How to Sleep with Meralgia Paresthetica?

You might be thinking: “What’s Meralgia Paresthetica, and how is it related to sleep?”

Well, that’s what we’re here for! We’ll answer the question of how you can get better sleep with meralgia paresthetica.

When you have irritation of the nerve that causes a lot of pain that would cause numbness and a tingling sensation in your thigh, chances are you are suffering from a condition called meralgia paresthetica. What causes this tingling pain is a nerve compression that supplies sensation to the skin surface of your outer thigh.

They trace meralgia paresthetica cause to the following underlying conditions, like wearing of tight clothing, excessive weight gain or obesity, and pregnancy. However, they also traced local trauma or some health problem like diabetes as a cause of this condition.

But just like any other medical condition, you can relieve yourself of meralgia paresthetica with practical measures like wearing looser clothing compared to a tighter fit. You can also take some medications to ease or get rid of discomfort. On some rare occasions, you may need surgery to help you cope up with the pain.

What is Meralgia Paresthetica?

Meralgia Paresthetica is a condition that causes weird tingling sensations in the outer thigh. A compressed nerve causes it and often goes away on its own after removing whatever is causing the compression.

Meralgia Paresthetica mainly occurs in obese people and in middle-aged women who have gained weight recently. It also happens in everyone else, though, so don’t worry if you aren’t either of those things.

It usually only affects one side of the body, but there are rare cases where both sides can be affected. The symptoms can go away for good if you treat it right away, so it’s essential to see your doctor as soon as possible if you think you might have Meralgia Paresthetica or any other serious health issue.

Meralgia paresthetica is painful and a feeling of burning sensation felt on your outer thigh. A patient experiencing this condition usually feels a sensation of numbness and would lessen and hinder their ability to swing their legs. When a patient experiences severe pressure or damage on their leg’s nerves, it also leads to this condition.

Treating meralgia paresthetica can be easy. We advise a patient suffering from this condition to wear looser pieces of apparel as opposed to tight fittings. In some extreme cases of severe meralgia paresthetica, surgery or medication is an alternative. Engaging in the right treatment can help you ease the pain and feel better faster.

Causes of Meralgia Paresthetica?

In fact, your doctor may tell you that meralgia paresthetica can be caused by many other things. Some of these include:

• Physical trauma (i.e., knee surgery, hip replacement, or even a fall).
• Pressure to the area (i.e., carrying heavy objects).
• Other diseases and conditions (Type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, arthritis, piriformis syndrome, obesity, osteoarthritis, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic kidney disease, an underactive thyroid gland).

Your body has different nerves traversing around from your brain to your different body parts. There are nerves like the sensory nerves which send signals from your brain to your different body parts, like your skin, muscles and tissues, that tell your brain a lot of information.

When you suffer from meralgia paresthetica, your thigh doesn’t have enough space to accommodate a large sensory nerve to pass through your hip bone and joints, which is caused by swelling because of trauma, or an increased pressure on the affected area.

And this causes pain that would aggravate a lot when time passes, having no intervention on the patient’s part. At the onset of discomfort, your body would tell you a lot of signs so that you could respond accordingly. But most of the time, as long as you can still endure it, you would often ignore it until you realized you are sweltering.

But what really causes the discomfort? A lot of things can actually trigger it. Some of these common conditions would often lead to suffering if you don’t seem to take action at the onset. Some of these are:

• Weight gains and obesity

• When you wear tight clothing like tight pants, stockings, belts and girdle.

• Pregnancy

• trauma and injuries

• Wearing something heavy around your waist,

• Diabetes, when it damages some of your nerves, it would lead to meralgia paresthetica

• Repetitive leg movements that irritate your nerve

• Taking long walks or standing for a long time

There are two main types of meralgia paresthetica: acute and chronic.

Acute meralgia paresthetica can be caused by carrying anything heavy against your hip belt for an extended period of time. If you have this type, you will notice symptoms within hours to days of when your heavy load was carried.

Chronic meralgia paresthetica usually develops slowly, over months or even years, with symptoms gradually becoming more frequent and intense. This type is often caused by tight-fitting clothing, obesity, arthritis in the hip joint, or spinal column disease.

Some people develop meralgia paresthetica after losing weight. Rarely, this condition can be associated with pregnancy or diabetes mellitus

What Does Meralgia Paresthetica Feel Like?

Well, because your medial femoral cutaneous nerve is being compressed due to the above factors, the main symptom that you will feel is pain or numbness of the outer part of your thigh. This distinct feeling is sometimes described by people who have it as a “pins and needles” sensation or, even more bluntly, like electricity running down their leg.

Symptoms of meralgia paresthetica

Meralgia paresthetica at its onset gives you warning signs like:

• Tingling pain, numbness and a burning sensation on your thigh that causes so much inconvenient.
• The affected area is sensitive to touch, and will give a sharp pain when you apply a slight pressure.
• Sensitive to heat and pressure.
• Pain would aggravate when you spend some time standing or walking.

Like any other medical conditions, at the onset, the pain that the patient might feel will be mild and as time and moves, the condition gets worse, and the pain become more and more unbearable with shooting pain recurring more often with no definite pattern.

Simple Test to Determine if you have Meralgia Paresthetica

Simple Leg Raise Test

A simple leg raise test will allow you to determine how likely it is that you are experiencing the tingling sensations associated with Meralgia Paresthetica.

If you aren’t affected by this syndrome at all (which is very unlikely), you should do a leg raise without experiencing any tingling sensations. If the tingling sensation appears without you having to raise your legs, then there’s a high chance that it is Meralgia Paresthetica.

Snapping Hip Test

Another method of testing for this condition is called the snapping hip test. You can perform this test by yourself or with someone else present, depending on how much privacy you prefer when doing it.

If you think there might be something wrong with your leg muscles, try snapping them while wearing loose clothing (such as gym shorts). Be sure not to wear any pants that restrict movement of your thighs – tight jeans would be an ideal choice if nothing else! If snapping your thigh muscles causes the tingling sensation we talked about earlier, then there’s a good chance you have Meralgia Paresthetica.

Most people who think they might be affected by this condition will automatically assume that they need to go to the hospital and get diagnosed properly. This is not the case! There are several other tests you can perform at home that’ll help you determine what’s going on with your body without having to leave your house!

Leg-Crossing Test

One such test is called the leg-crossing test. If you’re able to sit in a chair and cross one leg over another without experiencing any negative feelings or sensations, then it’s probably not Meralgia Paresthetica.

If you find yourself in a situation where someone around you suggests you have this condition, do not be afraid to perform the leg-crossing test! I know it’s hard to tell whether or not someone genuinely cares about your well-being or if they’re just faking interest in your health. You might even feel bad for accusing them of being insincere – but never let that stop you from doing what needs to be done.

You may find yourself getting nervous while taking these tests because you are worried about making a mistake. Considering how important it is for you to figure out what’s going on with your body as soon as possible, it’s understandable.

But please try not to panic! If you make mistakes when performing these home tests, it doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong with your body – there’s still a chance that it is Meralgia Paresthetica.

How to Sleep with Meralgia Paresthetica?

The good news is that you don’t have to suffer from meralgia paresthetica forever. Luckily, all you need to do in order to how to sleep with meralgia paresthetica is to eliminate the factors causing it in the first place!

You can make a doctor’s appointment to figure out what could be causing yours specifically. This will often involve losing weight or exercising when appropriate for other medical reasons related to obesity or diabetes mellitus. Other times, treatment may require changing your behavior to avoid putting stress on the medial femoral cutaneous nerve.

For example, you could try using a rolling walker instead of a more traditional walker or even crutches if you are dealing with meralgia paresthetica after knee surgery. If your pain is really bad, it’s also possible that your doctor may recommend certain medicines, including anti-seizure medicine, antidepressants, opioids, or topical anesthetics.

Surgery can be performed on some patients who do not respond well to other treatments. These surgeries may include neurolysis, where the nerve is decompressed, surgically cutting part of the muscle compressing it (i.e., releasing the medial femoral cutaneous nerve from under the inguinal ligament), or even a sympathectomy, where part or all of the nerve supplying sensation to the leg is severed.

In addition, avoid wearing tight clothing as this can worsen meralgia paresthetica symptoms.

However, changing your behavior will be enough for most people suffering from meralgia paresthetica to get a night of better sleep!

How do you address or treat it?

Getting yourself treated is your primary concern. We understand that the pain can be quite unbearable and causes a lot of inconveniences that would hamper a lot of your daily activities. These treatments can help you get by as long as it is not severe. Some of these things can be quite challenging, but you need to have the will for lifestyle adjustments.

For mild cases of meralgia paresthetica, we recommend doing these things to help you ease up some pain

• Cold or heat compress,

• You may take some over-the-counter pain relievers like aspirin, acetaminophen, naproxen, or ibuprofen for a couple of days

• You must refrain from wearing tight-fitted clothing but choose a looser-fitting clothing to help you get rid of of the pain.

For more severe cases of meralgia paresthetica, we would like to recommend the following treatments:

• A dose of corticosteroid shot to reduce swelling and ease the pain.

• A treatment of tricyclic antidepressants to help you relieve of nerve pain so that you can sleep.

• Anti-seizure medications like gabapentin, phenytoin or pregabalin that works effectively when you are working around with nerve pain.

• In some extreme cases, when the pain no longer responds to medications, your doctor may recommend surgery to help you ease the pressure on that affected nerve. You can still feel a sensation of numbness after the treatment, though the road to recovery can take 4 to 6 weeks.

How do you address or treat it?

Getting yourself treated is your primary concern. We understand that the pain can be quite unbearable and causes a lot of inconveniences that would hamper a lot of your daily activities. These treatments can help you get by as long as it is not severe. Some of these things can be quite challenging, but you need to have the will for lifestyle adjustments.

For mild cases of meralgia paresthetica, we recommend doing these things to help you ease up some pain

• Cold or heat compress,

• You may take some over-the-counter pain relievers like aspirin, acetaminophen, naproxen, or ibuprofen for a couple of days

• You must refrain from wearing tight-fitted clothing but choose a looser-fitting clothing to help you get rid of of the pain.

For more severe cases of meralgia paresthetica, we would like to recommend the following treatments:

• A dose of corticosteroid shot to reduce swelling and ease the pain.

• A treatment of tricyclic antidepressants to help you relieve of nerve pain so that you can sleep.

• Anti-seizure medications like gabapentin, phenytoin or pregabalin that works effectively when you are working around with nerve pain.

• In some extreme cases, when the pain no longer responds to medications, your doctor may recommend surgery to help you ease the pressure on that affected nerve. You can still feel a sensation of numbness after the treatment, though the road to recovery can take 4 to 6 weeks.