5 ms·

Is this true? I have never heard of any limb falling asleep. They may sleep, but the falling into sounds strange to my ears. My native Danish is possibly fooli

Is this true? I have never heard of any limb falling asleep. They may sleep, but the falling into sounds strange to my ears. My native Danish is possibly fooling my perception. My leg can sleep ('sove'), but no way it could falde i søvn (the exact same construct as fall asleep). The sleep part refers to the sensation of numbness. The tingling wake-up part seems to be associated with ants in large parts of the world. But not here. That would simply be tingling or prickling or some such thing.

pubby 9y ago
"Fall" has a few definitions but one of them is "pass into a specified state". So "fell asleep" means changing from being awake to sleeping. Apologies if you know this - I wasn't sure from your post.
- interfixus 9y ago
  Yes, I know, and no, you're right, I didn't make that clear at all. My point was that exactly: The transitioning part sounds completely wrong to me. Where I come from, my leg can be sleeping or not, but it can't perform the state change from one to the other.
  - rendall 9y ago
    It's a funny phrase, because you'd most often say "My arm fell asleep." You might say "My arm is asleep." but never have I heard anyone say "My arm is sleeping."
dfee 9y ago
I am confused by your doubt. If English is not your native tongue, what instinct leads you to believe the statement is peculiar? Is it because English can mislead a non-native speaker? The answer is yes: having lived in 9 of the 50 US States in every cardinal (and sub) direction - as well as a stint in London - I’ve never encountered any confusion about this phrase. Limbs fall asleep. Or, a limb is asleep. But, if you’re sitting on your leg, and you know this to cut circulation, it would be unsurprising for you to say “it’s falling asleep” with the “degree” being the amount of paresthesia you expect to encounter when moving the limb.
- interfixus 9y ago
  As I said, I am quite possibly being led astray by my native language. Danish/Norwegian is so very, very close to English in so many areas of vocab, grammar, and idiom, it's sometimes hard to keep the instinctives of one from bleeding into the other. I did search my memory before commenting, and came up blank: I have never heard about limbs falling asleep. Hence my initial question, which you hereby seem to have answered.

pubby 9y ago

"Fall" has a few definitions but one of them is "pass into a specified state". So "fell asleep" means changing from being awake to sleeping. Apologies if you know this - I wasn't sure from your post.

interfixus 9y ago
Yes, I know, and no, you're right, I didn't make that clear at all. My point was that exactly: The transitioning part sounds completely wrong to me. Where I come from, my leg can be sleeping or not, but it can't perform the state change from one to the other.
- rendall 9y ago
  It's a funny phrase, because you'd most often say "My arm fell asleep." You might say "My arm is asleep." but never have I heard anyone say "My arm is sleeping."

dfee 9y ago

I am confused by your doubt. If English is not your native tongue, what instinct leads you to believe the statement is peculiar? Is it because English can mislead a non-native speaker? The answer is yes: having lived in 9 of the 50 US States in every cardinal (and sub) direction - as well as a stint in London - I’ve never encountered any confusion about this phrase. Limbs fall asleep. Or, a limb is asleep. But, if you’re sitting on your leg, and you know this to cut circulation, it would be unsurprising for you to say “it’s falling asleep” with the “degree” being the amount of paresthesia you expect to encounter when moving the limb.

interfixus 9y ago
As I said, I am quite possibly being led astray by my native language. Danish/Norwegian is so very, very close to English in so many areas of vocab, grammar, and idiom, it's sometimes hard to keep the instinctives of one from bleeding into the other. I did search my memory before commenting, and came up blank: I have never heard about limbs falling asleep. Hence my initial question, which you hereby seem to have answered.