My right arm is completly numb and I panic out of my bed sometimes. The reason is that I fall asleep on my shoulder and sometimes it takes a minute til it functions again.
Last night I fell asleep again and woke up and it it took longer than usual to get it back to moving. I started crying and was totally panic mode.
Is this something that can cause long term issues if this happens frequently or should I change the way I sleep? Can I ignore it?
Not a doctor, but I do suffer from thoracic outlet syndrome. Numbness after sleeping or while using a phone was one of the only symptoms I got before my blood clots.
Sometimes this would be the full arm and sometimes just in the ulnar nerve (outside of palms and pinkie + ring finger).
Maybe try doing the roos stress test at home and talking to a doctor if you get symptoms. If left untreated you may end up with permanent venous and/or nervous system damage (like me).
Obviously this isn’t the only thing that can cause numbness in your arms after sleeping. I’m just spreading the word on TOS because it’s what I’m familiar with, and because I wish someone had done so for me years ago!
Surgical tech here (bottom of the medical food chain, so take that for what it’s worth [not shit]). Adding to the chorus of “ASK YOUR DOCTOR!!!” bc words from anonymous internet strangers are trash.
…but if it instills a sense of urgency: I’ve helped with a couple of arm amputations from patients falling asleep on them and cutting off blood circulation to the extent that the tissue dies. Iirc, both of those involved longer-than-normal periods of sleeping on it due to drugs - unsure if there’s any risk of that from a normal sleep schedule. But yeah, the various chunks that make up you all need oxygen to do their thing; depriving those chunks of oxygen generally leads to not-so-great outcomes.
I was under the impression that limbs “falling asleep” was more of a nerve thing and not a circulation thing. Is that not true?
Nerves don’t like pressure, so that’ll definitely irritate them.
Cutting off blood and suddenly restoring it later can cause a similar sensation.
Actual tissue death though is gonna be from blood loss.
I’m not a doctor, but I do experience the same thing. I recently saw a doctor for wrist pain, and was eventually diagnosed with cubital tunnel syndrome, and was told to use an elbow brace when sleeping.
I can say that using the elbow brace has helped slightly with the wrist pain, and it does result in me no longer waking up with numbness.
The brace keeps your arm straight, and forces me to sleep in a way where there’s no/very little pressure put on my elbow.
Highly suggest you see a doctor, but if you can’t, look into elbow braces (they are affordable). But please get a professional opinion.
I never thought about this but this happens to me occasionally. I often put my arm under my head and pillow for support and comfort. Maybe once every couple weeks I’ll wake up and it’s numb or fully asleep.
I don’t have an answer but I’m 34, this has been happening my whole life, and I haven’t noticed any issues.
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I am not a doctor.
If the numb arm is causing you to wake up then, yes, you should adjust your sleeping position. Not because of your arm but because sleeping well is important.
What you are experiencing is called obdormition (the limb falling asleep) and paresthesia (the pins and needles feeling when it wakes up again). I’m 36 and it happened countless times to me, no ill effects.
I’m not a doctor. Take what I’m saying with a grain of salt.
Pretty sure the answer is “it’s fine.”
I got really into meditation for a while. And sitting for 4 (or 6 or 8) hours in the lotus position and just forcing yourself not to move will result in numbness for at least part of the time.
And it was common knowledge among the folks I learned from on YouTube and in books that such numbness wasn’t any concern long-term-damage-wise. (You wanted to be careful getting up from your meditation cushion just because numbness in the legs can result in falls. But that’s not related to what you’re asking about.) As long as you could “walk it off” and it didn’t last, say, an hour or more, it wasn’t an issue. Even if you meditated for 8 hours every day and spent 7.9 of that with agonizing numbness in your legs.
Again, I’m not a doctor, and I couldn’t tell you for sure whether that transfers to what you’re asking about specifically, but that’s just what I’ve heard.
