Totally agree. I'll add as an aging "woke up sore" guy, side-sleeping with a knee pillow (just a regular pillow to prevent your knees from aching from pressure) was an enormous improvement.
So now I marvel at how I used to be able to sleep without them and ponder over why we either have no fatty pads (or muscle, even!) on the inside sides of our knees or have reduced sensitivity in that region, since we’re clearly meant to be side sleepers (it’s the healthiest position, assuming you can find a rock or log to place under your head, or even just your hands folded together).
But it also said to sleep on the floor, and no thanks.
So don't ever sleep on exercise, my biggest take away is you don't need to be a super weight lifter or whatever, you just need to do enough every week that it keeps your body going.
You can actually build some muscle this way - nothing impressive, but way more than I had when I wasn't doing any upper body work.
Excruciating exercising with resistance bands is something she could do too - already started her on doing simple biceps exercises with small weights.