this issue has come up many times on webmd's ear nose and throat community and there is a few things you can try. you are correct. the weight of your head on your pillow is either restricting circulation to your outer ear (pinna) or you are causing some nerve compression. you can adjust your sleeping position to avoid this over-compression but old habits are hard to break. an ent colleague suggested that you get a foam pillow and cut out an ear-sized crater in it. this way your ear can rest in a little bed of it's own without causing undo compression. it may work but this is not something you can buy. you will need to make it. the worst that can happen is that it will not help . you can try softer pillows or pillows of different shapes as well. some people will sleep on the other side of the bed so they will tend to turn their head a different way. even if you slept with your wrist flexed under the pillow you could wake up with a numb tingling hand so the the only answer to this problem is either changing your sleep position or creating that special pillow.
at night i sleep on my sides. when i lay on my right side for very long my outer ear will fall asleep. what can i do. my right ear is worse at falling asleep than my left. it happens on the outside of my ear about the middle of the c shape. it is just like how your arm feels if you lay on it and it falls asleep. i get the pain and tingling that is associated with it. i hope someone can give me a reason and fix for it. i've even thought about making some kind of thing to place behind my ear so it won't bend therefore not cut off the circulation. just can't think of anything that will allow me to sleep.