What Causes Pins and Needles?
Ever wonder why it is your arm or leg gets tingly and prickly after lying or leaning on it awkwardly for a while? Well check out this article to find out the interesting science behind this phenomenon.
Maybe you slept on your arm during the night, only to awake with your limb feeling about as lively as a bag of hammers; or maybe you sat on the toilet for too long because you were too engulfed in your favourite book, and now you are numb from the top of your butt to your toes! Whatever the limb(s) affected, the next step (once you’ve managed to get moving) is dealing with that darn tingly/prickly sensation that is so awkward and painful it’s almost funny.
That feeling, colloquially known as “pins and needles”, is a phenomenon that all of us have experienced at some point or another. The technical term for it is “paresthesia” and most commonly results from sustained pressure applied to a sensory nerve in a limb, usually in your arm or leg from leaning or lying awkwardly it/them. At this point, the nerve(s)’s blood supply, which is important for transporting oxygen and nutrients, has been drastically reduced due to artery narrowing from the compression. As a result, the functionality of the sensory nerve falters and the affected limb(s) now feel(s) ‘asleep’ or ‘dead’. This occurs because the sensory messages from the limb(s) are being blocked due to the nerve’s temporary inability to transmit the signals up to the brain.
Thankfully, changing position to alleviate the pressure on the nerve quickly restores normal feeling and functioning of the affected limb(s). Numbness is soon replaced by tingling/prickling sensations as the nerve(s) resume the relaying of pain messages to the spinal cord and up to the brain that couldn’t get through before (i.e. “Help! Your arm/leg is getting squished. Move it you fool!”).
In some cases, pins and needles are caused by neural tension, nerve damage due to traumatic injury, or other conditions such as Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Be sure to seek the advice of your physician if you experience frequent bouts of pins and needles, or if you are currently experiencing them chronically.
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