I have been suffering with a dead arm when I wake up in the mornings now on and off the last few years. Recently my arm is totall dead in the morning and feels like the blood is rushing to my fingers and ready to explode but had nowhere to go. Has anybody else experienced this feeling and if solved the problem? Ive heard it could be a nerve problem but am cracking up now with this severe pain waking me up and 5 nd 6 in the morning.
Go to a doctor.
Have you been lying on your arm while you sleep? Sounds like you just cut off the blood supply for a while. If a few minutes later your arm isn’t feeling better, go see a doctor.
I’ve experienced it, but not since I was a kid/teenager. I put it down to sleeping on the arm on a firm bed and cutting off the circulation. My arm was cold, lifeless, and the blood rushing back was like thousands of electrical shocks to the fingers for about a minute or so.
I experienced this maybe a half dozen to a dozen times over a number of years. I had to pick my arm up with my other arm in order to move it.
ETA: Yeah, what TriPolar said.
IANAD, but I think it’s a nerve that is getting pinched, not blood flow being cut off. I get this once in a while too.
Yes. If it was blood flow the arm would rot off, not be temporarily paralyzed.
And I suggest trying changing your sleeping position; I had similar if less severe problems that went away when I started sleeping on my right side instead of my left.
You think the arm’s going to rot off from a temporary restriction in blood flow? Y’okayyy.
I slept on my other side last night and woke up even worse this morning and the arm has been sore all day. My fingers seem to go a different dark colour and my hand has been cold all day
go see a doctor
At this point, most definitely.
Have been to doctors and had tests but noone can seem to find out exactly what it is so have given up on doctors
That makes no sense. A doctor wouldn’t see this as some harmless symptom. What did the doctors tell you?
You’re only going to get opinions on a message board, not diagnoses, even from Dopers who are actually doctors, as they cannot physically examine you. If you want to save your arm, go to a doctor for professional advice.
Medical advice is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
So you’re asking some people on the Internet at a message board you just joined? Go back to the doctor. You could have an aneurysm or another serious problem.
IANAD
The major blood vessels and nerve to the arm pass through a narrow space called the thoracic outlet. If the nerve and/or blood vessel get pinched then thoracic outlet syndrome can result. Sounds like you may be managing to compress these blood vessels at that point.
Go to a doctor. And, in my experience, go to about 15 more doctors before you get diagnosed correctly.
Definitely not circulation. Going all night with no blood to any appendage would end with an amputation! :eek:
Does not have to be totally pinched to cause symptoms.
And, freakier, if the pinch is sufficient you may end up with a subclavian steal - the arm pulling a blood supply by reversing flow through the vertebral artery.
The OP needs to get to a doctor. A good one.
Well, yeah, but you’re not entirely cutting of the blood flow; you’re temporarily restricting it. And it’s not for the entire night anyway, only a few hours typically. You think if you put a tourniquet around your arm for a three hour ambulance ride you’d end up with an amputated arm?
Besides going to a doctor again, another thing to try is a sleep study. Sleep apnea may be a factor here.