WHY DO OUR LIMBS FALL ASLEEP?

The science behind this weird numbing sensation.

Have you ever woken up in the morning to your arm feeling tingly and numb? Normal sensation always returns, but it can take a while before you gain full control of your limb again. This feeling is referred to as a part of your body ‘falling asleep’. It can happen when you cross your legs in an unusual position or if you accidentally spend some time sitting on your foot. When you apply direct pressure to a limb over a sustained period of time, you squeeze the nerves, which prevents electrical signals being transmitted through. At the same time you’re also putting pressure on the blood vessels which supply these nerves. This means that information is not flowing correctly from your body to your brain, and the nerves are deprived of oxygen and nutrients. When the pressure is released the signal is still scrambled and it takes a while to adjust because the brain is misinterpreting the signals, meaning we feel odd things like warmness, numbness or the familiar ‘dead leg’ tingles.