Hard beds and chest pain

Anyone else get this?

A few years ago in Thailand, I was in hospital for a few days on one of their really hard beds and I used to wake up with a pain in my chest. It was sort of down my sternum (breastbone). When I rolled on to my back it subsided and then disappeared. Incidentally, I was being treated/observed for a fever (poss viral infection). No diagnosis for the chest pain was given, particularly as it was never 'happening' by the time I saw the doctor.

I have subsequently had the pain on a number of occasions, BUT ONLY when I sleep on very hard beds, eg last year in India and again in Thailand. It always subsides, then dissappears when I roll over, but is quite painful and wakes me up.

For other reasons I have had chest Xrays and a heart ecg and that area seems OK. Also, over the last year I have cycled up a number of 1-2000m hills with no ill effects (apart from the usual in 30 degree heat!).

I am skinny and always sleep on my side with my arm tucked under, presumably putting a fair bit of weight on my rib cage. It is worse on the left side, but can happen on the right.

I don't want a lecture on seeing a Doctor, I do that. All I wondered is as many of you must experience the hard beds of the east, does anyone else have this problem?

Not the same thing, but not totally dissimilar:

On a 2 month cycle trip in SE Asia in 2003, on a small number of occasions I would wake up with an intense pain in my chest. I'd describe it like someone wrapped piano wire around my diaphram (the muscles under the lung), but inside the rib cage. It was quite scary as I would wake up unable to breath, as the muscle would be cramped. It only happened a couple of times, and seemed to coincide with a mild cold.

A year later, i was cycling on my new (ill-fitting) bike in north Vietnam. I caught a mild virus bug, but foolishly i kept cycling. I was suffering from muscle aches and that pain across my chest. When i returned home, the virus bug symptoms cleared up, but the muscle aches got worse. I was woken up early every morning with that same, intense pain in my chest, again feeling as if it was being constricted with a piano wire (I sleep at home on a very hard futon bed). I could only releave the pain by raising my arms over my head and slowly stretching. Eventually, it would subside and I would be able to get up - the chest pains never hit me when i was out and about. I was treated for nearly 2 months by various doctors who assumed that I had picked up some sort of tropical disease and treated me accordingly.

On a recommendation from a friend I went to a shiatsu masseur who was also a fully qualified physiotherapist. When i first went, i forgot to tell him about the morning chest pains, i just told him about the constant problem i was having with muscle and back pain. After a few minutes massaging my back he asked me if I suffered from chest pains below the lungs. When I told him I did (I was pretty impressed that he'd said that), he said I had two vertebrae slightly out of alignment. He said I probably had it a long time, but cycling a bike with an excessive stretch, combined with the illness had exacerbated it. He said the chest pain was a classic symptom of this problem. He worked on the vertebrae, resulting in almost instant relief - for the first time in two months I could walk without pain. The next morning was the first that I woke up in 2 months without that chest pain. After a few more sessions the problem was completely sorted.

Since then I've made sure my bike is better set up, and I do more yoga and pilates for core strength, and i get massages if I feel i have any problem with my back. The problem has never returned.

I have never gotten chest pains sleeping on hard beds, but when I do sleep on my arm on such beds, my arm goes completely numb, and when I wake up I have no control over it. It usually takes about five minutes for me to get full movement back, though it still feels tingly for a few hours afterwards. I think we both just need to stop sleeping on our arms, though that is easier said than done. That said, I actually prefer hard beds because I tend to get lower back pains sleeping on soft beds. Go figure, eh?

I am the opposite. If I sleep on a really soft couch I throw my back out and can't stand straight the next day. On hard beds and the ground I get a good night's sleep. I am skinny too. My friend has a couch with the perfect balance of firm support and softness. You just fall right asleep on it. Everyone comments on what a comfortable couch it is. Unfortunately it's getting a little ratty but he still keeps hauling it around from one apartment to the next.

maybe off topic a bit - I found parts of upper torso would randomly seize up after day on bike- but massage, japanese baths, or pilates ball - all helped