Having swollen fingers ocassionally when I wake up in the morning?

How concerned should I be if I have tingling in my fingers when I wake up every morning?

• I'm a 19 year old female and I am overweight. Every morning I wake up I get this tingling in my (most of the time my right arm only) arm, It tingles in my fingers and then gets painful in near my wrist and no pain in my forearm but then the same pain in my wrist but only in the inside of my elbow. I started out only hurting for about 5 mins then a month later about a half hour and yesterday it went on for 2 hours. On a scale of 1-10 the pain in my wrist and elbow is about a 6-7. This morning it only hurt and tingled for about 10 mins. I know if I go to the doctor they're just gonna run me the old diet and exercise routein but do u think its anything more? like a stroke?

• Answer:

  Not a stroke probably. You are probably sleeping on it wrong, even if you don't realize it. Try stretching and repeated neck retraction, which means you pull your chin straight back like a turkey. You might also try a new pillow. I know when I was in college, I slept on a normal pillow and I switched to one of those contour ones. At first I hated it, but after about a week, I couldn't sleep without it. It has greatly improved the pain in my neck. Give it a shot.