psychologist from the VA. (Rebecca from the Wyoming, Michigan VA Facility. She's comes HIGHLY recommended). I shared with her that because of my PTSD (chronic dreaming disturbing my sleep PLUS my aching back pain through the night) I was sleeping so poorly and I was having heart issues because of it.
Rebecca shared with me how alcohol can help one sleep at the beginning of the sleep cycle, but after about four hours the numbing effect wears off and then a severe tightening of the back muscles accompanied with INTENSIFIED INFLAMATION starts taking over! She strongly suggested I go off alcohol totally and see how sleeping would go. Hasn't been easy giving up my "tranquiller" but God has helped me say "No" when temptation rises in the evening, mostly just before bedtime.
I've been off alcohol now completely since August 16. Today is November 20. Almost immediately after going off alcohol, for 3 months now my lower back pain has diminished HUGELY through the night. NOW I am able to get about 5 - 6 hours of pretty darn restful sleep before my back becomes so sore from lying on it (sleeping on my sides, mostly; increased tossing and turning until daybreak). My non-stop dreaming hasn't stopped but the back pain has been greatly diminished from being off alcohol and if you're someone like me who BATTLES getting decent sleep, STRONGLY consider going awhile without the alcohol and take special note of how your back pain does from it.
Hope my experience helps someone. A poor night's sleep night after night can trigger all sorts of other serious health issues, and the older one gets, who needs ADDED pain issues?!