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15 June 2011

Irrational Fear #47: Morning Dead Arm
You know when you wake up in the morning and your arm is completely numb because you've slept on it all night? Do you ever have a fleeting moment of panic as you're trying to shake it back to life that you'll never get the circulation back and your arm's just going to *plop* fall off?[More:]
Ugh, yes. I feel like that kid in the "coming home from the dentist" video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6eUjAs65sg). Am I going to feel like this...forever?

Recently I woke up with a sleeping arm, and while trying to get myself out of bed, I managed to hit myself in my face with my own arm. I took it as an indication that no good was going to come from the day, and went back to sleep.
posted by punchtothehead 15 June | 14:12
Have you had to pick up that dead arm with your other hand just to move it, because it won't respond to a command from your brain, and it's so numb that you're not quite sure that it's really YOUR ARM.

That's the worst.
posted by Kangaroo 15 June | 14:18
Have you had to pick up that dead arm with your other hand just to move it, because it won't respond to a command from your brain, and it's so numb that you're not quite sure that it's really YOUR ARM.

Yes!
posted by LoriFLA 15 June | 14:27
Make the most of it - jerk off, and your numb arm will make it feel as if it's someone else doing you.
posted by Senyar 15 June | 14:49
My fear when that happens is that I have no arm there anymore. I have to muster up the courage to open my eyes and look.
posted by amro 15 June | 14:52
it's so numb that you're not quite sure that it's really YOUR ARM.

Eek! One day when I was a teenager, I was lying in bed reading The Man Who Fell Out of Bed, and unfortunately lying in such a way that my leg went to sleep. It's one of the most persistently creepy memories of my youth.

I sometimes turn in my sleep so that my hands are tucked under me, and those mornings I wake up with both arms numb to below the wrist. It wears off quickly, but I do have to put on my glasses with my flopping senseless walrus paws.

and your numb arm will make it feel as if it's someone else doing you.

It's called "The Stranger." Why do I know that? Yikes.
posted by Elsa 15 June | 14:58
A former colleague told me he once woke, panicked, with his own dead hand resting on his neck, thinking that someone was trying to strangle him.
posted by misteraitch 15 June | 15:30
misteraitch, that's the best thing I'm going to read today.
posted by Elsa 15 June | 15:36
I sometimes turn in my sleep so that my hands are tucked under me, and those mornings I wake up with both arms numb to below the wrist.
I do this, too. I end up sleeping on my stomach with both arms under me and, when I wake up, I have to use my body weight to roll myself over because neither of my arms will obey any command. Sometimes I worry that I've damaged the nerves or something and will never get the use of my arms back. Fortunately, I don't need to put my glasses on straight-away, but it's impossible for me to shut that fucking alarm off until I gain command of at least one of them.
posted by dg 15 June | 16:08
Irrational Fear #48:

This doesn't happen to me. I think it's because I watched 'Invaders from Mars' on TV when I was 7 or 8. The martians would surgically implant a tiny mind control capsule in the back of the neck of captured earthlings. An exploding tiny mind control capsule.

To this day I have trouble falling asleep on my stomach.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth 15 June | 19:28
I think it's because I watched 'Invaders from Mars' on TV when I was 7 or 8.

We have that movie on DVD! I only saw it as an adult, but I WISH I'd seen it as a kid.

(Sorry for the B-movie off-topic...)
posted by BoringPostcards 15 June | 19:49
Well, now I do!
posted by TrishaLynn 15 June | 20:14
A former colleague told me he once woke, panicked, with his own dead hand resting on his neck, thinking that someone was trying to strangle him.

Something very similar happened to me during my freshman year in college. I had only lived in the dorm for a few weeks. I didn't like and didn't trust my new roommate, because one night she brought some guy into our room after I was already in bed, and they hung out over there in the dark making unidentifiable noises. I wasn't up for that kind of thing, and it pissed me off.

Anyway, one night I woke up because someone was touching my neck. I froze like you do when you hear something in the middle of the night -- you just lie there real still and listen, you know? I guess I finally decided no one else was in the room, and no one had touched me, and I'd dreamt it. Never really was very comfortable with it, though.

Some time later, the same thing happened, only I was awake enough then to realize that the hand touching my neck was MY HAND, but it was so asleep that I didn't know it.

So yeah, the sleepy hand can be freaky. I always wonder if the feeling is going to come back too.
posted by mudpuppie 15 June | 20:59
To this day I have trouble falling asleep on my stomach.
There's no way I can fall asleep lying on my stomach, but I often wake up that way. Usually with both arms underneath my body. How I even get into that position is a mystery, because I don't think I could do it while awake.
posted by dg 15 June | 21:18
I can't fall asleep unless I'm on my stomach, but I often wake on my back. And yes, I've woken to two numb forearms - I hate that momentary panic that sets in.

Years back, in art class, it was my turn to be the model for the class. I chose a lying down position - better than standing, right? Wrong. My right leg fell completely asleep - when I got down off the table I could not feel it at all. Made trying to hustle to the next class quite interesting.
posted by redvixen 15 June | 21:51
Heh. Flopping Senseless Walrus Paws.
posted by rainbaby 15 June | 21:59
This post is full of LOL's.

I don't usually sleep on my arms, but they have fallen asleep while I lie on my back with one of them over my head. I can't say that I've ever thought my arm was gone, but I have had to use my other arm to move the dead one.

I vaguely recall my coworker (? or just a friend? someone?) telling me about a roommate he had in college that slept on his stomach with his arms under his chest. There was a fire alarm one night and the kid couldn't get up by himself because his arms were asleep.
posted by youngergirl44 16 June | 01:50
Hah! That just reminded me - in middle school, I used to sit with one or both legs crunched up lotus style against the desk in my chair, so that when the bell rang, I couldn't walk at all, or couldn't use one leg. Then I'd giggle as the feeling came back in the halls as I raced - sometimes with help - to my next class.

I was bored, I guess, plus I have that thrill seeking mutation, and had no access to weed or parachutes.
posted by rainbaby 16 June | 06:19
Persistent kitten vs. oblivious dog. || the John Edwards mugshot

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