Why is it so hard to walk after your legs “fell asleep”?
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Walking is usually easy because your brain is getting constant information from the nerves in your legs about where they are in space and what they’re touching, and when it has that information it can basically run walking on autopilot. When your legs fall asleep, what’s actually happened is that your nerves have been under pressure for long enough that they temporarily stop sending those signals back to your brain. When you try to walk, your brain isn’t getting any of that normal feedback from your legs for a while, so it’s basically flying blind without knowing where the legs are.
The many small muscles of the affected leg and the proprioception nerves are not providing positional feedback to the brain (cerebellum). These small inputs are required for the seemingly non-complicated process of walking.
When we were learning to walk, it was actually a complex series of actions, feed back, next action, more feedback, etc…, Until the ability to walk was mastered.
Removing this feedback interferes with the chain of events needed to walk smoothly. One’s foot may droop, instead of pulling the toes of the foot up causing a footfall (walking on the ball of your foot instead of rolling through the heal–to the ball–to the toes.
Unless drugs are involved, one will regain the proper proprioception in a minute or so. If drugs are involved, it can cause long-term nerve damage– See “Saturday Night Palsy.”
This pertains to the arm, but can also include the leg.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557520/#:~:text=Saturday%20night%20palsy%20refers%20to,of%20the%20brachial%20nerve%20plexus.
The many small muscles of the affected leg and the proprioception nerves are not providing positional feedback to the brain (cerebellum). These small inputs are required for the seemingly non-complicated process of walking.
When we were learning to walk, it was actually a complex series of actions, feed back, next action, more feedback, etc…, Until the ability to walk was mastered.
Removing this feedback interferes with the chain of events needed to walk smoothly. One’s foot may droop, instead of pulling the toes of the foot up causing a footfall (walking on the ball of your foot instead of rolling through the heal–to the ball–to the toes.
Unless drugs are involved, one will regain the proper proprioception in a minute or so. If drugs are involved, it can cause long-term nerve damage– See “Saturday Night Palsy.”
This pertains to the arm, but can also include the leg.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557520/#:~:text=Saturday%20night%20palsy%20refers%20to,of%20the%20brachial%20nerve%20plexus.
Walking is usually easy because your brain is getting constant information from the nerves in your legs about where they are in space and what they’re touching, and when it has that information it can basically run walking on autopilot. When your legs fall asleep, what’s actually happened is that your nerves have been under pressure for long enough that they temporarily stop sending those signals back to your brain. When you try to walk, your brain isn’t getting any of that normal feedback from your legs for a while, so it’s basically flying blind without knowing where the legs are.
The many small muscles of the affected leg and the proprioception nerves are not providing positional feedback to the brain (cerebellum). These small inputs are required for the seemingly non-complicated process of walking.
When we were learning to walk, it was actually a complex series of actions, feed back, next action, more feedback, etc…, Until the ability to walk was mastered.
Removing this feedback interferes with the chain of events needed to walk smoothly. One’s foot may droop, instead of pulling the toes of the foot up causing a footfall (walking on the ball of your foot instead of rolling through the heal–to the ball–to the toes.
Unless drugs are involved, one will regain the proper proprioception in a minute or so. If drugs are involved, it can cause long-term nerve damage– See “Saturday Night Palsy.”
This pertains to the arm, but can also include the leg.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557520/#:~:text=Saturday%20night%20palsy%20refers%20to,of%20the%20brachial%20nerve%20plexus.
Walking is usually easy because your brain is getting constant information from the nerves in your legs about where they are in space and what they’re touching, and when it has that information it can basically run walking on autopilot. When your legs fall asleep, what’s actually happened is that your nerves have been under pressure for long enough that they temporarily stop sending those signals back to your brain. When you try to walk, your brain isn’t getting any of that normal feedback from your legs for a while, so it’s basically flying blind without knowing where the legs are.
Walking is, in engineering terms, software not hardware. Your brain had to learn how to do it and it used nerve feedback to do it. When your nerves are giving bad feedback due to whatever reason, e.g ‘falling asleep’, your ‘device drivers’ for your legs are getting bad feedback so you can’t walk correctly
Walking is, in engineering terms, software not hardware. Your brain had to learn how to do it and it used nerve feedback to do it. When your nerves are giving bad feedback due to whatever reason, e.g ‘falling asleep’, your ‘device drivers’ for your legs are getting bad feedback so you can’t walk correctly
Walking is, in engineering terms, software not hardware. Your brain had to learn how to do it and it used nerve feedback to do it. When your nerves are giving bad feedback due to whatever reason, e.g ‘falling asleep’, your ‘device drivers’ for your legs are getting bad feedback so you can’t walk correctly
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