There are a lot of answers to the question as to why or how the foot falls asleep. Well, the major and most talked about the reason behind the occurrence of this condition is the reduced level of blood supply in your body which causes a tingling feeling to arise in your feet which is often referred to as ‘pins and needles.’ The pins and needles are known as paresthesia in scientific terms. People are often concerned about what happens when their foot falls asleep, well you need to know that this takes place when your nerves are compressed in the feet area they become unable to function properly. This is caused if you have been sitting in a certain position for too long or even if your foot was placed at an angle which is quite unusual.
Numb Foot: Pressure
Although it is often said and has been stated in this article as well that the limbs fall asleep due to the lack of blood supply to the affected area, however, it needs to be understood that there are other possible reasons to this as well. Immense pressure is most certainly one of them. The condition of asleep foot arises when you have been exerting a lot of pressure on your foot which as a result places pressure on the nerves, the same way it is difficult for water to pass through a bent or twisted pipe.
What happens is that when pressure is exerted on the nerves of your foot, it becomes almost impossible for the electrical pulses to move from the foot to your brain. Now at this point, your nerves are unable to send successful signals to the brain, due to these failed signals the brain is, as a result, unable to know what you are feeling in the foot, therefore, the foot does not feel anything at all. The numb feeling stays there for a few minutes and then when you move the nerves of your foot are in the process of waking up, it begins with a tingling feeling, and this is a sign that things are going back normal. The nerves wake up only if you have possibly moved your feet or have changed you sitting position.
How to Wake up Your Feet?
Now people are always concerned about when or how can they make the tingling or prickling sensation go away faster than the amount of time which is usually taken for the process. There are a lot of ways to make that happen. Sometimes it is advised to move the sleeping limbs quickly; it is said that it can make the situation better. Massaging the affected area has also proved to be quite helpful in most cases.
Although it is true that the above-stated ways have not yet been backed by any scientific facts or any medical evidence which can prove that whether these ways work or not. But the good thing is that all of these exercises are completely safe to be tried by anyone as they do not pose a threat to your life or your health in any way. What you need to make sure is that while the foot is in the process of waking up, you should avoid walking as there is a very high possibility that the numbness can cause you to lose control over balance and you might even fall because of that.
Concern
When your foot falls asleep all you need to do is be patient and relax because the whole process where everything goes back to how it was and foot regaining its feeling just takes a few minutes not more than that. It is true that at first, the tingling and prickling feeling is difficult to ignore as in the beginning, it is a little painful, but then it starts to get better. The tingling sensation lasts for only a few seconds, but if you are someone who is experiencing severe numbness, then it is possible that your nerves might have been damaged in the process.
It is very important for you to understand that the numbness you are experiencing may be a symptom of a medical condition you are already suffering from so it is always better to get the opinion of your doctor in this matter. It is not good to assume things which are related to your health in any way. You need to note that long episodes of the numbness are not good and it is a sign that you need to consult your doctor immediately so the possible reason for it can be discovered and the treatment should be started.
If you are aware of the fact that you tend to lose the feeling in a certain limb of yours and the aftermath of it is not quite good to deal with or even if it lasts longer than expected then it might be happening because of a more serious cause. There is a term called chronic paraesthesia which refers to a more severe form of pins and needles, and this is a sign of diabetes.
According to recent research, almost two third of the patients suffering from diabetes have damaged nerves. This is because diabetes tends to make the body of the person suffering from it fragile, as a result, the level of blood supply in the body decreases. Kidney and liver diseases also cause the patients to experience a condition where their foot falls asleep. Women are likely to experience asleep foot along with hot feet at night when they are pregnant due to the pressure which is exerted on their feet with weight gain. You might have heard of Carpel tunnel syndrome; this takes place when the nerves are pressed; it is most likely to occur under immense stress, usually due to typing too much. This makes the nerves unable to maintain contact with the wrist causing the feeling of numbness to arise.
Read more: Here Are The Reasons for Hot Feet at Night
Conclusion
So, if your feeling of pins and needles takes place quite often then you need to make an appointment with your doctor, otherwise this situation might get worse, as it is possible that you might be a patient to a disease, but if you are a person who undergoes this procedure only sometimes then there is nothing to worry about. You just need to make yourself aware of what happens when your foot falls asleep and are the episodes painful or not.
