Cause of the "numb heel"?

[Scarecrow]

I'll have to look around and see what I can find for a proper sized tablecloth. Any recommendations on that?

Last night, I tried giving the hammock some extra slack, and that resulted in waking up feeling like someone punched me square in the left butt cheek. Pretty weird... It didn't feel like I had slept on the ridge, but maybe I ended up that way sometime during the night. Fortunately, these issues mentioned haven't been constant. Just rather elusive.

[OCDave]

...I haven't yet figured out the problem. After sleeping in the hammock last night, I woke up early this morning with that numb feeling in the heel...

What's been your experience and take on the matter?

Prolonged pressure on a nerve anywhere in your leg. I have a disc in my neck that acts up every once in a while. The disc presses a nerve resulting in numbness along the inside edge of my thumb. Having your knees hyper-extended or foot slightly twisted from the force of the hammock edge may be causing just enough nerve compression to give you the symptom you described.

Same phenomena causes the "pins and needles" sensation when your arm "falls asleep".

[chefkeith]

I'll have to look around and see what I can find for a proper sized tablecloth. Any recommendations on that?

Last night, I tried giving the hammock some extra slack, and that resulted in waking up feeling like someone punched me square in the left butt cheek. Pretty weird... It didn't feel like I had slept on the ridge, but maybe I ended up that way sometime during the night. Fortunately, these issues mentioned haven't been constant. Just rather elusive.

Tableclothsfactory.com has 90" x 156" Crinkle Taffeta Tablecloths for $18.99, not sure about shipping. Use Just Jeff's whipping method from tothewoods.net and you should be able to get it done around $20.

They may have other sizes that would be cheaper, I didn't look too hard. I just know that 90" is ridiculously wide, and you can cut it to whatever width you like (just singe the edge with a lighter or candle, no need to sew). I think the widest hammocks people are currently using on the forum are around 72," but there may be wider, I'm not sure.

I will just say that I spent ten years in a Hennessy (I don't recall the exact length, but it's way short), and I thought my DIY 11' hammock was the best thing ever - until I tried my DIY 12' model. Now, you can't get me back into an 11' model!! And mine are only 54" wide, if I recall correctly. My next one will be a 72."

I should mention, that I might be happy in an 11' x 72," dunno, never been in one, but I could see it potentially working. Though, for backpacking, I probably would never take a 72" wide model, as I'm perfectly comfortable with 54."

PS. I'm not sure what the weight limit of crinkle taffeta is, so I'd look that up before you buy. I do know that it's safely held a lot of forum members for many years.

[Scarecrow]

Ah, okay. I saw the long/wide ones on there, but wasn't sure what to do about the excess width (I don't have a sewing machine still). I weigh less than 150 lbs, so weight shouldn't be an issue.

[Scarecrow]

Just an update on the heel pressure/numbness bit: Reading through the other recent thread regarding this same issue, I saw many folks suggesting a pillow behind the knees, so I gave that a shot last night. I had an REI Base Camp Pillow laying around, so I used that. Slept with that behind my knees all night, and woke up pain free . It's a bit too bulky for me to take backpacking, but I have another option I can utilize for that when camping out. For that scenario, I'll just stuff my packable insulated jacket into a stuff sack and use that in place of this base camp pillow.

[bkrgi]

The heel pain is from to much pressure on that specific spot of skin...as in the beginnings of a bed sore.
The pillow idea relieves some of that pressure or try socks with a heft of heel padding added to ease/spread the pressure point out...better cushioning.