Why Do We Scratch That Itch
Why Do We Scratch That Itch If itching keeps you up at night, you’re not alone. Pruritus (aka itching) is a sensation we all experience daily, some of us more than others. To ditch the itch, most of us resort to scratching to get relief. While this may feel oh so good, the moment you swipe at your skin, you trigger something known as the itch-scratch cycle. What is an itch? “An itch can feel like a burning sensation, a slightly electrical or periodic nonpainful sensation, or like something is crawling along the skin,” says Dr. Melanie Palm, a board certified dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon. Other than being extremely annoying at 2 a.m., an itch is a sensation caused by stimulation of nerve cells in the skin, which Dr. Adarsh Vijay Mudgil, founder of Mudgil Dermatology, says causes us to scratch. Why does scratching feel good? If you think about it, scratching is a type of pain, yet we rely on it to get rid of an itch. When we scratch, Mudgil says we send low-level pain signals to th