Causes of Leg Cramps While Sleeping

Leg and foot cramps while sleeping may also be attributed as nighttime leg cramps. These cramps are characterized by muscle contractions in your leg. And these contractions may flare up with intense degree of pain, while sleeping. The cramps mostly occur due to tightening of the muscles in the calf. However, even the thigh and foot may be affected. As the name suggests, night leg cramps, flare up when the person is falling asleep or waking up, lasting from a few seconds to minutes. It must be known that in most cases, there are no causes of leg cramps that occur at nights, and these are usually harmless. However, in some cases, they may signify that something is amiss in the body; like the development of certain medical conditions.

What Triggers Leg Cramps At Night?

Common causes may include diarrhea, use of diuretics, juvenile diabetes, alcohol abuse, dehydration, fatigue in muscles and Parkinson's disease. Also, use of oral contraceptives or blood pressure medications may be one of the causes of severe leg cramps while sleeping, and so can conditions of hypothyroidism, kidney failure, and Addison's disease. Cirrhosis (a chronic disease of the liver), disease of the peripheral artery and imbalances of electrolytes of the body, also come in the list of the causes. People who have a flatfeet, also have a risk of suffering from this condition. What I did not mention here is about pregnancy. Expecting mothers who are in their second trimester, may experience leg cramps at night. This may be due to the pressure that the uterus exerts on the veins.

Self-Care Measures to Manage Leg Cramps

There are some simple measures which you can take as soon as you feel your leg cramping while you are falling asleep. However, one method may not work for all and you may have to try all of them and find out which one works best for you.

As soon as you feel the leg cramps, get out of your bed and start walking around, or best, jiggle your leg.

Stretching the calf muscles also helps in reducing the cramps. You may do this while sitting or standing. While sitting, keep your legs straight and try to move or flex your foot towards your knee. Hold on to this position for a few minutes. Then keeping your legs straight, try to touch your toes with straight stands. This may be quite painful if you are not used to stretching. However, it sure helps to relieve the cramps.

While you are standing, face a wall, keeping about a distance of 2 ft. Keep your hands on the wall at about eye level. Now, place the affected leg a step behind the other one. With this position, bend your front knee until you feel a stretch in the affected leg. Hold on to this for about 15 - 30 secs. Repeat 2 - 5 times.

Performing such exercises helps in reducing the pain due to leg cramps within a few minutes. Alternatively, you may relieve your cramps by taking a hot shower or a warm bath. Rubbing an ice pack on the affected calf may also help. However, stretching exercises are the ones which are known to benefit most people.

You can lower the risks of conditions such as leg cramps by increasing the daily intake of water to keep yourself hydrated, losing weight, inculcating regular exercises and following up with your doctor in case you experience frequent episodes of cramps.