• Question: Why do we get 'pins and needles' in parts of our bodies after sitting in the same position for a while?

    Asked by georgiee2cutee to Alan, Damian, Emma, Liam, Luca on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Emma Ross

      Emma Ross answered on 24 Jun 2013:


      It happens when pressure is applied to a part of the body which cuts off the blood supply to the nerves in that area. This prevents the nerves from sending important signals to the brain, and we feel these disrupted nerve signals as pins and needles. Sitting in the same position is a good example of how we can cut off the blood to nerves in an area, because when we sit or kneel, we have a lot of our body weight on certain parts of the body, and this means that blood doesn’t flow as well in these parts, causing the nerves to become disrupted. the nerves send signals to far reaching places, so if we kneel, and squash the nerves in our legs, we sometimes feel pins and needles in our feet.

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