(I dunno, it was the thought my subconsciousness threw at me when I first came too this morning.)
The Wife’s been working out. We have a new bed. The kind the astronauts use! (Insert Conehead laugh here).
She mentioned waking up this morning, face down, with her arms crossed under here, with them completely asleep.
It’s a position I’ve found myself in recently, too. I think it’s a combination of being REALLY tired, and having a bed with no pressure points that make the body think it oughta turn over.
I’ve experienced the other version of 100% phantom limb numbness where you’re on your back, propped up a little, and your hand is bent at the elbow. The first thought is one of fright: “There’s SOMEBODY’S HAND COMING TOWARDS MY FACE!”, followed by “Hey, that’s my hand!” Followed by “HOLY CRAP! WHY CAN’T I FEEL MY HAND!”
So, the poll point of this option: Have you had this happen to you? Secondly, does it happen much?
I once woke up and couldn’t walk. I didn’t feel anything in my legs. This persisted for several hours. I was taken to the Doctor and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me except that I didn’t feel anything in my legs. (stuck me with needles) Around 2 pm I started to feel things again and was find by 5.
My brother told me recently that he had done something similar - gone to sleep with his arms folded under his chest. When he awoke they were numb. He said when he went dashing through the house, they kept flying around and hitting the door jambs.
A man I used to work with had passed out drunk one New Year’s Eve while sitting with his legs crossed Indian-style. He was passed out so cold that he never moved his legs all night, even though they had fallen asleep and presumably had the circulation cut off. When he woke up, he couldn’t feel or move his legs, and was effectively completely paralyzed. When I met him, he had had several surgeries and could only walk with a stiff-legged, side-to-side motion.
This happened to me exactly once, about twenty-five years ago. I fell asleep on my back, and my left arm somehow got twisted into a weird position, with my left hand laying flat on my pillow, and went absolutely numb from elbow to fingertips overnight. I actually experienced phantom limb syndrome, which was probably the freakiest experience of my life. As I slowly regained consciousness, I could feel both hands lying by my sides under the blankets. And after I opened my eyes, I turned my head to the left–and saw a third hand lying on my pillow, attached to a mysterious forearm trailing into the jumbled blankets. :eek: I slowly, carefully, reached over with my right hand and picked it up; as it rapidly became clear it was attached, ultimately, to my own shoulder, the perfectly clear sensation of the other left hand and forearm down near my hips vanished. But until then, my sleep-fogged brain was absolutely convinced there was an extra limb hanging around my bed.
I had it happen a couple of times. The one I really remember was waking up in the middle of the night one time and my left arm was totally numb – couldn’t feel anything in it. So I reach over with my other arm and picked it up. I found out that an arm is really heavy! Then, I let go of it. Did I mention that I had raised my numb arm over my face so I could look at it? Oh yeah – smacked myself in the face with my numb hand. :smack: Should have expected that, huh? Well, it was the middle of the night so my brain wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders…
Only once. I don’t remember what position I was sleeping in, but one of my arms went completely numb from mid-upper arm to fingers. Totally couldn’t feel it at all. Tried to move it, no dice. Had to pick it up with my other hand to reposition it. That’s when I learned that limbs are a lot heavier than you’d think when there’s no help from your body to move them.
Weirdest thing was that as it “work up,” it felt super cold - like you’re used to. Yet when I picked it up with my other hand, it was warm to the touch, like the rest of your body when you touch it. It was weird.
I then tried to fall asleep again as soon as possible after repositioning the arm so that I wouldn’t have to go through the agony of pins and needles. I don’t remember whether I was successful or not.