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Why are leg cramps so painful

  • 09-11-2019 8:27pm
    #1
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,077 ✭✭✭


    And wakes you from a deep sleep?


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,812 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    And wakes you from a deep sleep?


    Because there's an animal tearing your limps off, so wake up and panic


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,349 ✭✭✭Odhinn


    And wakes you from a deep sleep?




    Big muscles cramping = more pain. Or it could be a succubus feeding off yer soul.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,161 ✭✭✭frag420


    Thought it was a joke...


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,077 ✭✭✭Away With The Fairies


    frag420 wrote: »
    Thought it was a joke...

    Leg cramps aren't a joke lad.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Because nocturnal leg cramps are true cramps and not spasms. The muscle remains in a cramped and contracted position, which accounts for the intensity of the pain. Often linked to a fluid imbalance of vitamin deficiency.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,426 ✭✭✭corner of hells


    Odhinn wrote: »
    Big muscles cramping = more pain. Or it could be a succubus feeding off yer soul.

    Definitely not a succubus , more likely the Grim Reaper giving you a few slaps.
    Probably best not to sleep again , ever.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 957 ✭✭✭80j2lc5y7u6qs9


    Doesnt it help to stretch the muscle?. i stand on my foot and press down. This is not medical advice


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,077 ✭✭✭Away With The Fairies


    Doesnt it help to stretch the muscle?. i stand on my foot and press down. This is not medical advice

    Standing is the last thing I want to do straight after waking up.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 254 ✭✭Thepillowman


    Suffer from them myself due to an injury,glass of tonic water before bed helps believe it or not.Without the gin before anyone asks.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 960 ✭✭✭angel eyes 2012


    I used to get leg cramps quite frequently, rare enough these days thankfully as the pain is unbearable. Sometimes I have to walk around. Otherwise make sure you drink enough water during the day and keep a glass near you in case you wake up with cramps.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Standing is the last thing I want to do straight after waking up.

    Pull your toes back (don’t point them), and, if necessary, put your foot on the floor and lean forward.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,854 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    normally means you are short of magnesium

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,077 ✭✭✭Away With The Fairies


    Pull your toes back (don’t point them), and, if necessary, put your foot on the floor and lean forward.

    I'll try that next time.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    silverharp wrote: »
    normally means you are short of magnesium

    More likely to be potassium.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 304 ✭✭coffeyt


    Used to get horrid leg cramps at night when pregnant, my mother recommended eating a banana before bed.
    It worked, leg cramps stopped but can't guarantee it was because of the banana!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    coffeyt wrote: »
    Used to get horrid leg cramps at night when pregnant, my mother recommended eating a banana before bed.
    It worked, leg cramps stopped but can't guarantee it was because of the banana!

    Bananas are rich in potassium, so there could certainly be a link.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I had a knee replacement with Arthrofibrosis complication which left my leg muscles extremely weak. As the adhesions gave broken down sufficiently for me to start strengthening leg in gym, 9 months post op, all leg cramps gave disappeared. I used to get lots of cramps at might pre and initially post-op.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,430 ✭✭✭✭AMKC
    Ms


    So glad I have not had one of these in a while. I agree with the poster above that the pain is very bad and even unbearable and that's what I used too think to until I had an even worse pain than it. Ones that make you think being dead would be better. Actually thought I was going to die. Thankfully that was only a once off and came from me being depressed and not eating properly. I have got over that now thankfully.

    Live long and Prosper

    Peace and long life.



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,431 ✭✭✭Blondie919


    I use magnesium spray before bed as it absorbs into the skin easily. I used to get them regularly but the spray and stretches before bed has helped stop them. I agree they are incredibly painful.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 508 ✭✭✭Scott Tenorman


    They are horrific! Have had a couple of occasions of calf muscles going into to spasm in the night and it is like being stabbed in the leg!

    Used to get really bad ones after sport, what sorted it for me was taking dissolvable electrolyte tablets in water during and after the activity to keep the levels up


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,280 ✭✭✭shamrock55


    Drink milk and eat bananas... No more cramps


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 35 RedParrot


    I suffer on and off with leg cramps in the calf. I would wake the dead screaming in pain and shout Jesus. Holding the spindles of the head board - ****, JESUS, CRAMP, HELP, ****, etc.


    Cramps comes and goes in spells for me. Or they used to.
    I find a magnesium supplement before bed helps a lot.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,077 ✭✭✭Away With The Fairies


    I tried this tonic water thing. It tastes vile. What can I mix it with besides gin?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,812 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    I tried this tonic water thing. It tastes vile. What can I mix it with besides gin?


    More gin


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 12,230 Mod ✭✭✭✭igCorcaigh


    Happened me once during the middle of a lecture in college.

    My leg muscles seemed to wrap around my knee and it was a struggle not to cry out in paid. Could have been the way I was sitting?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,883 ✭✭✭Montage of Feck


    I tried this tonic water thing. It tastes vile. What can I mix it with besides gin?

    Tonic water is for malaria not cramps.

    🙈🙉🙊



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    To get the required active ingredient of quinine in sufficient quantities you would need to drink at least 10 glasses of tonic water every day.

    Drinking a couple of bottles of Powerade may be more practical. And, eat bananas.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,962 ✭✭✭r93kaey5p2izun


    I've been prescribed quinine tablets for it and it has made a big difference. I used to wake up with them every night, now it's very rare. I have to make sure my feet and legs are warm enough at night too. It really is the most excruciating pain for such a trivial condition.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,100 ✭✭✭✭Spanish Eyes


    Fellow sufferer here. But cured within days when an athlete friend ( I am no athlete let it be said) recommended an electrolyte tablet soluble in water. Contains potassium, magnesium, sodium (salt). I obviously needed some or all of the ingredients.

    Happy out now. If I get a cramp and I have forgotten to take the soluble tablet, foot out of the bed and walk around and massage in a magnesium oil spray. But that is rare enough now thankfully. Athlete friend said we are not taking in enough salt (sodium) because of all the scares associated with salt, but it is a vital ingredient just the same.

    Thanks for the info fellow sufferers.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 72,148 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    I tried this tonic water thing. It tastes vile. What can I mix it with besides gin?

    Just drink Irn Bru instead. Quinine and no mixing needed


    I have short calf muscles and can get hideous leg cramps - and induced plantar fasciitis - if I don't do lots of quite draining and painful stretching exercises. However if I get a decent amount of quinine I don't get the cramps; just the sore muscles and the plantar fasciitis... so I still do the sodding exercises.

    Haven't been woken up in the middle of night screaming with pain since I started taking quinine, however. Once a month or so I'd end up actually unable to walk


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,431 ✭✭✭Blondie919


    Another thing I do which helps is sleep with a pillow under my feet. Having them raised seems to help.


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