Jerry Vance
You point your toes and stretch your legs during sleep and wake up screaming in pain.
Muscle cramps that happen at 3:00 am are spasms the occur if you are new to exercise, you overdo your exercise, or when you lay on one side for a long period of time and cut off circulation. Changing positions brings back circulation and causes the muscles to relax and regain circulation, resulting in the most common cause of muscle cramps, an exaggeration of the normal stretching reflex. And, as you turn in your sleep, you contract muscles that stretch tendons. Sometimes, the contracted muscle will not let go, developing into a painful spasm.
If your muscle cramps occur when you exercise, your problem may be one of deficient or unbalanced mineral intake. Abnormal amounts of minerals can prevent the muscle from relaxing, once it has tightened. Low thyroid can also be a cause of muscle cramps. A blood test can help in determining the reason for these types of muscle spasms.
Often at the beginning of a workout a muscle in one leg will contract. If you have small arteries in that leg the supply of blood when you run may not be adequate for proper distribution of oxygen to the muscle tissue. Walk a little during your run and certainly for short periods toward the end of your run.
For those of you that run for long periods of time and end up with muscle cramps, look at dehydration as the most common cause. When you lose fluid there is less blood supply and less oxygen to the muscles. Recommended amounts of water are one cup before exercise and one cup every fifteen minutes during exercise.
To sum it up; your muscles need adequate supplies of fat and sugar for energy, they need oxygen to help in the distribution of energy and they also need the proper amount and concentrations of water and minerals to the muscle cells.
What to do when you suffer a muscle cramp? Stretch the cramped muscle with one hand and squeeze the affected area with the other hand. For those nighttime pains, pull your toes toward you and rub the calf muscle, squeezing gently every few seconds. Stretch out and warm up your legs before you retire. Drink more water than you normally do before bedtime. Hopefully these suggestions will help you to avoid that nighttime muscle pain.
