| Author |
Why Do Limbs “Fall Asleep”? |
Fatal Rocko Willis
Fleet Admiral
Fatal Squadron
Joined: March 01, 2003
Posts: 1336
From: Kentucky
|  Posted: 2009-03-07 19:10
by Matt Soniak at www.mentalfloss.com
You know how it goes. You sit too long with your legs crossed or lie with your arm under your head, and when you go to move the limb, it’s tingling with a “pins and needles” sensation. But why?
We’ve got nerves running through our bodies that act as lines of communication between the brain and the other body parts, transmitting commands from the brain and relaying sensory information back to it for processing. What’s happening with a sleeping limb is that your nerves are going a little haywire because prolonged pressure has actually cut off communication between that limb and the brain. (The tingling sensation is technically called paresthesia)
Pressure puts the squeeze on nerve pathways and blood vessels, so the nerves can’t transmit signals properly, and the blood vessels can’t bring oxygen and nutrients to the nerves. The cut-off interferes with the normal flow of information between the limb and the brain and the signals going back and forth get jumbled. Some nerve cells stop sending info entirely, while others send impulses erratically.
The problem is compounded by the fact that our nerves are pretty specialized and different kinds of nerves and sensory receptors receive different stimuli and transmit different information (last year, we talked about another bodily oddity caused by this). When the various signals get scrambled and aren’t transmitted normally, the brain starts to misinterpret the info it’s getting and generates an array of sensations, like warmth, numbness and that tingling feeling.
When a limb falls asleep, we usually try to “wake it up” and change positions. Blood flows back to the limb, giving a little boost to the misfiring nerves and making the tingling seem worse, but eventually the nerve signals begin to flow properly again. The pins and needles sensation is annoying for a few minutes, but it’s a nice little prompt for us to relieve the pressure on a limb before serious nerve damage occurs.
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Jar Jar Binks
Grand Admiral
Joined: December 25, 2001
Posts: 556
| Posted: 2009-03-07 19:46
hate it when that happens in the morning when i wake up and i havent shifted position for a few hours.... cant walk for half an hour or so and it hurts like no tomorrow lol.
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Headsprung
2nd Rear Admiral
Joined: August 13, 2004
Posts: 22
From: USA
| Posted: 2009-03-07 22:24
best is waking up and not having any control of your arm.. and its just dead weight. its freaky as hell, u have no feeling and no control until u get some blood flow back then u get the tingling sensation and have slight motor control again.
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MrSparkle
Marshal
Joined: August 13, 2001
Posts: 1912
From: mrsparkle
| Posted: 2009-03-07 22:57
You're probably just a boring person.
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jedi42
Grand Admiral
Evil Empires Inc.
Joined: February 25, 2002
Posts: 478
From: jedi42
| Posted: 2009-03-08 00:41
Keep it clean, DJ.
[ This Message was edited by: BackSlash *Jack* on 2009-03-08 04:53 ]
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jedi42, darkjedi42, [drunk], hoid o' toitles, evil, rum, cl2k drainer, gdi, {C?}, hive teets, fusion mating, perfect cloud formation, death star, point jump, tractor scout, torp det, def cluster, cloaked elf
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-Daedalus-
Grand Admiral
Joined: September 26, 2006
Posts: 549
| Posted: 2009-03-08 11:48
I fall sleep because DS is soo slow and boring. 
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