Why do my joints pop and crack in the morning?

What’s making the sound

• Gas in the joint fluid. Your joints contain synovial fluid, a slippery liquid that has gases dissolved in it. When the joint surfaces pull apart quickly, the pressure drops and a gas pocket forms. In 2015, Kawchuk and colleagues filmed knuckles cracking inside an MRI scanner. The pop happened at the moment a cavity formed, not when an old bubble burst. A 2018 math model argued that a bubble partly collapsing can also explain the sound, so researchers still debate the exact details. Either way, it’s gas and fluid, not bone grinding on bone.
• Why you can’t crack it again right away. After a knuckle pops, it usually won’t pop again for about 20 minutes. Early research put that down to the gas slowly dissolving back into the fluid.
• Tendons and ligaments snapping. A tendon or ligament can slide or snap over bone as you move, and people often notice it in the ankle, the knee, or the hip. Harvard Health and Cleveland Clinic both list this as a common, usually harmless cause.
• Roughened cartilage. A grinding or crunching feel (doctors call it crepitus) can come from worn cartilage. This is the type worth paying attention to.

Why it’s worse in the morning

After a night without moving, joint fluid sits still and joints feel stiff. Cleveland Clinic calls it “morning gel.” Once you move around, the fluid gets circulating again and the stiffness and noise usually fade. Joints also tend to get noisier with age.

What’s normal and when to worry

Normal looks like an occasional pop or click with no pain, stiffness that eases within a few minutes of moving, and no swelling.

Get it checked if:

• the noise comes with pain or swelling.
• the joint locks or gives way, or makes a “clunk.” Harvard Health notes this can mean torn cartilage or another injury inside the joint.
• morning stiffness lasts an hour or more. Cleveland Clinic says stiffness that lasts an hour or more raises concern for an autoimmune, inflammatory type of arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis, especially in a younger person.
• your knees grind often and you’re starting to get knee pain. In a large study of people without knee arthritis symptoms, those who reported knee crepitus more often were more likely to develop painful knee osteoarthritis later.

Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis?

The best evidence says no. A 2011 study in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine compared adults 50 to 89 and found no link between years of knuckle cracking and hand arthritis on X-ray.

What helps at home

• Move gently before you get out of bed. Do ankle circles, knee bends, and shoulder rolls.
• Get up and move during long stretches of sitting. Harvard Health notes joints get noisier when you stay still.
• Regular activity like walking, cycling, or swimming keeps joints and the muscles around them working.
• If one joint keeps feeling stuck and you have to pop it for relief, that’s a reason to have it looked at. Cracking it harder won’t help.

When to get help, and where I fit in

Pain, swelling, locking, giving way, or long-lasting morning stiffness belong with your physician first. Inflammatory arthritis and injuries inside the joint need a medical diagnosis.

A painless pop needs no treatment from me or anyone else. I’ve been in practice for 23 years, and I don’t crack or pop anything. I work on tight and sore muscles, and I use muscle testing to find muscles that have stopped firing. If a joint keeps feeling tight or stuck and your doctor has ruled out the problems above, I’ll check whether the muscles around it are doing their job. That’s an option, not a fix for noisy joints. What a visit without cracking looks like is on the chiropractor that doesn’t crack page, and how a session is put together is on the Muscle Reset Technique page.

I see patients in Overland Park, Kansas, at 8600 W 110th St STE 211, Monday through Thursday, 8am to 6pm. Your first visit is $100 for a full 30 minutes, cash pay. After that, it’s $100 for 30 minutes or $50 for 15 minutes. I don’t bill insurance, and HSA and FSA cards are accepted. More on that is on the chiropractor cost without insurance page. Call or text (913) 451-7500, or book online.

Sources

1. Kawchuk GN, Fryer J, Jaremko JL, Zeng H, Rowe L, Thompson R. Real-time visualization of joint cavitation. PLOS ONE. 2015;10(4):e0119470. Read the MRI study
2. Chandran Suja V, Barakat AI. A mathematical model for the sounds produced by knuckle cracking. Scientific Reports. 2018;8:4600. Read the sound model
3. Unsworth A, Dowson D, Wright V. 'Cracking joints': a bioengineering study of cavitation in the metacarpophalangeal joint. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 1971;30(4):348-358. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5557778/
4. deWeber K, Olszewski M, Ortolano R. Knuckle cracking and hand osteoarthritis. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. 2011;24(2):169-174. Read the knuckle cracking study
5. Lo GH, et al. Subjective crepitus as a risk factor for incident symptomatic knee osteoarthritis: data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Arthritis Care & Research. 2018;70(1):53-60. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28470832/
6. Cleveland Clinic. What causes stiff joints in the morning? Read the Cleveland Clinic article on morning stiffness
7. Cleveland Clinic. Popping joints: crepitus and what causes it. Read the Cleveland Clinic article on crepitus
8. Harvard Health Publishing. Is it normal for my joints to click? Read the Harvard Health answer
9. Harvard Health Publishing. You don't say? Cracking the code. Read the Harvard Health article