In a word: slowly. The majority of cases involve your plantar fasica. Your plantar fasciitis is in distress; it has micro cracks across the fascia. That’s where all the pain is. Each time you get up in the morning without using a Night Splint, you re-stress and induce more stress on the plantar fascia.
In a word: SLOW. Go slow. Night Splints can help you but if you rush it, they will aggravate. Go…
Slowly. Adjust the Night Splint so that the dorsiflexion straps apply a small amount of pressure against the bottom of your foot. This will stop your foot from contracting while you sleep. Of course it’s not comfortable; healing is usually not comfortable. If you want to get back to “normal”, you must train your plantar fascia not to contract. As important: during the day you must stretch the plantar fasciitis.
As you become more accustomed to the pressure of the night splint on the bottom of your foot you can increase pressure until you are “back to neutral”. With daily stretching and when you are back to neutral, you can “go off” the night splint every other night…and, then every two nights, etc.
You must be the ultimate judge. Only you can feel the pain; only you can feel the correct tension of the night splint on the plantar fascia.
Do not rush it; you will only aggravate it. 6 to 8 weeks is minimum time and you must incorporate stretching.
Just do it! You can…slowly.
Only a night splint with dosiflexion straps (side straps) will work. The others do not work adequately. The so called “passive” and dorsal (top of the foot) night splints do not work.