Hand numbness when sleeping
 

I've been diagnosed with idiopathic PN for the last 2 years.

During the last month or so, I've been having my hands -- on both sides -- develop numbness during the night. When I wake up and get things moving again, it clears up.

Anyone else have these symptoms?

Could it be a clue to underlying issues -- e.g. circulation?



As always, thanks in advance to my fellow travelers on this unfortunately PN journey...

Do you think that hand problem from your PN - is the PN in your hands / arms??
Or could you have some sort of repetitive strain injury?

Carpal tunnel can cause hands to tingle and fall asleep.

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome can have those symptoms also?
But most likely you would have some neck and /or shoulder pain if it is TOS.

we do have a TOS forum with a RSI sub forum if you think it could be due to a repetitive injury. {or whiplash or some sort of upper body hit, bump or fall...}
TOS/RSI useful sticky thread - lots of info -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

Hope that you find out if it is PN or another underlying issues. Sometimes it is just difficult to know until other symptoms comes along.

Trish :grouphug:

Carpal tunnel is neuropathy. My hands do that too, not all the time anymore, but it still happens. My carpal tunnel was diagnosed long before I found out about neuropathy. If it continues, talk to your doctor about an RX for hand braces, or just buy some yourself...wear them at night and see if it helps. You must be holding your hands a certain way while sleeping, and pressing on the nerve, causing the numbness.

there could be pressure on the nerves anywhere from the vertebra to the wrist....good luck

And--there could be both problems
 

--compression on the nerves and lack of circulation to the pressure of the position.

I certainly have both, and also suffer from developing numbness in certain parts of the body if I keep them in certain specific positions too long. Sitting too much on my left thigh, for example, will slowly bring on the feeling of the limb "falling asleep", which slowly ebbs when I shift or get up. And I have an unfotunate tendency to lean on my left elbow while reading or working at the computer, which will produce those symptoms in my ulnar distrubution.

While it's kind of difficult to explain, I can distinguish between the "circulatory" effect and the "direct nerve" effet--the numbness/tingling has a slightly more prickly, less global quality when the nerves are involved, and the circulatory issues fade faster upon pressure release.

What kind of testing have you had to find the cause of your neuropathy? A number of causes--vascultic autoimmune, diabetes/glucose dysregulation--involve a mechanism in which circulation to the nerves in compromised, and they begin to be damaged due to lack of nutrients/oxygen, so circulatory insuffiency can certainly be involved.

Carpal tunnel is my first thought too.

There are braces to wear at night to keep pressure off the nerves in the wrist. Do you use tools, or have an activity which stresses the hands? Like the guitar?

Secondly, this could be a signal of your blood sugar dropping during the night. Low blood sugars can cause nerves to misfire.
So you need to look at that too. Having a small protein snack before bedtime may help. Smaller dinners, and then a snack later can keep the blood sugars more level.

Also too much salt or MSG in your diet can do this.

I also have PN in arms hands, feet and legs. even an experiance with my face this past week. that was not fun.

i was given some hand splints by my dr. to wear at night and they do help. I was waking up and my arms and hands wouldnt work. awful.

Numbness
 

My PN started that way about 8 weeks ago. My PN started with numbness in my feet and hands when I wake up and then would go away slowly during the day. Doctor just started me on Lyrica and it is helping the pain and the numdness in my hands and feet go away much quicker now.

Hawky

Of all the descriptions and comments left so far, this is the one that sounds the most similar to what I'm experiencing.

For my feet, if I sit with my legs on something that puts pressure on my calf area, my feet will pretty readily "go to sleep". If I start moving or shift around, it comes back.

I guess that's what's now happening to my hands, sad to say.

I've had most every autoimmune and diabetes tests there are with nothing found, but perhaps they missed something.

I do live a fairly inactive life -- i.e. not enough exercise. Could it be something as simple as not enough basic circulation happening to keep the nerves at my extremes adequately "fed"? It seems like most circulatory issues also surface with discoloration, though. I don't have any such thing. Although my toes/feet and fingers often feel cold (to me) long before the rest of me does.