My poor jaw

I have had jaw problems for a few years now. I was told quite a few years ago by my dentist that I grind my teeth at night. For some reason I didn't believe him at that point, but finally once I got married and my teeth grinding was keeping Jason awake at night I gave in and had a mouth guard made. I am thankful that it is protecting my teeth from being ground down, but I chew on that thing. I chew and chew and chew. I have woken up a few times and been chewing on it. There are quite the bite marks on it, and I have even worn a small hole in it in one spot. I will probably see about having another one made next year, but I was hoping that this one might last me at least 2 years (it'll be 2 years in July '07). Anyway....last night I had a dream that I woke up with a mouth full of mouth guard pieces. I was spitting and spitting and couldn't get all the little pieces out! Yuck, I am surprised I didn't wake up to a pool of spit on my pillow from spitting in my dream. I wonder how a person might stop doing this? It is quite frustrating and I get many headaches from my super tight jaw muscles. My TMJ pops every time I open my mouth and sometimes it kind of locks up on me after I eat something really chewy. I'll bring it up with my GP when I go for my checkup after Christmas.