Why do my legs fall asleep on the toilet?
Introduction
Have you ever spent a bit longer than needed in the bathroom because you’ve found that your legs turned to jelly while you were on the toilet?
Let’s be honest here and say that we’ve all been there before.
You’re doing your business in the bathroom and then you find yourself in the awkward but slightly funny predicament where your legs have turned to jelly and you are forced to pull yourself up by sheer will as you hold onto the sink or counter for dear life hoping you don’t fall face-first into something.
But have you ever questioned why your legs fall asleep and turn to jelly when you’re on the toilet?
It’s probably safe to assume that if this pins and needles leg numbing phenomenon has ever happened to you, it’s because you were on social media or reading something just a tad bit longer than you needed to be (88% of people use their phones while on the toilet)…
While that’s the likely circumstance that has left your legs going numb on you countless times in the bathroom, that doesn’t fully explain why your legs fall asleep while you are on the toilet.
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Why Your Legs Go Numb with Pins and Needles When You’re on the Toilet
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The reasoning for why your legs go numb with that excruciating pins and needles feeling afterward can be summed up into two factors or reasons:
- Bad sitting posture
- Staying on the toilet longer than necessary
The first reason why your legs fall asleep when you’re on the toilet is due to your potentially bad posture while sitting on the toilet.
The majority of people tend to hunch over while on the toilet rather than sitting straight up in a more relaxed posture.
This hunched-over position actually causes unwanted and unnecessary pressure on your pelvic muscles, which results in your colon having to work harder to do its business.
The pressure from being hunched over also restricts the amount of blood flow to the nerves in your pelvis and can even push spinal discs to rub up against spinal nerves, which results in that jelly-like feeling in your legs.
So, to sum up, the first reason is if you assume a hunched-over position when you’re on the toilet, and your legs fall asleep, it’s because your bad posture is causing a restriction of blood flow and unwanted pressure to be put on your spinal nerves, both of which result in your legs feeling like jelly with pins and needles.
The second reason why your legs fall asleep on the toilet is a result of the first reason.
Bad hunched over posture leads to more effort which leads to you having to spend more time on the toilet to get your business done than what is necessary.
The longer you are on sitting on the toilet with the bad posture of being hunched over it is causing less blood flow to your pelvis as it is more restricted, and you are putting more pressure onto your spinal nerves, which are causing those pins and needles feeling to last longer.
So, to answer your initial question, the reason why your legs fall asleep when you are on the toilet is that you are likely sitting on the toilet in a hunched over position for an extended amount of time which is restricting blood flow and putting unnecessary pressure onto your spinal nerves resulting in jelly legs with pins and needles when you finally get up.
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How You Can Stop Your Legs from Falling Asleep on the Toilet
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The nice thing about this particular problem is that it is an easy one to fix.
No need to set up an appointment with your family physician or make a batch of laxative brownies every time you need to use the bathroom…
If you want to stop having your legs fall asleep when you’re on the toilet, you simply need to fix your posture, and there are a couple of ways that you can do this.
- Sit up straight to relax your colon and pelvis muscles to allow for blood flow and more relaxed bowel movements
- Get a Squatty Potty. You might think that they are a bit ridiculous but the use of a bathroom stool like a Squatty Potty can help to ease the pressure on your pelvis and colon for a more relaxed time on the toilet.
- Get a toilet cushion for your toilet seat. The extra padding that a toilet cushion provides just enough padding for your rear end to lessen the chance of blood flow to your legs from getting restricted.
We hope that if you do have problems with your legs falling asleep on the toilet, this article has been a fun and educational read for you and that your next trip to the bathroom will be a bit more relaxed without the end risk of faceplanting into the sink or door due pins and needles in your legs.
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