On Sunday I woke up with only one arm.
I went to bed with two, so it was a little scary.
I guess I must have slept strangely because I could not feel my entire right arm from the shoulder all the way down. It was so numb that it actually woke me up around 3:00 am. And it took about 20 minutes to come back to life.
The feeling of touching the fingers on my right hand, but only being able to feel them with my left was terrible. I was almost expecting to look down at my arm and find it blue, it was so lifeless.
Of course this meant that I had to turn on all the lights, wake up Alex, and run around violently shaking my arm for that 20 minutes. It was fun for both of us.
Has that ever happened to you? Is it normal?
Image: http://www.bwipins.com/images/lg_pins.jpg
It happens relatively often to me since I was a kid. Don’t worry!
Phew! It was so unnerving! Glad to hear that it’s more common than I thought
I had that happen and what I’d done was lie on the arm and pinched the ulnar nerve. Unfortunately the feeling didn’t return and I needed surgery, (I know, sounds silly, doesn’t it?) to untrap the nerve.
Maribeth,
Oh my! So was your arm numb until the surgery? That must have been really scary!
I actually always thought that this experience was normal. It did not occur to me that this does not happen to other people. I sleep on my arms every night and wake up several times during the night with pins and needles and need to shift to the other arm in order to sleep again – repeat – repeat – repeat…
Maybe I should buy a tube shaped pillow!
This has happened to my legs! Once, I was sleeping in my hotel room and my mom knocked on the door; I tried to get up to answer it but literally collapsed on the way there because the legs were completely asleep–they just gave out. It freaked me out (I was 14), and I started screaming that I was paralyzed. You can imagine how my mom felt on the other side of the door!
Laura,
Wow! Every night? Do you feel rested in the morning after all that tossing and turning?
Preya,
It’s not funny, but the visual from that story makes me laugh. I’m sure you must have been totally panicking though – in the dark, in a strange place with your mom knocking on the door. What a nightmare!
Laura,
I, too, wake up several times through the night because my
right arm has pins and needles. I have to change positions and shake my arm and hang it out of the bed to regain circulation! I’m getting tired (Ha literally) of doing this and therefore googled the problem. I found an MS site but that’s appears to happen for them when they are awake. I thought I must have poor circulation or maybe I’m over using my right arm through the day or maybe I need a new bed! It’s happening too often and bothering me a lot. And yes superk.. it’s hard to feel rested. Now I notice that as I type it is bothering me. This is kind of scary.
Patty
Since last week I have been waking up with pins and needles in my right arm. I keep asking myself is it the start of an heart attack? Because I too thiught it was because I was sleeping on my right side until this afternoon when I had a nap and woke up on my left side but still right arm with pins and needles, I too am scared
oh wow! I’m really glad i googled this, and found you all … bec. just now, i got up from a nap in the afternoon, and my left hand was numb, I panicked! I sat straight up in bed, and began to try to feel it with my other hand, and it was numb! I tried to move the fingers, but again, numb. So, i held my left arm straight up in the air, as if you’re pointing to something in the ceiling, to let the blood flow go back to the heart. Within a few moments, the blood flow must have started again, bec. I then began to get horrible pins and needles!!!! I could feel the warmth of the blood, returning to the hand. This is weird.
Finally, within a few minutes, (i guess, about 10 minutes) my hand was back to itself, but it did take about 10 minutes or so, and during those 10 minutes, the PINS AND NEEDLES sensation was BIG!!! Even still, as I’m sitting her typing this, my left hand is STILL not completley ok, or “normal”, it’s still got that weird pins and needles sensation…not badly, but in the background. I can use the left hand normally, at least.
I’m glad to have found this, bec. I too thought maybe I was having a heart attack! geez! one question, how old are all of you? I’m a 50 yr. old woman, a little overweight, don’t smoke or drink…but I’m definatly out of shape!!!
I wonder what this is. It must be circulatory, but why, from what? I wasn’t even laying on my left side, i was laying on my back! I just now remembered that this DID happen to me once before, about a year ago. Yeah, now I remember.
Same exact thing. Weird.
This is the closest thing I could find to an explanation:
http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/pins.html
Seems fairly harmless.
the last time when it happened to me, it was really scary, cause, ioppened my eyes, and i felt that somehting is going wrong, i got off the bed, then i grab my right hand with left and lifted it, cause it was not working at all. it fricked me out ! ! ! I did not fell anything, i could not even move it ! Gezz lots of thoughts came to head, like they are gonna cut it off !! 3 minutes later it was gone , but dat was crzy
For the last few days I’ve had pins & needles, like a tingling sensation running through my little finger & the one next to it on my right hand. I’m getting a bit purturbed about it.
This happened to me before & I was informed by my Doctor that it was the cause of diabetes. Is this true, & how serious is this? I am on diabetic tablets (Glibenclamide). This feeling stopped for a while but has now come back.
I am also Epileptic. My niece has suffered from 2 strokes, so this has got me really worried.
Any professional medical advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Latticia
I have a tingling sensation (like pins & needles) constantly in my little finger & the one next to it on my right hand. How serious is this? I am diabetic and on Glibenclamide tablets I am also Epileptic. I had this feeling once before. My Doctor said that I was diabetic. He put me on the abovementioned tablets.The tingling sensation went away but has now returned and I’m worried about it.
I would really appreciate any professional medical advice.
My niece has suffered from 2 strokes and this is why I am worried incase I end up with a stroke.