Anybody here who’s an chiropractor, bodybuilder, fitness expert, etc might be able to help me with this (PLEASE!!@#!@#) Any suggestions that will help alleviate this would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve been working out regularly for almost 2 years now (regularly being 2-3 times a week) with light weight and a high number of reps/sets. I recently had to change gyms, and since then have been having this problem. If I work out 3 times a week, both of my arms will fall asleep at night after my workouts UNLESS I sleep on my back and lay them straight out. When I work out 2 nights a week, my right arm will do the same unless I lay it straight out (but at least I can sleep on left side without my arm bothering me) if I have my arm bent and on the pillow (hand by my head) it will go numb while I sleep.
I should also mention that I have significantly less rotation in my right shoulder than my left. (ie. I can join hands behind my back if my right elbow is behind my head and left elbow behind my back, but with right elbow behind my back, my right hand can barely reach my left shoulderblade)
I’ve always slept on my side with one hand under my opposite cheek. So this is pretty weird, and keeps waking me up, and is kinda freaky when you wake up and your arm flops over and you can’t feel it! shudder
Note: I do drink a lot of water, I spend 30-45 min in a hot bath after workouts, I type for a living. I am NOT training for bulk, I’m a woman and slender, I am only trying for muscle tone and definition.
When your limb falls asleep what is happening is your nerve is getting pressed on and that causes the sensation. Your blood still flows as always.
Any number of things could have happened from pinching a nerve to a bone sliding out of place JUST enuff to hit it.
One thing I had was in my early twenties I for some odd reason started putting my hand over my head when I was sleeping. I would wake up and my whole arm was dead to the world.
It would happen constantly. I just developed a habbit of doing it.
I finally and literally tied my arm to my side, in a few nights it stopped. I don’t know why I started putting my arm over my head as I slept.
I had the same thing happen to me when I used to work out.
It turned out that i had severe tendonitis in my forearms.
My forearms would pop out like Popeye everytime I worked out, but even when I wasn’t working out, my hands would get really cold and sometimes go completely numb. I was prescribed an anti-inflammatory and told to stop lifting so much. I did, and I’ve never had the problem since…
thanks for the responses. I think maybe I’ll try some mild non-prescript antiinflammatories and see if that helps (hasn’t been so bad this week at least) as my forearms/wrists have been sore lately (RSI, me thinks)
Markxx: tying myself up at all would be a bad idea as I tend to move around at night. I can just see myself falling out of bed and getting a concussion on the chair beside it because I couldn’t move my arm (I guess the same thing would happen if it was asleep though… hmm…)
I had this problem for a long time and eventually started sleeping on my side with a pillow hugged to my chest, keeping my arms out in front of me. Works for me.
Wow…I thought I was the only person in the world with this problem and was getting worried. In more lucid moments I realize that chances are I didn’t have something unique to medical science but it’s nice to have confirmation (which isn’t to say that I wish this problem on others). I am happy to see that the problem itself doesn’t seem to be a very big deal in regards to the rest of my overall health (i.e. not an indicator of some larger problem although I realize that potentially might still be true).
I notice when I sleep on my stomach with my head turned to my left my arm below my elbow goes numb. If I turn my head to the right and the problem disappears. Of course as I move around during the day the problem comes and goes. While not painful it is decidedly annoying.
Is there any permanent fix to this assuming it is a pinched nerve? Anti-inflammatories sound like a good start but I don’t want to take them the rest of my life. If I put my arm in a sling for awhile to restrict movement would that give whatever the problem is a chance to heal? Any other ideas?
I know this is standard advice, but you should all think about seeing a doctor.
I have a friend who had a repetitive stress injury in his shoulder that pressed on the brachial plexus. It would cause his arms to go numb when he slept and he eventually lost almost all the strength in his left arm. When he finally got to a doctor , it took 8 months to get full use of his arms back.
Before the doctor, his company first sent him to a physical therapist who misdiagnosed the problem and prescribed exercises that actually made it worse, so his case was more severe than what I’m reading from you.
I doubt anyone has something this serious, but I’d want the peace of mind gained from a medical consult.
The next time this happens, please try to note whether the WHOLE are gets numb, or just a part of it. Copmpression of particular nerves will lead to numbness in the distribution of the compressed nerves. For example, piching of the lower cervical roots or the ulnar nerve will lead to numbness of the 4th & 5th digits of the hand. Pinching of the 5th and/or 6th Cervical roots or the median nerve (usually at the wrist) will lead to numbness of the thumb along with digits 2-3.
Occlusion of the vascular supply to the arm will lead to numbess of the ENTIRE arm and hand that does not respect nerve distributions.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was worried that I was the only person who had this problem and that something was seriously wrong.
I finally stopped doing this, but I would sometimes go to sleep with both arms over my head. Waking up and trying to flip my arms back to my side was a pain.
Based on what you say, and since it’s both arms, it’s not a pathological nerve compression per se. Unless you tell me you’re a 65 year old woman with osteoporosis.
But because it’s happening on both sides, I’d bet it’s a structural change. Because your muscle has more tone, or maybe because you have less fat, your spine may be straighter/curved or you might be holding your neck different. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Whatever’s happening, the nerves to your arms are getting compressed.
Sorry, forgot to say this. You should always treat any advice from message boards as just chit chat. Problems cannot be diagnosed over a message board. Your best bet is to see a doctor or PT.
He said that if he slept on his back everything was okay.
I do art modeling & this numbness is common if you pose for more than 20 minutes. When you sleep your body is supposed to rotate itself so that this doesnt occur. So why not just sleep on your back more?
I tend to sleep lightly if I lay on my back (less security in that position, I’m a light sleeper anyways) (and I’m a she, darnit!)
Icerigger: if any other MS symptoms start showing up, I’ll think in that direction, but the way it’s starting to manifest itself with a gym change, I’m thinking it has to do with stress on different parts of my body than before.
Major, I spend 5-10 minutes stretching before the workout. It is good advice though. If everyone stretched, we’d have fewer stressed out ppl
NeuroDoc, it’s full numbness of the arm and hand, up to the shoulder. However, I do get finger numbness in 4 and 5 on the right side at times after working out. Could the same problem be causing both nerve pinching and vascular occlusion? I am pretty sure now I did some structural damage to that side when I was a kid and flipped my bike, landed on that shoulder, never went to the hospital, bleh.
note to all: thanks, and I have been able to mostly alleviate this by cutting far back on my upright row and military press. I’m doing light freeweight shoulder exercises and it’s still somewhat painful but I haven’t had any arm-numbing lately. Very strange. Major Feelgud may have been right, and I just had to get used to sleeping with muscles in different places.
(I guess the same thing would happen if it was asleep though… hmm…)