Left arm hurt from sleeping on stomach?

jwalker · Post by **jwalker** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:43 am

I just recently got my CPAP (second time at home). Up to this point I had been sleeping on my stomach for over 10 years and getting by. I slept on my left arm, and recently I have developed some pain in my shoulder and arm.

I am not sure if it is related to sleeping on my stomach or not, I have taken a couple of spills on my bicycle and fell on that side as well.

Question I have is "Has anyone here ever had shoulder problem(s) like this?..." and if so "Has sleeping on one's back made their arm better?"

Have I done some permanent damage? I hope not.

Woody · Post by **Woody** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 9:01 am

Before I got my cpap I slep on my stomach with my arm extended above my head abd my head on my sholder. This ended up making my sholder
hurt and it did not get better on it's own when I changed to sleaping on my side. In my case I had stretched some of the sholder muscels that hold the
joint together. Now I need to do a lot of rehab exercises to build and tighten
those muscels up 2 months of exercise and it's better but far from healed.
But this is my experience with my sholder your problem might be didderent.

alnhwrd · Post by **alnhwrd** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 9:17 pm

It could just be because you are sleeping soundly in one position for several hours, which you might not have done for a while pre-cpap. When I started CPAP I started having some problems with a sore neck and arms, but those have mostly faded over time. YMMV.

DreamDiver · Post by **DreamDiver** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:00 pm

alnhwrd wrote:It could just be because you are sleeping soundly in one position for several hours, which you might not have done for a while pre-cpap. When I started CPAP I started having some problems with a sore neck and arms, but those have mostly faded over time.

I agree that can happen from sleeping too long in one position - something I wouldn't have done pre-CPAP. I get shoulder blade pain in my right shoulder when I sleep too long on my left side. It'll wake me up. You would think it would be in my left shoulder, like the limb 'falling asleep', but it's opposite. I suspect I'm tensing my right arm in some funky way during sleep on my left side. Go figure. I also experience similar pain when sleeping on my stomach, facing right, but with a ripping headache and neck ache.

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 5:02 am

I get the same thing, but I put a 4-6" x same x 1" deep piece of foam underneath and it helps to keep things better aligned.

brazospearl · Post by **brazospearl** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:02 am

It's probably a combination of adjusting to your therapy and the falls from your bike. If you aren't used to sleeping in one position for very long (and most of us with apnea aren't because we thrash around trying to breathe!) it can take a little while to adjust to that. Add that to possible minor soreness from your falls, and voila! Have you tried taking an analgesic before bed? It might help. And, of course, if it gets worse or doesn't improve in a few days, talk to your doctor.

Left arm hurt from sleeping on stomach?

Left arm hurt from sleeping on stomach?

Re: Left arm hurt from sleeping on stomach?

Re: Left arm hurt from sleeping on stomach?