Leg Cramp Site

Sudden night leg cramps occur when the muscles in your lower leg involuntarily contract and tighten (called a “spasm”), often without warning while you are sleeping.  Leg cramps at night are often confined to the calf muscles, but some people also feel their thigh or foot muscles cramping.   Night or nocturnal leg cramps in the calf are also known as Charley Horses.  These leg cramps do no permanent damage to your body, but they can be harmful from a psychological perspective.  Sudden night leg cramps cause severe pain in some cases and can greatly diminish the quality of sleep for some individuals.  Obviously, most people who experience leg cramps for the first time immediately want to know what causes leg cramps and how they can avoid or prevent night cramps in the future.

While there are many contributing factors to leg cramps, there are no fully known causes for night leg cramps.  These contributing factors include being overweight, certain diseases and medical conditions, being older and various changes in diet and exercise.  These contributing factors increase the chances of you getting sudden leg cramps at night, but they can’t be seen as an absolute predictor.

Here are some of the different factors which often cause leg cramps:

• Dehydration
• Kidney problems
• Muscle fatigue
• Certain medications
• Certain diseases
• Excessive alcohol consumption
• Pregnancy
• Obesity
• Flat feet/fallen arches
• Restless leg syndrome (RLS)
• Sudden change in activity levels (walking, running)
• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
• Electrolyte imbalances

The simple fact is that night leg cramps are generally seen as an annoyance by most medical doctors rather than a serious issue.  But anyone who has experienced these severe and persistent leg cramps can attest, they are much worse than just an annoyance to be brushed aside.  As the medical community continues to increase it’s understanding of the musclar and skeletal systems in our bodies there is an increased chance of actually finding the causes of leg cramps and designing a drug or program to prevent them.

Welcome to the Leg Cramp Site, a blog and online resource to help all of you who suffer from painful and sudden night time leg cramping, sometimes known as ‘charlie horses.’  We’re going to regularly present new ways to prevent leg cramps as well as ways to ease the pain of cramping and try to get you back on your feet and feeling better.

Leg cramps at night are a relatively common phenomenon for lots of people, and while they’re not necessarily deadly in the traditional sense, they do tend to take a toll on sufferers through lost sleep, increasing anxiety about sleep, and increasing stress on the body due to both pain and the uncertainty related to when they’ll strike.  Sudden leg cramps can strike just about anyone at any time and can sometimes be a symptom of a more serious underlying health condition.

This blog is a personal project as well.  I have suffered from night time leg cramps so bad that I’ve had to call out of work and use a cane to hobble around the house for a day or two after they’ve hit me.  I have, quite literally, been afraid to fall asleep some nights simply because I didn’t want to be hit with that stabbing, clenching pain in my calf ever again.  I’ve changed a few things in my lifestyle that seems to have helped, though I’ve had some close calls.  I hope to help and inform others about what they might be able to do to help prevent and avoid their own leg cramps in the future.