If you stand up after sitting with your legs crossed for a long time, you might feel pins and needles, a prickly, tingling sensation in your legs. But if say you’re sitting on pins and needles, you’re nervous and anxious!
When your foot falls asleep, it feels like pins and needles. That sharp, almost painful tingling as feeling returns is almost like being jabbed with pins. If you’re really nervous about something, that feels like pins and needles too. If you’re in the hospital waiting for someone to have a baby, you’re probably on pins and needles! In medical terminology, the physical kind is called paresthesia, but most people just call it pins and needles.