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?
Change the way you sleep.
I once spent nearly a year without enough sleep because I’d wake up in the middle of the night with my hands so numb that they hurt, which is a weird feeling. I’d have to sit up and lean forward shaking my hands until the feeling came back, then lay back down and try to sleep only to be woken up again 30 minutes later. It nearly drove me insane. Even taking sleeping aides didn’t stop the pain from waking me up.
It didn’t know why until one night for reasons I still don’t know, I threw my pillow aside and rolled a t-shirt up to stick under my neck, so that my head could lean back instead of propping it up and forward. I slept for 10 hours straight and my hands didn’t go numb the entire time. I figured it was a pinched nerve that I finally released the pressure by sleeping with my head leaned back. Since then I’ve found a small pillow that fits nicely under my neck. I haven’t had an incident ever since.
It’s not worth the pain and sleepless nights. Just change the way you sleep and stop torturing yourself.
When my wife and I moved to our current house, we decided to get a decent bed. We spent good money on a very good mattress. While at the mattress store, my wife decided its a good idea to buy expensive thick memory-foam pillows too. Medium size for her, and large for me.
I found that the way the pillow pushed my head so far up and forward was pretty uncomfortable. My chin was touching my chest all night. I decided that sleeping with my head further back and my shoulders up on the pillow helped a bit, but it was still uncomfortable how much it pushed my shoulders up and forward too.
I put up with that for 4 years, thinking I’d just get used to it eventually. Then I had a revelation that I could just go back to my old pillow. Humans aren’t supposed to sleep with their head, neck and shoulders at a crazy angle, no matter how expensive the pillow is. Thankfully I never got a numb arm or sore hand or any other nerve or vascular issue from it.
I eventually found the perfect pillow for me that is actually pretty similar to the rolled up tshirt idea you mentioned.