Well, ladies
I have been waking up with my hands in fists. Not loosely. Tight, like I was holding onto something all night and my fingers forgot to let go.
I noticed it about a month ago. The first few mornings I shook them out and moved on. Then I started paying attention and realized my fingers were stiff until almost nine. Not painful. Just reluctant. Like they needed to be convinced the day was worth gripping for.
I mentioned it to no one because I did not want Dani to give me a stretch and I did not want Clare to tell me to see a doctor. I wanted to sit with it quietly and figure it out on my own, which is a pattern I am aware of and not currently interested in fixing.
So I read about it. And what I found is that your hands and wrists lose circulation overnight, especially if you sleep with your wrists bent, which apparently most people do. The tendons that run through your wrist get compressed for hours. You wake up and everything is a little bit swollen, a little bit stuck. It is worse if you spend your day on a keyboard or a phone, because those tendons were already shortened before you went to bed. ☕
The fix I found is almost embarrassingly small.
Before I pick up my phone in the morning, while I am still lying there, I make slow circles with my wrists. Four in each direction. Then I spread my fingers wide, hold for five seconds, close them, repeat three times.
It takes maybe forty seconds. I have been doing it for three weeks.
The stiffness clears by the time I sit up instead of lingering until nine. My hands feel like mine again before my feet touch the floor.
I told Clare about it last week because she had been talking about her shoulders and I thought she might understand the category, the body holding something you did not ask it to hold. She said "that is interesting" which is Clare for "I will think about this for two days and then text me a question at 11pm." I am ready for that text. 🤍
What I did not expect is that the circles became the thing I like about waking up. Not the coffee. Not the quiet. The forty seconds where I am just moving my hands slowly in the dark and not answering anything yet.
Dani would say this is a mobility drill. She is technically correct. I prefer to think of it as a conversation with my hands where I ask them how they are and they say stiff but willing.
Four circles each way. Fingers wide, hold, close. Both hands. Before the phone. That is today. ✨
Try it tomorrow morning. You will not believe how much your wrists have been asking for.
