OTC pain relief while on Prednisone?

Hello! So happy to find this group. Male, age 59, had a cold or COVID (did not test) from Aug. 8 to Aug. 18. Was feeling about 80% better, but then felt the first symptoms of PMR on Aug. 25.

After several referrals, a rheumatologist diagnosed me with PMR a week ago. I suffered for about 6 weeks with extreme shoulder joint pain and extreme tightness/soreness/stiffness in the hamstrings, lower back, upper back, shoulders and neck. My knees joined the party about a week ago. I was basically sofa-bound from late August until mid-October.

Rheumatologist started me on 15mg of Prednisone (taken at 8:00 a.m. when I wake up), which provided immediate relief and has me off the sofa and resuming most activities. I still wake up nightly around 4:00 a.m. with pain in my shoulder serious enough to disrupt my sleep so that I toss and turn until 8:00 a.m. A night of 8 hours of restorative, solid Zzzz's is a distant memory.

Advil and Tylenol seem to have no effect, so I've stopped taking them to spare my liver/kidneys/stomach from processing them while getting little-to-no relief.

I asked my doctor if I should up the Prednisone in the interest of getting a full night of healing sleep, but he said no -- stay at 15mg if I can tolerate the PMR pain, so that's where I am.

That's my story. Glad to have found this group and hope I can contribute and help somebody going through the PMR/Prednisone ordeal.

Oh, my question -- are there any OTC meds that can beat back the early morning pain? If not, has anybody here had success with a mild opioid (e.g., Vicodin) to help with sleep?