What do you do with your arms when you sleep?

And now I will think about it, and never sleep again.
Thanks a lot. :-P

On my side, hand resting between thigh and knee

I sleep on my side. I put one hand palm up under the pillow, the other arm on top of the other at a slightly different angle with the palm downward on my sheets. And my blankets up around my shoulders.

When I sleep on my back, my arms are on my stomach.
Lying on my side, they’re bent at the elbows so they can grip the edge of the blanket…and when I sleep on my stomach, they are straight and lying flat against my sides.

I thought most Americans slept with a gun under their pillows…aye thang yoo!

Odd you should ask this. Earlier this year I started having pretty bad pain in my elbows. It didn’t hurt to bend them, but it was getting more and more painful to unbend them – open my arms out. It was getting to the point of being debilitating.

One day it dawned on me. I’d started putting my hands together and putting them between my knees when sleeping on my left (favored) side. I stopped doing that, and the pain went away.

As far as I know I now sleep in a loose fetal position most of the time. Head bent, knees bent and arms in a praying position.

Makes me wonder, has anyone ever done a comparison between the similarity of the fetal position and ‘on your knees in prayer’ position?

I take them off and hang them on a wall.

I’m a belly sprawler and side sleeper. I shove my left arm under my pillows and my head rests on top of it and my right arm is curved in a “U” shape next to my right side or extended out across the side of my bed. Otherwise, once I am asleep I really don’t know where my arms end up. haha

Both above my head when I’m on my back or stomach. In front of me, wrists together, when I’m on my side.

I’d actually sleep quite comfortably bound to the headboard.

I hang mine on the wall next to @ragingloli.‘s If I’ve forgotten to take them off, I do what @zenvelo does.

I like them together above my head. Like I’m restrained…

I’m the same as @Coloma.

TMI, @Seek!

I have to have my right arm stretched down to my side. I have an injury that is easily aggravated so I have to keep that part of my neck and trapezius muscle stretched. I also can not sleep with too much of a pillow under my head or it aggravates the injury as well. Scar tissue and swelling and pinched nerves suck.

I sleep identically to Zenvelo and Janbb, and always on my right side. I rarely move at all during the night.

I have some overuse nerve damage in my arms which greatly limits my sleep positions.

I only have one sleep position: on my back with my arms straight down my sides. Sleeping in any other position will make my arms fall asleep and that can get painful which wakes me up. Occasionally I’ll shift position while sleeping and wake up with my arms aching. To get back to sleep I’ve had to sit up until my arm felt better or dangle my right arm off the side of the bed to take pressure off the nerve.

I’m a side sleeper and sleep with the ‘down’ arm bent, hand/forearm under my pillow supporting my head. But which side I sleep on and what I do with my other arm depends on the location and level of my pain. Ideally, I use the ‘up’ arm to hug a pillow to my stomach/chest, but I have to switch body and pillow positions often throughout the night to get (somewhat) comfortable again.

Detachable arms would be handy!

I always go to sleep on my right side usually with my hands clasped together.
@ragingloli What do you hang your arms up with. Your tentacles?

does not everyone?

I sleep mostly on my side, with the bottom arm up under my pillow, crooked back so I don’t hyperextend it and wake up with my elbow locked (I HATE when that happens!). My top arm is draped in front of me, often around a purring cat. @zenvelo‘s description is quite accurate to how I sleep on my side.

When I lay on my back, I often put my arms up over my head and tuck them flexed between the pillow and the headboard. I want to hyperextend my hands because with my rheumatism, they curl closed. I also need to try to keep my feet flexed for the same reason, and even had to wear a boot for plantar fasciitis for a while.

Lots of pillows. Supporting all joints. I rotate like a rotisserie chicken all night.