As well as the shoulder ache, I also suffered from neckache caused by sleep position. It was strange because I use a Tempur pillow. In the end, I resorted to sleeping on my back all of the time and that helped.

But what also helped was the steamer. I used it every night ever since I woke up with a dry throat. Now I do not have the dry throat nor the neck problem.

Mostly good, or at least no bad, advice posted here so far. I'm in a slightly different position, having broken myself badly in a motorbike accident some years ago, which still gives me constant pain in my back/ribs/neck. So not the same, but some of my experiences may still be relevant.

Seating: I'm all day at desk/computer too. My physio, and our company physio/ergonomicist arranged to get a special chair for me, which gives a much greater degree of lower back support than most. It can adjut every which way, and I tend to sit in it in a slouched position, with my arms on the armrests and my head on the headrest. Normally, the ergonomics people would have a fit at this, but it works well for me and is far better than any attempt to sit in the 'correct' position. So don't go with someone else's ideas about what's good and bad if they don't work for you.

Moving about: Yes, getting up and walking about every hour or so is very important. I also quite frequently adjust the height, back position or some other aspect of my chair to ensure I'm not in a fixed position too long. Oh, and I switch between two computers all day and alternate left and right hand use of the mice.

Stretching: probably best to take a doctor's or physios advice on what constitutes 'good' stretching. Some of the neck exercises I do (throughout the day) cause some local pain, which is very temporary and relieves the tension which causes more medium-term problems. But I wouldn't recommend extreme stretching unless you really have someone who knows what they're doing with it.

Drugs: Ibuprofen is great. I'm prescribed 3*600mg daily, together with a SNRI (anti-depressant that can also help inhibit pain transmission in the brain pathways) and if I don't take them, I can quite quickly start to spiral into a pain/tiredness/tension/irritability loop. Sometimes my wife will just say "have you been taking your drugs" when I get tetchy; more often than not I haven't. Don't be scared of long term use, but do make sure you get proper medical advise on this - I'm lucky enough to experience no gastric problems with this prolonged use, but it's not the case for everyone.

Exercise: I ski. A lot. Sometimes hard anf fast, sometimes teaching beginners and standing around for much of the time. And in the four non-skiing months I try to cycle a bit. In general the more exercise, the better, particularly where it improves overall flexibility and fitness, but expect that sometime it will hurt. Don't overdo it, but at the same time don't stop as soon as it starts to get hard.

Osteopathy/physio/massage therapy: yeah, can be good, but I'd be wary of using an osteopath who wasn't properly _medically_ qualified. I.e. a doctor. And a physio should generally work only from a doctor's recommendation, so for any of these I think that you should first get proper medical advise and discuss your options with your GP.