ouch!

[frenchie]

I just started cpap the begining of march, so I am still adjusting a bit. I know prior to using cpap when I was sleeping I would toss and turn a lot. Since starting Im not moving around as much in my sleep. While my Husband is now enjoying a more restful sleep, I am waking up stiff and sore in my shoulder, neck and back. and some nights my hand falls asleep if I am laying on it)Has anyone else experianced this? Im starting to think I should set an alarm every few hours so I can wake up and turn over I really dont want to do that. Has anyone else had this happen? Any suggestions?

Thank you,
Angela

[Bluebonnet_Gal]

For a while, I was waking in the morning with my hands "asleep". That hasn't been happening lately. Perhaps my body got used to it and adjusted. Hopefully with some time, you will wake feeling less stiff and sore.

[greenvelvetdragon]

I experienced this as well, and still do at times. I was so used to rolling and flipping, now some nights i never move. I have quite bad arthritis so this does not help. I try to gentley stretch in bed before sleeping, and then again once waking before getting up to start the day, this has helped greatly. i must say i have gotten used to it in the last couple of years, i think my body has readjusted itself. all the best with your therapy.

cheers

GVD

[plr66]

Ditto GVD for me as well. Isn't it amazing that we have gone from thrashing about continuously all night long, to lying still and sleeping like a rock! I still find it to be awesome. But it does hurt! I have found it helpful to experiment with pillows, and as a now-well-trained side sleeper, have much less body-pain with a higher, firmer pillow which helps my shoulder to not be quite so scrunched into the mattress. I do sleep with a small pillow between my knees, and this helps with allignment so there is less pull on my spine when side-sleeping. (Downside is that it is a little more cumbersome to roll over in the night and get that plus the hose re-situated. Upside is that while I do wake up to do that, this waking is a tiny fraction of the amount of time I used to spend awake while tossing & turning all night, pre-cpap!). Some folks have tried the memory foam mattress toppers or full mattresses if these suggestions don't help.

[BeanMeScot]

My shoulder bothered me at first. I still normally wake about once a night to turn over. I used to go to the bathroom, too, but I don't need to do that anymore.

[TheDreamer]

I've experience the arm has fallen asleep feeling during the night, which I've associated with the other times where I'll wake and feel like one side of my body is paralyzed. Used to happen a lot before I started CPAP...

It has been almost 3 months since I started CPAP...no paralysis events, but there have been a couple times where my arm is all tingly like it has been asleep. New is where (once) all the finger joints hurt when I try to use my fingers.

The Dreamer

[dynamite]

I have found that with CPAP therapy (just completed 3 months), my leg and hip aches were eliminated and as a result I no longer toss and turn. This is a good thing! But at first my arm would fall asleep as you described. I did get a foam mattress topper and, just last week, a new mattress. Sleep is now my friend.

[kteague]

Since I still turn over several times a night, I don't have much time to get stiff. But even before cpap, even an hour of side sleeping would leave me with a frozen painful shoulder that I had to pry loose by pulling that arm with the other one. When on my back, my lower back would do the same, and I had to reach up and pull on the headboard to be able to turn over or get up. I put a TempuPedic mattress topper on my bed, and in the last 3 years I've not had anything freeze up like that, and only one few month period when my back was totally out was it an issue. Now I can lie down fairly comfortably (and sit in a recliner too). If I could just figure out how to translate that to standing and sitting upright I'd be good to go.
Kathy

[JoyD.]

Frenchie wrote:
I am waking up stiff and sore in my shoulder, neck and back. . .

My first couple weeks I had that problem also . . . at least my shoulder and neck. Not sure what that was about, but it went away. Maybe I was using muscles that I hadn't used before having a mask & hose to deal with (?)

I have a TempurPedic Deluxe mattress and it is the absolute best investment I ever made. Prior to having it I ALWAYS woke up aching. I thought it was just normal aging . . . NOT! After getting the mattress I NEVER ache when I wake up. This "shoulder thing" with CPAP was temporary. Some simple stretching and back and neck exercises loosened that up . . . which I still believe was from straining muscles as I got accustomed to wearing a mask and negotiating a hose (which I now have hanging above me).