Hi there good friends of mine.
My husband's been telling me that I've been clenching my fists in my sleep? He works away from home for a few weeks at a time so I have no idea how long I've been doing this! I wonder whether this has contributed to the pain in my neck and arms? It might not be at all related to meno but I thought I'd ask the wise PS women. Any thoughts?
Hugs to all
Gabby

Gabby: It's a sign of stress. I wake up with finger-nail marks in my hands from fist clenching in my sleep. My dentist claims it goes along with bruxism...teeth grinding.

Hey y'all, Well, I dont know if I do the fist clenching, but it took my dr.s a year and a half or more to tell me that i have bruxism!!!

That was AFTER I had cracked several teeth with NO IDEA whatsoever how I had done it!! I went to several different dr.s before finding this out!

I would have bet my life that I wasn't grinding. I dont' sleep long enough to grind. Well, wouldn't you know it, that very night

that the dentist told me I was grinding, I would wake up as my teeth were touching. What I didnt know is if I had just begun to

grind or if I was finished grinding.

After numerous root canals and crowns on all my back upper teeth, I no longer have the excruciting headaches that I suffered with for so long.

I still grind and I have continuous soreness in the joints in my face, but no more cracked teeth!! Thank God!!!

I wear a night guard now and if I can keep the thing in my mouth ( I have woke up many times finding it on the other side of the room or in my hand or under my pillow) hopefully no more cracked teeth!!

yikes - i hope the guard helps. that sounds like alot of pain & problems.

thought i'd jump in on this thread because i started grinding my teeth a few years ago, probably several months after the insomnia started. don't do the fist thing...yet. the mouth guard was expensive but has saved my teeth so far.

what really grinds me is that bruxism is so easily dismissed as -'oh that's just stress.' for me there is a definite hormonal/neuro component that worsens according to my cycle. & just recently i remembered that i had tmj problems in puberty that went away in my 20s.

hope you can keep the guard in.

ellen

My legs have been aching and feeling like the muscles in the backs of my thighs an calves are really tight. Have you had any problem with that. I am really wondering if DHEA could be causing it. Oh the things we go through as women.

3:00 AM, what better time to answer a post about night-time problems? Yes, I have leg aching and teeth grinding, and fist clenching. All while I'm alseep; which isn't often. Geez, I'm a prize-fighter! I can just imagine if someone could see me sleeping; I must look like a complete idiot!

I will say this: when I'm on vacation (ah, Aruba, I hear you calling), I sleep WONDERFULLY. No wild night-life for me on vacation; I'm in bed by 7 pm...it's lover-ly!!!!! And I don't wake up with the dents in my hands or the headaches from grinding my teeth. Okay, I see the solution. I need to be on vacation all the time.

That was easy!

Hi Gabby,
I too clench my fists, so hard that the joints in my fingers would hurt. I thought it was arthritis until I realized what I was doing. I also get the neck and back pain. When I go to sleep I try to relax as much as possible, with my hands spread out. I too think it's from stress.