How badly can one injure himself while asleep?

Injury/Nutrition Other

9 years ago 11/25/2014 12:48pm EST

Yesterday I woke up with a sore right shoulder. Figured I "slept on it wrong" as the saying goes. Didn't think much of it. Today it's gone progressively worse to point that now I cannot manage even to cut up my dinner without pretty searing pain. Accompanied by laughter at how ridiculous an injury it is.

I am still not thinking much of it, and know it will get better tomorrow or next day. My question is, what actually happens to the body when one wakes up with a kinked neck or whatever, from "sleeping wrong"? I can see a little soreness from a twisted posture while sleeping, but what the hell? Is it possible to actually injure yourself while sleeping? And for the inevitable wiseacres out there, I mean sleeping, in a bed, alone, no sleepwalking, no sleep-raping, no sleep-moshpitting, nothing with goats, etc.

Also I am not an old man, which might otherwise be susceptible to random sourceless injuries. I am the typical letsrunner. Mid-20's, 650k, 14:0x, 9.5"...

9 years ago 11/25/2014 1:25pm EST

re: frogs

frogs wrote:
Yesterday I woke up with a sore right shoulder. Figured I "slept on it wrong" as the saying goes. Didn't think much of it. Today it's gone progressively worse to point that now I cannot manage even to cut up my dinner without pretty searing pain. Accompanied by laughter at how ridiculous an injury it is.
I am still not thinking much of it, and know it will get better tomorrow or next day. My question is, what actually happens to the body when one wakes up with a kinked neck or whatever, from "sleeping wrong"? I can see a little soreness from a twisted posture while sleeping, but what the hell? Is it possible to actually injure yourself while sleeping? And for the inevitable wiseacres out there, I mean sleeping, in a bed, alone, no sleepwalking, no sleep-raping, no sleep-moshpitting, nothing with goats, etc.
Also I am not an old man, which might otherwise be susceptible to random sourceless injuries. I am the typical letsrunner. Mid-20's, 650k, 14:0x, 9.5"...

Weird because I had a very similar thing happen to me when I woke up last Tuesday. I woke up with my neck basically stuck in one position which isn't anything too crazy, but the stiff neck and a lot of pain continued even through today. I am still lacking some of the mobility and still feeling some pain when I move it in the wrong way. I can exercise and climb with no additional pain though so whatever, but very strange.

9 years ago 11/25/2014 1:32pm EST

re: frogs

Fell down some stairs sleep walking on ambien, thought it was a dream woke up hours later on the floor. No broken bones but banged up a bit. Ambien = bad

9 years ago 11/25/2014 1:34pm EST

re: frogs

Could be something with a nerve.

9 years ago 11/25/2014 1:58pm EST

re: frogs

To answer the thread title's question: You can fall out of bed and die. People have. (Sleeping on the top bunk makes this easier.)

To answer the OP: I pretty well destroyed my right shoulder--though over the course of a couple years--by sleeping with my hand under my wife's pillow. I would move around during sleep, like everyone else, but my hand stayed put. Nowadays I can't really throw a ball, much less a javelin.

In terms of a single night's sleep, the earlier suggestion about a nerve is spot on. Pinching a nerve in the neck/shoulders can result in pain, numbness, and/or weakness in "unexpected" places throughout the body.

9 years ago 11/25/2014 2:11pm EST

re: rha

Once I woke up and I was stuck looking right the whole day. Any attempt to not look right resulted in excruciating pain. It went away the next day thankfully. It happened to my friend once too

9 years ago 11/25/2014 4:25pm EST

re: renewed marathoner

I had a roommate that walked in his sleep. He got up one night with a b0ner and walked into a dresser drawer that was left open and damaged himself for life to the point of gaining a new nickname. Lefty

9 years ago 11/25/2014 4:30pm EST

re: Lefty...

You probably strained something while moving your 9.5 incher to a more comfortable position.

9 years ago 11/25/2014 5:05pm EST

re: frogs

frogs wrote:
nothing with goats, etc.

Well, nevermind then.

9 years ago 11/25/2014 6:39pm EST

re: Gary Oldman

I guess it is the bane of being a side-sleeper. Usually if this happens I get it in the neck. This is the first one with the shoulder. All my young life I've wished I could sleep flat on my back like the normal, civilised, educated man I was raised to be. I have even managed stretches of several weeks, perhaps a month, sleeping on my back the whole night. No back-sleeper is ever subject to these grades of nocturnal injury. Always though there is a relapse.

Well I suppose it will heal. I still find the severity of the pain associated with this incredibly comical. It's the absolute outside tip of right shoulder, and feels bruised as though someone struck me there with a peen hammer.

9 years ago 11/25/2014 6:48pm EST

re: frogs

I tweaked my hamstring turning over in bed. I am not kidding.

9 years ago 11/25/2014 7:16pm EST

re: Hellzabruin

A guy on our high school team pulled his groin muscle in his sleep.

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