a part of your body falls asleep simply when there is a lack of blood flow to the area no it cant hurt you perminently....but it might make you walk funny

Pain is a warning signal letting you know that you are in a danger zone. Cutting off the blood supply to an area deprives it of oxygen and nutrients. When the circulation is cut off, the cells begin to die. If you respond to the tingling, and get the blood flowing again, you most likely won't do irreparable harm. However, if you do not, starvation of the tissue can occur, and the flesh will literally rot on the body. This is especially a problem for diabetics, paraplegics, people confined to a bed or a wheelchair, and those who have lost sensation of pain. This is often referred to as "bed sores" for those who are bed-ridden, and if they are not 'turned' on a regular basis, the skin and muscle will die. I had a patient once who was transferred in from a nursing home that had been shut down. She had several bed sores that had gotten to the point of having dead flesh that looked like pieces of wood sitting in a raw infected wound. This can quickly turn to grangrene which can kill you. In fact, a recent article stated it was gangrene that killed King Tut. So yes, it can cause permanent harm.

The tingling is your body's way of letting you know that you have somehow cut off the blood flow to a certain part of your body. When you get up, etc, your blood begins to flow more back into that area. Ignoring this signal for too long can definately cause permanent harm. Cutting off the circulation for too long in an area of your body can leave it without oxygen, causing damage to your tissue.

The cut off of blood flow normally is due to pressure applied on your limbs somewhere between the heart and the affected area and no, this cannot kill you but, it might cause the muscular tissue to weaken if the pressure is kept for too long. But, I'm not sure can a wound really open up if blood flow is stopped for sometime because as far as I know, because gangrene bacteria only spreads through open wouds( though I might be wrong especially since there are many forms of gangrene).

Can falling asleep on your arm cause an embolism to develop?

Yes. It can cause major problems if the circulation is cut off for too long. There are many extreme cases in which people have fallen asleep on limbs, and have had to have them amputated, or have had muscles removed. A lot of those cases however, are related to bedridden people, diabetics, and in a few cases even people who have had too much to drink. Recently, a friend of the family, who is an excessive drinker, drank way too much and when he went to sleep he entered an almost dead-like sleep, and didnt move. (He had passed out, and his friends thought they were doing the right thing by laying him on his side incase he threw up) He woke up, and his arm was dark drown, and he was passing brownish liquid with his urin. It turned out, that his bicep muscle was dead, from the excessive pressure from his body. Once muscles die, they have to be taken out, because when muscles begin to break down they release a chemical into the blood that can cause you to become very sick, and even damage your heart. A few weeks after his surgery, the doctors took a muscle from the back of his leg, re-opened up his arm up, and put the muscle in replace of where his bicep had been. (There were many other procedures that were taken in order for the muscle to work). It's scary, not many people think that things like this can actually happen. But they do.

ok I sleep on my left side and my right is sleeping and the same thing if I sleep on my right side my left arm goes to sleep. What does that mean?