Sleeping on your arm

[Muggler]

So, I'm almost positive that at one time or another, we have slept on our arm, and woke up to it being amazingly numb. Usually, this keeps me awake until it goes away. So, my question - Does sleeping on your arm, purposely, impose any threat to one's health? I think this would be a good way to stay awake when trying to WILD. So... is it a problem?

[Conzo]

When you sleep on your arm you are cutting off a lot of blood flow and pinching the nerves which cause the numbness. This doesn't effect your health unless you are on your arm for very long periods of time and are doing so periodically. So no it shouldn't be a problem if you do it while WILDing. You will naturally move off your arm eventually. Its mainly a problem in older people where their body doesn't naturally move out of the position, thus sometimes, in extreme cases, might cause permanent numbness because of so much damage to the nerves for a long periods of time.

[Muggler]

I probably won't do this then. If it imposes some sort of risk to my body, I wouldn't want to try it. Thank you for clarifying that!

[TheConqueror89]

That is called a radial neuropathy. As it sometimes occurs to drunk people who fall asleep in stupid positions it has also the funny name of "saturday night palsy" . More info in Wikipedia Link I wouldn't recommend it either. Inducing, on purpose, hypoxia in a healthy arm doesn't seem like a nice idea to me.

[Loaf]

I did it once by accident. Woke up with a very very heavy, very very numb arm that felt fake. It was horrible. Don't do it.

[Muggler]

Oh, I've done it many times. Not on purpose of course.

[Mzzkc]

But arms that are numb like that do have one good use: whacking off while pretending someone else is doing it.

[ArmoredSandwich]

So, I'm almost positive that at one time or another, we have slept on our arm, and woke up to it being amazingly numb. Usually, this keeps me awake until it goes away. So, my question - Does sleeping on your arm, purposely, impose any threat to one's health? I think this would be a good way to stay awake when trying to WILD. So... is it a problem? No way that would be in any way unhealthy, I've had it so many times.. even to the point where I could not move my arm at all :S

[Conzo]

No way that would be in any way unhealthy, I've had it so many times.. even to the point where I could not move my arm at all :S Doing it periodically and for long periods of time can cause permanent nerve damage.

[Kexo]

I have quite bad scoliosis and I used to wear an orthopedic corset. My arm often got stuck in the shoulder part which caused the numbness. When this happened during the sleep, I often couldn't even feel the hand at all for the first 5 seconds of moving it and then it started to hurt more than hell. The pain part usually lasted for about two minutes and even after that my arm felt very uncomfortable and I couldn't sleep.

[ArmoredSandwich]

Doing it periodically and for long periods of time can cause permanent nerve damage. Eating like a thousand apples a day can also cause serious damage and yet we don't warn anyone for that either. If you're rather old or otherwise unhealthy then it can become a problem but for us, healthy people, it shouldn't be harmful. .. Right?

[Muggler]

Eating like a thousand apples a day can also cause serious damage and yet we don't warn anyone for that either. If you're rather old or otherwise unhealthy then it can become a problem but for us, healthy people, it shouldn't be harmful. .. Right? I'm pretty sure that it is still harmful. Your example of eating a thousand apples, it is different than what I am trying to say. Purposely sleeping on your arm to cause numbness is something you can do. Eating a thousand apples in a day, is something you cannot. No matter how hard you try, you could never do it.

[Conzo]

Eating like a thousand apples a day can also cause serious damage and yet we don't warn anyone for that either. If you're rather old or otherwise unhealthy then it can become a problem but for us, healthy people, it shouldn't be harmful. .. Right? No one ever said eating a thousand apples a day was healthy in the first place. You said sleeping on your arm can't do any harm.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Probably wouldn't hep for staying awake for WILDing either. You want to consciously enter sleep paralysis by letting your body fall asleep while keeping the mind awake, alert, yet calm and relaxed. Meditation is the method. Salvador Dali used to fall asleep with his arm hanging off the bed holding something. Once he fell asleep he would drop the thing which would wake him up when it landed and he would paint what he was seeing in the hypnogogic state. Interesting.