At some point , we ’ve all experienced the sense of " flag and needles"—that strange numbness that comes from applying press to our arms or leg . If you ’ve ever wonder what causes it , or if it ’s grave , wonder no more .
We ’ve got nerves running through our bodies that act as lines of communication between the brain and the other torso parts , send commands from the brain and relay centripetal information back to it for processing . With a " kip " limb , your nerves are going a little haywire because prolonged pressure sensation has really trim down off communication between that arm and the brain . ( The tingle sensation is technically called paresthesia . )
atmospheric pressure order the squeeze on nerve pathways and blood vessels , so the brass ca n’t transmit signal by rights , and the blood vessels ca n’t lend oxygen and food to the nerves . The crosscut interfere with the normal stream of information between the branch and the brain , and the signals going back and forth get disorderly . Some nerve cells contain send info entirely , while others send out impulse erratically .
The job is combine by the fact that our nerves are pretty specialised , and unlike kinds of nerves and sensory sensory receptor receive dissimilar stimuli and transmit different information . ( We ’ve discussedanother bodily odditycaused by this . ) When the various signal get struggle and are n’t transmit normally , the brain protrude to misconceive the information it ’s getting and generate an array of sensations , like warmness , spiritlessness , and that tingling feeling .
When a limb falls asleep , we usually stress to " wake it up" by changing positions . Blood flows back to the limb , kick in a footling boost to the misfire nerves and reset the tingling seem big , but finally the nerve signals start to flow by rights again . The pin - and - needle sensation is irritating for a few minutes , but it ’s a squeamish little prompt for us to relieve the pressure on a limb before serious spunk damage occurs .
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