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RayeKaye asked in HealthOther - Health · 1 decade ago

What causes that weird tingling after a body part falls asleep?

Is it the nerves firing excessively when they get sensation back, or is it returning blood flow or what? I'd love to know the actual mechanism of why this occurs.

4 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Many people say this is because you've cut off the blood supply to your foot, but your nerves are more to blame. Nerves are like tiny threads or wires that run through your whole body, and they carry messages back and forth between your brain and body.

    When you sit on your foot, you temporarily compress, or squash, the nerves in that area. These nerves can't send messages back to the brain normally, and so for the moment, the connection is cut off and you don't feel anything. It's kind of like a phone call where your friend hangs up and you haven't yet: Your brain is saying "hello," but your foot isn't able to answer.

    After you stand up or uncross your legs and the nerves are no longer compressed, the feeling in your foot soon comes back. It might feel a bit tingly as this happens, like pins and needles or even a bit painful. But it only lasts a few seconds as the connection returns to normal, and it won't hurt your body.

    Worried about your sleepy feet? You don't need to be - everyone has a foot fall asleep once in a while, and it's rare for it to mean there is something wrong in a kid's body. If you want to keep your feet awake and kicking, don't sit on them or put them in other positions where you're squashing the nerves.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Your blood trying to circulate into the oxygen-needing muscle.

  • 1 decade ago

    it is the lack of blood flow it can be compared to holding your breath you do receive oxygen but very little.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    ive heard sometimes it is whiplash or shock.....

    sometimes loss of blood to that section...ome doctors called that a little bit of arthritis

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