home All hormones Why do my hands hurt at night while sleeping? Hands go numb in sleep - reasons. Causes of temporary paresthesia of the right upper limb

Why do my hands hurt at night while sleeping? Hands go numb in sleep - reasons. Causes of temporary paresthesia of the right upper limb

Rest at night is necessary for the body to recover from physical and mental work during the day. Sleep duration is an indicator of psychological health. If a person’s sleep at night is deep and long, then his nerves are in perfect order.

Sometimes peace is interrupted because the sleeper's hand becomes numb. It hurts, aches, and is difficult to move. A generally accepted reason that causes numbness in the hands during sleep is poor circulation. Does this mean that the person is sick?

When is a doctor's help needed?

If your hands occasionally go numb in your sleep due to an uncomfortable position and pressure on the bloodstream, there is no need to worry. But when these unpleasant sensations bother you incessantly and disturb your sleep, you better rush to the clinic. Medical intervention is required if:

stable numbness of the hands during sleep (quickly passing and long-lasting);
numbness of body parts against the background of deteriorating vision, mental breakdowns.

Sometimes both arms or one limb go numb at once. Alternate numbness of the hands occurs with disorders of the nervous system and indicates the development of a disease of the cervical vertebrae.

If your left hand goes numb in a dream, this indicates ailments of the heart and blood vessels. The development of the pathological process will negatively affect the functionality of other organs, so a consultation with a cardiologist is necessary to establish the nature of the disease. In case of a heart attack, micro-stroke, metabolic disorders in the body, acute vitamin deficiency (especially with a lack of vitamins A and B), the upper part of the left hand goes numb.

With heart disease, the right hand often goes numb. The patient ceases to feel her hand due to arthrosis, cervical osteochondrosis, or carpal tunnel syndrome.

Causes of illness

Ignoring seemingly harmless symptoms leads to significant health problems. Therefore, this sign cannot be ignored. Why do my hands go numb in my sleep? Pathology is caused by:

This is not a complete list of diseases in which you may experience numbness in your hands. This symptom is familiar to diabetics, hypertensive patients, heart patients, and alcoholics.

Numbness of the limbs is a faithful companion to chronic diseases of the circulatory and nervous systems, immunodeficiency, autoimmune diseases, inflammation of the joints and many other pathological processes.

Why do my fingertips go numb?

It happens that a person ceases to feel some phalanges of the fingers. The little finger of the left hand becomes numb due to overexertion, which is caused by stiffening of the muscle tissue of the upper spine or left hand. X-ray results often show shifts in the vertebrae of the neck and lower back, causing compression of the nerves. With such symptoms, doctors diagnose osteochondrosis, which, without adequate therapy, transforms into an intervertebral hernia. The little finger of the left hand may become numb due to heart problems. If you are concerned about such a symptom, you need to undergo a number of additional tests.

When your little fingers on both hands go numb, it means that the nerve receptors in the fingers are damaged due to pressure or overwork. If the thumbs are numb, doctors suspect atherosclerosis.

If you experience tingling pain in your left ring finger, this indicates damage to the nerve plexuses due to injury or pinching (especially in athletes). Doctors explain the aching pain in the left ring finger and little finger at the same time as heart pathology. It is urgent to undergo a full medical examination.

Loss of sensation in the first finger is associated with hemangioma and neurofibroma - neoplasms that compress nerve receptors. If your thumb is paralyzed for more than half an hour, this is a clear sign of a pathological process that, without treatment, will lead to loss of vitality.

Streakness of the second and third fingers means microstructural tissue damage due to dysfunction of the cervical muscles and intervertebral tissues. The pain often radiates to the shoulder and part of the elbow joint to the hand.

The phalanges of the middle fingers become numb due to mechanical damage to the nerve fibers in the event of a sprain, dislocation of the elbow area, or in case of carpal (carpal) tunnel syndrome.

If hand numbness recurs periodically, you should urgently see a therapist, neurologist and cardiologist. Perhaps this is a manifestation of severe pathologies that require immediate comprehensive hospital treatment.

First aid for numbness of fingertips

The sensitivity of the fingertips is reduced due to the same diseases that cause numbness in the hands at night: muscle spasms in the neck, diabetes, neurological diseases of the wrist, etc. But there are other factors influencing this process:

The causes and treatment of these ailments are known only to doctors. To make an accurate diagnosis, you need to contact a specialized clinic. However, why not give yourself first aid and try to restore blood flow? To do this you need to do gymnastics:

Stretch your arms up as high as possible, shake your hands in the air and return to the starting position.
Raise your straight arms to chest level, relax your hands and draw a circle with them. Repeat the movement in the opposite direction.
In the same position, clench your hands tightly into fists and continue to rotate them clockwise and counterclockwise.
Sit on a chair, straighten your back. Smoothly develop the cervical vertebrae, moving your head from left to right, then from bottom to top. Avoid sudden movements.
Cross your arms over your chest so that your right palm touches the outside of your left arm. Rub it. Repeat the same with the other hand.
Without changing position, massage the limbs, pressing lightly on them with your fingertips.

Each exercise must be performed 10-12 times. If you do not feel the effect immediately, repeat the entire complex again after a few hours. It is useful to do gymnastics before going to bed.

Diagnosis and treatment

For effective therapy, it is important to understand why your hands go numb at night. A vertebroneurologist (a doctor specializing in diseases of the spine) must exclude mechanical damage to blood vessels, household and professional injuries that could cause pain. The doctor must also make sure that cerebral circulation is not impaired and prevent pathology.

To form a clinical picture, mandatory studies will be:

X-ray of the cervical area. Pictures need to be taken in several projections to determine the area of pinched bloodstreams and nerve receptors.
Dopplerography - examination of the vessels of the neck will allow you to find out the direction, speed of blood flow and possible disturbances in the functioning of the blood vessels.
MR angiography is a method of obtaining images of the structure and functional changes of blood vessels using a tomograph.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a study of cervical tissue using a magnetic field and radiofrequency pulses.
Electroencephalography (EEG) is the study of the state of the brain by recording its biorhythms.
Echoencephalography (Echo-EG) is a method of determining damage to tissues, skull bones and gray matter of the brain using ultrasound.

Having ruled out nervous diseases, we can begin to diagnose numbness of the phalanges. Since most often the fingers lose sensitivity at night due to deformation of the nerve receptors of the cervical vertebrae, the point of therapy is to relieve symptoms and completely restore blood circulation. Classic treatment regimen:

If your hands go numb at night, a doctor will determine the reasons for this phenomenon. This is a serious symptom that should not be ignored. Timely treatment will help get rid of numbness in the hands and stop the development of severe pathologies.

Sleep is one of the most important processes in a person’s life, which ensures the proper functioning of all body systems and determines well-being for the coming day. When your night's rest is marred by numbness in your hands, it is important to know the reasons for this, what to do and how to treat it.

Causes

Often people complain that only the right or only the left arm, fingers or hands go numb - all this can be caused by different reasons, but there are also common ones.

Incorrect body position
The most harmless reason is an uncomfortable position while sleeping. Many people fall asleep with their arm under the pillow or stretched out, this can lead to the fact that after a few hours the arm will become numb due to the fact that the vessels will be compressed and blood will not flow into the limb in the required volume.
Physical labor
Those whose work involves heavy physical labor or those who often raise them above the level of the heart may experience numbness at night, but there is no talk of any diseases.
Bad pillow
Too high, too low, too soft - any of these pillows can provoke night numbness in the arms due to improper blood circulation; all you need to do if your arms up to the elbows go numb at night is to replace the pillow with an orthopedic one.
Carpal tunnel syndrome
This disease appears in middle-aged people who actively work with their hands or only their fingers throughout the day - seamstresses, musicians, computer scientists, writers, etc. It is treated with a complex of exercises and vitamins.
Pregnancy
Women in an “interesting position” also wonder what to do if their hands go numb in a dream. During this period, the musculoskeletal system is reconstructed, changes occur throughout the body, which is why such symptoms may be temporarily observed.

Among more serious causes, doctors identify some diseases that can cause numbness in the hands during sleep:

osteochondrosis;
problems with blood vessels;
circulatory disorders;
hypertension;
diabetes;
inflammation of the central nervous system;
heart diseases;
lack of B vitamins;
sclerosis;
arthritis;
vegetative-vascular dystonia.

Left hand

Among the possible causes of numbness in the hands at night during sleep, there are those that cause this only in the left hand.

If only the left arm is numb all the time, this indicates the presence of serious problems with the heart, up to a pre-stroke condition, if the symptom manifests itself during the day.

Other possible reasons:

disorders or inflammation in the central nervous system;
improper metabolism;
lack of vitamin A;
loss of sensitivity of nerve fibers;
atherosclerosis;
cerebral stroke;
diseases of the spine.

Right hand

If the problem is exactly the opposite, and only the left hand goes numb, then the reasons may be the following:

cervical osteochondrosis;
bone diseases;
neuralgia;
problems with blood vessels in the neck;
hernia;
myocardial infarction;
cardiac diseases.

Fingers

If only your fingers go numb during night sleep, this may indicate other reasons:

frostbite;
lack of amyloid;
intervertebral hernia;
spondylosis;
genetic diseases (Hansen's, Lima's, Raynaud's, Buerger's diseases);
inflammation of the circulatory system;
immune diseases.

Most often, numbness occurs in the little and middle fingers, or the entire hand becomes numb. This problem can also be caused by an injury to the shoulder, neck or arm.

In what cases should you consult a doctor?

The first step is to try to identify the cause of loss of sensation in the limbs. If symptoms appear only at night, there is a good chance that it is not a disease. Replace the pillow, make sure that the pajamas are comfortable and do not squeeze any blood vessels, watch your body position while sleeping.

The correct sleeping position will ensure healthy sleep and excellent well-being throughout the day, or it will disrupt the rest process and only bring fatigue and discomfort.

Interesting to know! If your arms go numb when you sleep with them thrown behind your head, then you can immediately say that the reason is an uncomfortable position. At night, blood circulation is much slower, so it is better to place the limbs at the level of the heart.

If all “harmless” factors are excluded, this is a serious reason to consult a doctor, even if you are not particularly worried about the fact that your hands go numb at night, this could be a symptom of a serious illness, for example, a blood clot in the arteries or a stroke.

Alarming symptoms:

numbness began only at night, but began to appear during the daytime;
loss of sensitivity progresses and becomes longer;
both hands go numb;
hands go numb not only at night, it all starts suddenly and does not depend on extraneous factors, and is accompanied by impaired vision and perception;
painful sensations have been added that do not go away for a long time even after restoration of sensitivity.

Since sleep is the most important component of our lives, its quality is very important. In the article “” you can learn effective methods that will allow you to quickly go into the kingdom of Morpheus.

Treatment

It is possible to talk about how to treat the cause of numbness in your fingers at night only if all serious causes have been excluded and symptomatic intervention is required.

In any case, this is a complex process that includes therapeutic exercises and exercises, medications and special baths that help restore sensitivity.

Gymnastics and exercises

Regular physical activity will help improve blood flow through the vessels in the limbs, which will relieve the unpleasant feeling of numbness in the arms while sleeping.

Vertical compressions
Lying on your back, extend your arms in front of you or up and perform repeated squeezing and unclenching of your fingers (at least 100 times).
Horizontal compressions
Repeat the previous exercise, only now lower your arms along your body - also at least 100 repetitions.
To the sun
Stand on your toes against the wall, slowly raise your arms above your head and hold them in this position for 60 seconds.
Lock
Lower your feet, lower your arms. Take a deep breath, then put your hands behind your back and clasp your palms. Stay in this position for 60 seconds. Important! To achieve maximum effect, the exercises should be performed in the morning and before bed, and the last two should be repeated three times, alternating.
Head turns
Slowly turn your head all the way, first to the left, then to the right, then up and down. Repeat 20 times for each direction. Important! A slight tilt of the head when turning to the sides will improve blood flow in 6-7 vertebrae. Perform the exercises one by one, not in a circle!
Warm up the limbs
Lie on your back, place a small pillow under your head. Raise your arms and legs at right angles, stay in this position for 30 seconds, then start shaking all your limbs until you feel tired. Slowly lower your arms and legs and restore your breathing. Repeat.
Ball
In order to stimulate blood circulation, you can use any round object - a children's ball, a walnut, a ping-pong ball. Take a round object in your palm and roll it from side to side, from finger to finger for 5 minutes.

Medication

Medicines are rarely prescribed for the symptomatic treatment of this problem; usually this is a whole regimen for treating the true cause, or drugs to strengthen and dilate blood vessels.

To relieve spasm, namely vascular hypertonicity, which can cause numbness, and restore blood flow, Spazmalgon, Papaverine, and Nitroglycerin are prescribed.
To lower cholesterol levels, dilate blood vessels and treat atherosclerosis, Simvastatin, Lovastatin, and Fluvastatin are prescribed.
Preparations based on fibric acid are prescribed to overweight patients to stimulate the burning of subcutaneous fat and treat inflamed vascular walls - “Clofibrate”, “Fenofibrate”, “Gevilon”.
To increase the tone of blood vessels, strengthen their walls and performance, Acipimox and Niacin are used.
Vitamin supplements include nicotinic acid, vitamin P, dihydroquerticin, potassium, B vitamins, selenium, and ascorbic acid.

Folk recipes

Ancient methods will help solve the problem of numbness in the hands during sleep using herbal and natural substances at home.

Alcohol
Mix a liter of water with 10 g of camphor and 50 g of ammonia, add 1 tbsp. salt, let it brew for several hours. Rub the mixture into numb areas in the morning and before bed.
Rosemary
1 tbsp. add dried rosemary to 2 liters. water, leave for half an hour, then add the mixture to the bath. Take this bath for 20 minutes every day for 2 weeks before bed. After the bath, rub mustard oil into the numb areas.
Potato
Boil the potatoes in their skins, drain the broth, add 1-2 tbsp. sunflower oil. Wait until the water cools to an acceptable temperature, then dip your hands in it for 20 minutes. After a bath of potato broth, you should massage your hands - rub the cream into the skin with massaging movements, accelerating the blood flow.
Herbs
Take 500 g of celery and parsley, 125 g of honey and 1 lemon - pass all ingredients through a food processor or meat grinder, take 3 tbsp in the morning on an empty stomach.
Pumpkin
Prepare pumpkin puree, cool to an acceptable temperature. Apply the porridge to your hands up to the elbows, then wrap them in a woolen cloth, scarf or sweater. Keep the compress for 20 minutes.

Prevention

If the problem of numbness in the hands at night has been resolved, do not forget about it; it is better to think about how to prevent a “relapse”.

Also, do not forget that such discomfort can lead to poor quality sleep. As a result, there is a risk of development.

Lead an active lifestyle - even minimal physical activity will help get rid of problems with blood vessels and maintain their elasticity for many years.
If you work with your hands, you should take breaks at least once an hour - do warm-ups and light exercises for your fingers, this will help avoid squeezing blood vessels and nerves.
A chiropractor can prescribe a course of preventive massage - 5-10 procedures will get rid of the problem for a long time.
Avoid hypothermia of your extremities in winter, and replace synthetic gloves with natural ones.
For vascular health, you should give up bad habits - alcohol, smoking and spicy, fried, salty foods.

Unpleasant sensations can be very diverse in their localization. It is very rare to encounter numbness in the entire arm. More often, any part of it goes numb, which completely depends on the cause of the disease:

Many people, especially representatives of older age groups, are familiar with the sensation of tingling, “crawling,” awkwardness, and numbness in the hands, especially at night. However, the symptom can occur at any age.

The main and most common reason why your hands go numb at night is cervical osteochondrosis or salt deposition in the cervical spine. This disease occurs in 70% of the population over the age of 50, but the process begins after overcoming the 30-year mark. Nowadays, osteochondrosis can also be found more and more often in adolescents.

Other causes of discomfort in the hands include diseases of the heart and circulatory system, atherosclerosis, vascular atherothrombosis, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, polyarthritis of small joints, inflammation in the nerves themselves, and lack of B vitamins.

In the absence of any pathology, numbness in the hands can occur due to an incorrectly selected pillow or an unphysiological position of the body, and, above all, the hands, during sleep. Many people have the habit of sleeping with their arms thrown up or placed under their heads, which impedes blood circulation in the upper extremities.

How your hands go numb at night

1. Cervical osteochondrosis, spondylosis, hernia or protrusion of intervertebral discs of the cervical spine, especially when the pathological process is localized in the lower cervical segments (C5-C7). It is from this part of the spinal cord that the nerves leading to the arms emerge. In this case, depending on the affected nerve root, numbness can be localized:

along the inner surface of the arm, from the shoulder to the tips of the 5th and half of the 4th fingers (C7);
on the back of the shoulder and forearm, the back of the 2nd and 3rd fingers (C6);
along the side of the hand to the thumb and index finger (C5).

With a common pathological process of the lower cervical region, the location of numbness may be different. Headache with cervical osteochondrosis is also not uncommon.

2. Carpal tunnel syndrome - compression of the nerves going to the hand, in a narrow canal formed by the bones of the wrist. Occurs during prolonged activity associated with the same type of load on the hands, such as flexion-extension movements (working at a computer, playing musical instruments, assembling parts, conveyor belts). In this case, there is numbness of the entire hand or its parts strictly below the wrist, and sometimes numbness of the fingers is observed. The overlying parts of the hand are not involved in the pathological process.

3. Polyarthritis of small joints of the hand. Here it is typical to have manifestations only in the fingers.

4. In case of pathology of the shoulder or elbow joints, symptoms will occur in the underlying parts of the upper limb.

5. Diabetes mellitus and other metabolic disorders(liver disease, kidney disease, endocrine pathology). This also includes abuse of alcohol and nicotine, since the mechanism of development of the pathology is very similar. Numbness in this case has an “ascending” character, begins from more distant parts and gradually, over time, “rises” upward. This happens as larger vessels become involved. Usually two hands are affected at once, the sensations are symmetrical.

6. With hypertension, numbness of the hands at night appears only when the blood pressure level is elevated.

7. Numbness of the hands is of particular importance in case of heart disease. Here you should pay attention to which hand is going numb. If unpleasant sensations occur in the right hand, this can most likely be attributed to cervical osteochondrosis. But numbness in the left arm can be a sign of serious heart problems, such as angina or a heart attack. If numbness in your left arm occurs suddenly, especially at night, and does not go away within an hour, you should consult a doctor.

What to do if your hands go numb in your sleep

1. Try to eliminate all possible factors:

replace the pillow;
choose a more comfortable sleeping position, often changing position to prevent the blood vessels from being pinched;
Avoid alcohol and nicotine consumption, especially at night;
Do not engage in work that requires stress on your arms before going to bed.

2. Exercises for numbness in the hands at night:

without getting out of bed, lie on your back and stretch your arms up, bend and straighten your fingers 50 times, then put your arms along your body and repeat the exercise;
rotational movements in the wrists;
stand up and clasp your hands behind your back, try to raise them as high as possible;
in mild cases, just shake your hands.

3. You can relax tense neck muscles with light self-massage. before bed and during the day. It is enough to simply rub your neck with your palms, you can also use anti-inflammatory ointments (Nise, Fastum Gel).

4. In the absence of contraindications and depending on the cause, physiotherapeutic procedures can be used:

magnetic therapy on the neck;
phonophoresis, darsonvalization of hands;
paraffin on hands, forearms;
electrophoresis with lidase on the carpal tunnel area.

5. Folk remedies:

honey compress: spread honey on the numb areas of the hands in a thin layer, wrap and leave overnight, course of 7-10 procedures;
wild rosemary: 5 tbsp. crushed raw materials, pour 1 glass of apple cider vinegar, leave for a week and use for rubbing numb areas;
A glass of hot water every morning on an empty stomach will help strengthen the walls of blood vessels. published

Numbness of the hands (or medically called paresthesia) is a fairly common feeling of discomfort that manifests itself mainly at night. Its main symptoms are aching pain and tingling. Often a person wakes up at night, pain and a feeling of numbness make it difficult to sleep further. When you move your fingers, the tingling at first intensifies, the pain increases, then gradually passes and you can continue to fall asleep. According to statistics, from 7.4% to 45% of the population experience painful nocturnal paresthesias. The generally accepted point of view is that hands go numb at night due to poor circulation in the extremities. But what causes it?

Of course, if your hands go numb at night occasionally and really because of an uncomfortable body position during sleep, you shouldn’t focus your attention on it. This phenomenon is colloquially called - the hand has rested and does not require any measures other than a change in position.

If your hands become numb every night during sleep, constantly and prevent you from sleeping soundly, you should consult a specialist. The following issues should be of concern:

If your hands go numb during sleep and after sleep;
Simultaneously;
If only the left hand or only the right hand goes numb at night;
Simultaneously with the attack, vision deteriorates.

Factors such as whether the whole arm or just the hand are numb, or whether there is paresthesia of the fingers.

Previously, before examining a doctor, one can only assume the presence of the most common following pathologies. If your hands go numb at night, the most common reasons are cervical osteochondrosis, the presence of an intervertebral hernia and polyneuropathy. If only the left arm goes numb, the most common cause is pathology of cardiac function. It is quite possible that the therapist will give a referral for an ECG and a referral to a cardiologist. You should be especially wary if it goes numb during the day (this may be a harbinger of a stroke or a pre-infarction condition). If the right hand goes numb, the reasons may be hidden in tunnel syndrome, cervical osteochondrosis, arthrosis, or a sharp narrowing of the cervical blood vessels.

Hands become numb from incorrect position

Oddly enough, often the culprit of paresthesia is an uncomfortable pillow, unsuitable for sleeping. A pillow that is too high or placed on the rib creates an incorrect foundation for the spine, which bends in the cervical region and causes a disruption in blood supply. Because of this, a feeling of discomfort, aching unpleasant pain, and tingling occurs in the hands. Correcting this situation is quite simple - just buy a flat pillow in any supermarket or purchase a special orthopedic pillow in a specialized salon. The right pillow will allow the head to take the correct anatomical position, which promotes uniform blood supply to all parts of the body.
Another reason why your hands go numb at night is falling asleep in tight, non-stretchy or small clothes or in an uncomfortable position. Uncomfortable positions include sleeping with your arms thrown back behind your head and sleeping on your side with one hand under your ear or under your pillow. This is also explained by impaired blood supply. The cardiovascular system works in a gentle mode at night and blood may simply not flow in full to the hands. Clothes can also ride up and squeeze blood vessels.
There are people who often raise their hands above heart level while working - these are painters and installers. They also often experience numbness in their hands at night.

Carpal tunnel syndrome

We can say that numbness of the hands during sleep is an occupational disease. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs from regular straining of the tendons of the hand. This disease is typical for musicians, PC operators, seamstresses - that is, people making similar movements with their hands during the working day. This is a disease in which the intensity of pain is most pronounced.

There is a special small channel on the human hand through which tendons and a nerve pass, responsible for the sensitivity of the palm. When a nerve is overstrained, swelling occurs, which causes a feeling of numbness, usually at night or towards the morning. If you do not consult a specialist in time and do not treat carpal tunnel syndrome, the muscles of the thumb may simply die, which will limit its mobility. Carpal tunnel syndrome also occurs in women over 40.

Spinal diseases

A special place in diagnosing the causes of numbness in the hands is occupied by circulatory disorders associated with diseases of the spine. Associated signs of the disease are frequent dizziness, headaches, periodic loss of consciousness, and ringing in the ears. If all these phenomena are observed and at the same time your hands become numb at night, then this is a good reason to consult a neurologist. This could be osteochondrosis of the cervical spine or intervertebral hernia.

Spinal osteochondrosis is a whole complex of degenerative metabolic pathologies in the cartilage and bone tissue of the spine. At the stage when the destruction of the vertebrae occurs, the roots of the spinal nerves are compressed and lead to pain in different parts of the limbs (from the wrist and shoulder to the ribs). A modern sedentary lifestyle at a desk, office desk or driving a car only contributes to the development of this disease. With prolonged improperly distributed load, the neck muscles become overstrained and spasm. With this disease, the hands go numb both at night and during the day.

Vascular pathologies

Vascular pathologies are the most dangerous reasons why your hands go numb at night. If a circulatory disorder occurs in one of the areas of the brain, a limb may simultaneously become numb. If all this is accompanied by a sharp increase in blood pressure, dizziness and confusion, then this may be one of the signs of a mini-stroke. Usually the cause of the disease is overexertion, stress, and a sharp jump in blood pressure.

Ischemic stroke of the inferior cerebellar and vertebral arteries also manifests itself as numbness of the limb. When it occurs, the blood circulation of any part of the brain is disrupted. Associated signs of the disease are dizziness and increased blood pressure.

The bad habit of smoking before bed or at night can also lead to unpleasant sensations during sleep. Smoking causes a sharp constriction of blood vessels and the body can react with a feeling of numbness. Drinking alcohol before bed leads to approximately the same effect. Alcohol causes a short-term dilation of blood vessels and their subsequent sharp narrowing. Moreover, the vessels do not narrow to their original state, but they narrow much more strongly.

Pregnancy

During pregnancy, a feeling of numbness in the hands or fingers also occurs quite often. If a pregnant woman's hands go numb at night, there may be quite a few reasons for this:

Violation of water-salt balance;
Lack of magnesium and calcium;
Pathologies of vascular walls due to hormonal disorders;
Weight gain and uncomfortable sleeping position;
Decreased activity;
Pathologies of the endocrine system.

Also provoking factors for numbness are anemia developing during pregnancy and spinal diseases aggravated by heavy weight.

Other diseases

Night hand numbness can be a consequence of a number of chronic diseases:

Diabetes mellitus;
Hypertension;
Anemia;
Coronary heart disease;
Lack of B vitamins and a number of microelements;
Multiple sclerosis;
Rheumatoid arthritis;

One should not discount such an infrequent but very dangerous phenomenon as the appearance of a blood clot in the vessels. The clot can begin to obstruct blood flow and cause numbness. If night numbness does not go away within an hour after waking up, this is a good reason to consult a doctor. In all of the above cases, it is necessary to begin treatment of the underlying disease with a specialized specialist.

Digital paresthesia

The causes of digital paresthesia should be sought in the clinic. For examination, the therapist can give a referral to the following specialists - cardiologist, neurologist, endocrinologist, traumatologist.

If the cause of the pathology is discovered to be of a neuralgic nature, drug treatment and a vitamin complex will be prescribed. Physiotherapy is often additionally prescribed.
If the reason lies in muscle strain or injury, the traumatologist will give his recommendations.
If elbow neuropathy is suspected, electroneuromyography is prescribed, which will confirm the diagnosis.
Extensive blood and urine tests and examination of the gastrointestinal tract will help identify endocrine diseases.

How to get rid of night numbness

So, if night numbness of the hands bothers you, it is necessary;

Check the pillow and mattress to see how much they contribute to a comfortable position while sleeping;
Check your pajamas to ensure that the narrow armholes of the sleeves do not pinch your limbs at night;
Check your body position while sleeping.

If this is not the cause of numbness in the hands, but the unpleasant sensations continue, then you need to visit a therapist and a neurologist, be examined for the presence of osteochondrosis and other diseases: take an X-ray of the spine, an ECG, and take a detailed blood test. And begin to treat the identified disease. In some cases you may have to change jobs.

Treatment of pathology in most cases is carried out locally. It comes down to restoring tissue trophism and resuming the functioning of compressed vessels. The most commonly used treatment methods are: physiotherapy, ultrasound, laser therapy, electrophoresis. All these procedures allow you to treat the affected area with medications. Manual manipulation is very effective in reducing the inflammatory syndrome and reducing the process of vascular hypoxia. Therapeutic and preventive gymnastics helps develop and strengthen joints and muscles. Regular physical activity improves blood circulation. Morning exercises and physical activity 2 hours before bedtime will also help eliminate discomfort during sleep.

The following exercises will help get rid of numbness:

Clenching/unclenching fingers;
Shake your palms with relaxed fingers and wrists;
Lying on your back, raising and lowering your arms;
Rolling a massage ball or a spiked ball over the palm.

The doctor may also prescribe a vitamin complex, vasodilators, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Regular gymnastics for the shoulder girdle is very effective.

If the above remedies are not particularly effective, you should consult a chiropractor. A chiropractor will help eliminate changes in the cervical and thoracic spine, dysfunction of the costovertebral and costosternal areas, in the shoulder joints and costosternal joints, and help relieve muscle tension. Usually, 1 to 5 sessions are enough to eliminate painful sensations.

List of used literature:

Occipital neuralgia: symptoms of the disease, various treatment methods. feedmed.ru.
Vladimir M. Kovalzon, Yuri V. Panchin Protein pannexin1 and the sleep-wake cycle in model mice Journal of Neurology & Stroke, 2018, Volume 8, Issue 6, p. 276-277
Shakhnarovich V.M., Indursky P.A., Dementienko V.V., Markelov V.V. The Phenomenon of Weak, Unawakening afferent Signals Involvement in Synchronization Mechanisms of Neuron activity during delta Sleep Int J Sleep Disord. 2017

Symptom of numbness - what does it mean and what to do about it, let's figure it out. Why do my hands go numb, how is this related to age, lifestyle, is it a symptom of a serious illness or just a consequence of an uncomfortable body position?

General information

There are several options for hand numbness:

when three fingers go numb - thumb, index and middle
when two fingers go numb - the ring and little fingers
when the arm (hand) goes numb completely or just the fingertips

You can do a small hand numbness test. To do this, bend your hand perpendicular to your wrist and hold for 1 minute. If your fingers or entire hand are numb, then the test is positive. That is, there is a predisposition, and sooner or later you will encounter such a condition in everyday life.

Why fingers and hands go numb - looking for the reason

The reason why the hands go numb is associated with two nerves that come from the cervical spine, go down the arm, branch at the hand to the fingers, and it turns out:

median nerve - located in the carpal tunnel
ulnar - in Guyon's canal

They deliver nerve impulses to different parts of our hand.

Inside the wrist, in a special tunnel, lies the median nerve and is responsible for the work of the three fingers on the hand; it is this nerve that gives us the ability to make movements. The space in which the nerve is located is not very large, since it still goes along with the tendons. Very often, in women after 45 years of age, due to menopause, edema occurs in the body, as a result of which the median nerve tunnel can swell and compress, the transmission of impulses is disrupted, and the fingers become numb. In medical language this is called tunnel syndrome.

This syndrome can also occur in people who work at a computer, since the hand on the mouse and keyboard is in a stationary position for a long time. According to statistics, this is one of the most common reasons why fairly young people often have numb hands.

Why do my hands go numb at night?

At night, as you know, everything negative in our body worsens. That’s why the hands go numb during sleep much more often, since during the day a person has the opportunity to relieve this painful condition with movements at the very beginning. In a dream we are defenseless.

If your hands become numb in your sleep, then you should watch your posture during the day. Perhaps your favorite body position may be the “legs crossed” position (this can affect not only the arms, but also lead to numbness in the legs) or “crossed arms over the chest” (the brachial arteries are compressed). If you recognize yourself, then you urgently need to change your preferences.

An uncomfortable pillow if it is too high can lead to numbness in your arms at night.

For a comfortable sleep, you should adhere to the correct body position. This is often neglected by young mothers when they sleep with their baby. They often choose a side sleeping position with their arm extended forward and placed under their head. This position does not at all contribute to normal blood flow.

Numbness can also be caused by bad habits - smoking, alcohol, strong coffee before bed.

Before you sound the alarm, try to eliminate all these factors and establish the right lifestyle. If the situation remains unchanged, then you should definitely consult a doctor.

Why do my arms and legs go numb?

The main reason why arms or legs go numb is due to disruption of blood flow or nerve impulses. But the doctor must find out what caused the violations.

If such a condition is observed in a pregnant woman, then, as a rule, this indicates a lack of iron and calcium in the body. At your first appointment with a doctor, you need to inform him about your condition, he will prescribe medications that will correct the lack of these microelements in the body.

This condition can also be caused by diseases of the spine and joints, vascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, as well as a violation of the content of microelements and vitamins in the body (lack of vitamins B, group K, and magnesium). When diagnosing, it is worth taking into account important nuances: all limbs are numb or just one, fingers or the entire limb are numb. So, if the left arm becomes numb, this may indirectly signal a pre-infarction condition.

What to do first - which doctor to contact

If you are convinced that your hands are numb not because of your lifestyle, then you need to consult a doctor. Only an experienced therapist can deal with this. If we are talking about poor passage of nerve impulses, he will refer you to a neurologist.

As already mentioned, the median nerve originates in the neck, and the neurologist will immediately begin to check where the problem is (that is, where the nerve is being compressed) - in the wrist or in the cervical region.

Before performing any medical manipulations, the doctor will check the speed of conduction along a particular nerve using a special method called electroneuromyography. That is, the speed of the electrical impulse along the median nerve will first be checked. Two electrodes are attached to the eminence of the thumb and there is also a special electrode that gives a weak current. To prove that the cause of numbness is in the tunnel, a special electric charge is fired through it, and the speed of the impulse from one sensor on the palm to the other is measured. If the speed is slow, there is swelling in the tunnel, and it does not allow the impulse to spread normally. As a result, the fingers go numb.

The main treatment will be aimed at treating the tunnel, but you should also not forget about the cervical spine, since this is where the nerves come from. And a neurologist will most likely work on two fronts.

The first impact should be aimed at the cervical spine, since muscle spasm has occurred here, the muscles compress the intervertebral nerves and the passage of nerve impulses is disrupted.

The second step is an injection of the steroid drug hydrocortisone into the wrist. Here it is necessary to ask the patient to pull the hand towards himself in order to see the location of the tendon, since the drug should under no circumstances get into the tendon.

So, using a needle, an anesthetic anti-inflammatory drug is injected directly inside where the swelling has formed. Under the influence of medications, swelling and pain disappear.

This procedure is indicated for any patient who experiences numbness in the hand. And it doesn’t matter what type of numbness occurs - two, three fingers or the entire hand. If this condition worsens at night and the person wakes up, then even more so such a procedure should be carried out. And here it is important not to endure, because a long stay of the nerve in this state threatens loss of function - and the nerve carries out not only a sensitive, but also a motor function.

What else should you do if your hand goes numb? Is it possible to solve the problem simply by exercising, without resorting to injections? Yes, you can, and physical activity is even necessary. But people usually come to the doctor who can no longer tolerate it, when numbness leads not only to discomfort, but to a deterioration in the quality of life, which can affect a person’s performance. And drug treatment is the only option for helping such patients.

For proper treatment and diagnosis, as well as further examination, always consult a doctor.