Arm goes numb/dead while sleeping

[hearts_rsweet]

I have a problem with my arm going numb while I sleep. Not always the same arm and usually the right arm. By numb/dead i mean just that. There is absolutly no feeling in it what so ever. It's like having a limb that just hangs there attached to my body. No tingling of feeling at all. I can't even move it. I'll wake up and move and it just stays there. I have to either pull/flop it over using my other hand or if I roll enough it will eventually get "dragged over far enough" it'll flop down on the side I roll to. It usually will return to "normal" in a minute or so. Starting with me being able to move it slightly with little control to finally getting full control over it.

At first I thought it was caused from sleeping on it and cutting off the circulation but there have been a few occasions where my right arm did this and I would roll to that side and it would stay under me with me rolling onto it sometimes causing pain in the shoulder it's attached to from the pressure of it being under me I guess.


Any thoughts or ideas?

 

[riaphaelle]

I get this too and I hate it! Are you thin? I wonder if it's something with they way I am built (I'm thin and tall) My brother has this too and he's built the same way.. arm goes to sleep if I don't sleep in just the right position. It's like the nerve gets pinched easily blocking all feeling.

 

[schoolgirl09]

Discuss this with your doctor.

Mine turned out to be from tight pectoral muscles (the front of the chest). I had severely rounded shoulders. Like you get from sitting in front of the computer all the time. I went to a massage therapist who specialized in arms and shoulders. It took about four visits to loosen them up and then she taught me how to stretch to keep it that way. I don't get the numb arms anymore. I have to stretch every day. It only takes a few minutes.

 

[bluemonster]

considering the full impact of this level of totally dead 'numbing" you are getting, it seriously NEEDS to be checked into for the possible cause. have you seen any doc about his yet for some evaluation and some testing done? if this were just one arm,it could be something more to do with posistion, but since this is actually occuring bilaterally, you really need to look at the spinal as the possible 'central' problem. there can be many possible spinal level issues a person can have that are more in the "middle' of the spine vs off to more one side that would show up as what you are experiencing. i would make an appt to see your primary for an eval and a possible referral for at least a C spine level MRI(the lower c spine and upper t 1 level are what actually innervate our arms). you really just do not know what is actually going on inside your own body anywhere really til you get that much deeper 'look' inside any given area. trust me on that one.

are you having ANY actual pain anywhere at all, espescially in the neck area or down either arm or into your fingers? FB

 

[Carter K.]

Not really having any pain that is out of the ordinary...to me anyway. What pain I have been having I attribute to the new job I have. After working for 12 years in a job that was about as easy as they come I was laid off for about a year. I am now back to work as a production worker and have been experiancing ALOT of pain in my hands. Left hand the fingers kind of lock up when I close them (make a fist and open it). My right hand is alittle different in there have been times where the whole hand is in pain....as in wake me up and start moaning pain. I haven't really connected these to my arm problem because my arm has been doing this for some time now vs my hands starting when I went back to work.

No pain in the neck or back to speak off. Back will get sore alittle but nothing out of the ordinary. I do have a fractured coccyx that happened about 6 years ago. It healed up "not in alignment" ie it points out...not in by about 30 degrees...or so the xrays showed. The 2 doctors that looked at it said they had never seen one heal the way mine had. About 3 years ago the pain became so bad I was close to having it removed but the pain subsided somehow. Could this area possibly be effecting my arms ?

Thanks for the replies. I would have probably made an appointment by now but the only doctor in my area that will honor my HMO is far from efficient. To the degree I have sat an argued with her as to the fact my psoriasis was not poison ivy and in fact psoriasis. She still doubted me and referred me to a dermatoligist to have it looked at. So needless to say I go to her as a last resort.