Why do my finger joints become stiff when I wake up?

Sleep is something that every one of us needs. Sleep can help people relieve fatigue, and children's physical development also takes place during sleep. However, some incorrect postures when we sleep may cause some uncomfortable symptoms to the human body, such as stiff finger joints, numbness and so on. Stiff finger joints when waking up may be caused by pressing on the fingers while sleeping, but it may also be a precursor to serious diseases such as stroke and cervical spondylosis. Let’s explain in detail what is going on.

Reasons for waking up with stiff finger joints:

1. Cervical spondylosis

Due to a series of pathological changes in cervical spondylosis, the spinal nerve roots may be compressed, stretched and irritated, causing numbness and swelling of the fingers. It manifests as numbness and swelling on the radial side or ulnar side, or on all five fingers, and may be accompanied by decreased grip strength. Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy can cause pain in the neck, back, head, upper limbs, and hands.

2. Transient ischemic attack (TIA)

Elderly people who suffer from transient ischemic attack (TIA), also known as transient cerebral ischemia or mini-stroke, often suffer from hypertension, hyperlipidemia and other symptoms. Hypertension can cause vascular spasm, high blood lipids can cause increased blood viscosity, and blood flow is relatively slow when sleeping at night. These factors can lead to transient cerebral ischemia and cause numbness of unilateral fingers.

3. Stroke

Stroke patients often experience symptoms such as headache, dizziness, limb numbness, and tongue swelling. Numbness and swelling in the fingers are one of the symptoms, but it is often accompanied by numbness in the arms and other parts of the body.

4. Diabetes

Diabetes can cause many complications. If peripheral neuropathy occurs, there will be symptoms such as numbness and abnormal sensation in the limbs.

5. Rheumatoid arthritis

Numbness and swelling of the fingers is one of the early symptoms, and this is more likely if accompanied by swollen and painful joints. If the skin on the face and fingers becomes hard, it may be scleroderma.

6. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Also known as carpal tunnel stenosis, it refers to a disease caused by wrist trauma, fracture, dislocation, sprain or wrist strain, which leads to thickening of the transverse carpal ligament, swelling of the muscles in the canal, tissue degeneration caused by blood stasis, or degeneration and hyperplasia of the carpal bones, which reduces the circumference of the canal cavity and compresses the median nerve, causing numbness and weakness of the fingers.

7. Mobile phone elbow

Cubital tunnel syndrome, commonly known as mobile phone elbow in recent years, is closely related to the frequent use of mobile phones in people's daily work and life. Because when people use mobile phones to make calls, the elbows are often bent more than 90 degrees. Maintaining the talking posture for a long time causes the ulnar nerve to be compressed or stretched in the cubital tunnel, which can cause the ring finger and little finger to become numb and turn into a claw-shaped hand, or the thumb cannot be facing the palm, the thumb and index finger are weak, and the fingers cannot be separated or closed. By the same token, sleeping with the arms as pillows will cause the elbows to be twisted more than 90 degrees. If this sleeping posture is maintained for several hours, it will also lead to phone elbow.

8. Peripheral neuritis

If the digestion and absorption function is poor and malnutrition is present for a long time, it will cause vitamin B1 deficiency leading to peripheral neuritis and numbness of the hands. At this time, just pay attention to increasing some nutrition and supplement more vitamin B1.

9. Chronic alcoholism

For some people who drink frequently, numbness in the palms of their hands may indicate chronic alcohol poisoning. If chronic alcohol poisoning is not intervened in time, it can lead to dysfunction of various body systems and even irreversible pathological damage, such as chronic gastrointestinal inflammation and ulcers, alcoholic myocarditis, fatty liver or cirrhosis, central nervous system degeneration or brain atrophy.