If it’s not the lack of circulation that’s the problem, then why does these two things see to help wake up your limbs?
Lifting
Why does lifting and keeping the limb that has fallen asleep above your heart help it recovery quicker. Assuming your not laying down of course.
Squeezing
Why does squeezing your your hands or toes over and over again help you recover quicker.
My Own Experience
I tend to sleep on my arm a lot since my ribs are sensitive or something and feel like they are pushing out of my stomach. So I hug them with one arm and lay on my stomach a lot (no im not starving to death). So I will lay on top of my arm for much of the night.
Many times I have woken up during the night on my back and my arm is so dead asleep I don’t even realize that its mine. Sometimes I wake up thinking it belongs to a dead body laying next to me. I will sometimes panic and quickly pick it up off my stomach and toss it aside. Or sometimes slowly pick it up off my stomach in complete shock. Once I actually jumped out of bed to try and get away from it.
Once I figure out that it’s my arm since I can’t get away from it I try to gain control of it again. I will pick it up with my other arm and lift it above my heart. Soon I can start to move my fingers slightly. Once I can do this I squeeze and release them over and over again until I gain almost all feeling in it again.
Even though it’s not a problem with your circulation, does increasing the circulation still somehow fix the problem quicker?
In health class, we learned to cut off blood supply to limbs at pressure points. Keep applying pressure long enough and your limb goes to sleep.
And not just pressure points. My arms were so thin back then that another guy could wrap his fingers around the wide part of my forearm, squeeze, and cut off blood supply. Arm turns pale and goes to sleep.
Why would anyone think this has to do with nerve pinches?
I sleep the same way, and have experienced the “Oh man, where is my ARM?!” feeling after waking up in… It’s a creepy thing, but then kind of funny… well, in the early hours of morning it is.
I think that getting blood to circulate is just a secondary effect… I think movement and time is what “wakes up” limbs. Once you move your appendage from it’s “sleeping” position, it starts to become normal again (This is just my hypothesis; I don’t have a cite or anything…).
ftg, while pinching off the blood supply, you are also pinching off the nerve.
Nim, my situation is almost the opposite. Sometimes I feel my arms as if they are lead weights, and having them lie across my body feels like I’m sleeping under a ton of bricks. Heck, my arms feel sore from the pressure against the mattress.
Not sure about the rest of your post. Hard to verify that lifting your arm above your heart does help you recover quicker. Also, that would seem to be backward, if the idea is blood cut off. Think about it - if the problem is a lack of blood, you would want to lower your arm so as to help the blood flow into it, rather than make the heart work harder to put blood in it.
I figured since the blood that has been blocked from the heart has been there awhile that it has been loosing the oxygen it’s carrying. And needed to be circulated back threw the heart. But whatever it does, it allows me to start moving my fingers quicker.
Irishman says:
Yeah my arm feels really heavy. Which is why I have woke up assuming it belongs to a dead person.
So, there’s an amazing coincidence that if I “want” to put a limb to sleep, all I have to do is press a blood vessel pressure point and you automagically are pressing on a suitable nerve. Okaaaay.
It really doesn’t show it well. Here’s the thing - your body has two “pipelines” that have to run between your extremeties (i.e. fingertips, etc) to your spinal cord. These “pipelines” have to go past the joints in such a way to not bind up, get pinched, etc. They have to go around the muscles that are there to operate the joints. The two “pipelines” are your blood and your nerves. Anatomically, it makes sense to run them beside each other through the joints and along the bones, because the location that best protects the one will best protect the other. Thus, the nerves and arteries are right next to each other. Put pressure on the blood vessel area and you’re also putting pressure on the nerves.
It’s called a neurovascular bundle consisting of the nerve, artery,and vein.
A limb falling asleep is due to compression of the arterioles feeding the nerve at the level of compression but which still allows blood flow to feed the extremity from the main artery.
Have you actually timed it to see if it is faster? My guess is you have an example of tapping the pop can to prevent it from fizzing. It probably takes the same amount of time either way, but the time goes by faster because you are busy thinking about moving your fingers instead of sitting there with nothing to think of but the pain.Tapping a pop can
I haven’t timed it. But the difference is really noticeable. I used to just tough it out and it took forever. Lifting the limb and squeezing my toes or fingers gets rid of most of the feeling atleast three times faster.
Two of my stepbrothers tap there pop. I thought it was kind of silly. No matter how shaken up it is I just break the seal gently enough so that you can’t even see an opening. And then add pressure again to break it open somemore and then again to open it. Works mast faster, takes like 2-3 seconds.
Ok I woke up with my arm alseep after a nap today.
I lifted it up and it didn’t feel like it was doing anything. So I let it lay on my chest and then started to try and move my fingers without lifting it up. It then recovered in a matter of seconds.
I lifted it up and it didn’t feel like it was doing anything
That’s because the heart is having to pump uphill. If you keep your arm raised above your head long enough, it will probably eventually go to sleep. This is dependent upon your age, patency of vessels, and health status.
