The sensation you feel when you foot appears to go to sleep is one of tingling and numbness. Your foot hasn't really gone to sleep. The reason it feels as though it has is because not enough blood is being supplied to the nerves in your foot. This often happens when you've been sitting in one position for too long. One of the most important jobs your nerves do is to give you feelings and sensations and this protects us from potential dangers.
People with diabetes sometimes develop nerve damage to their feet. One of these is the feeling that ones foot has permanently gone to sleep. If you have no nerve feeling in your foot, you cannot walk on it properly and it can be dangerous because you would not feel any pain in it if you injured yourself. For most people a numb foot is just the result of not moving it for a while, so don't all go rushing off to the doctors! Get up and jump around for a bit and the numbness will go.
People with diabetes sometimes develop nerve damage to their feet. One of these is the feeling that ones foot has permanently gone to sleep. If you have no nerve feeling in your foot, you cannot walk on it properly and it can be dangerous because you would not feel any pain in it if you injured yourself. For most people a numb foot is just the result of not moving it for a while, so don't all go rushing off to the doctors! Get up and jump around for a bit and the numbness will go.
