I had a neck injury when I was 18. When I was 64 I started have pain in my neck when I was sleeping at night. After checking it out with my doctor, the x-ray determined I had arthritis developing in my neck. Fortunately, it should not compromise my spine, but will continually worsen my pain as I age.
Over the years it has become worse. I do have a very firm pillow that keeps my head in alignment with my spine. I try to stay on my side to sleep and that works, although many nights I wake up with my neck hurting because I was laying on my back. Then I have to go sleep in a lounge chair for the rest of the night. Yep, a real pain in the neck it is! But I least I can still get some sleep. Doctors do not want to do surgery on this if it can be avoided as this operation is not always successful and can actually make things worse....