Nocturnal Leg Cramps - Help!

I take / capsules magnesium aspirate 400 before bed when I "feel" it coming on. Sometimes you get little warning signals in your body. If I still wake up at night with severe cramps I use magnesium cream and rub it on and that works almost immediately !

Hi, everyone!

I've found that doing more leg exercises (squats and dead lifts) and stretches during the day have been a huge help in reducing the occurrence / eliminating the painful cramps I was getting. The pain was so bad that I'd have to get out of bed and walk around for a few minutes or more. And my calf muscle would get as hard as a piece of wood... not kidding.

Hope this helps some of you. Please report back to the group if it does.

Good luck!

/LarryG

I do both the Magnesium and exercise/weight-training but if one comes on anyway I know it so I literally hurry out of bed and walk it off just around the room, gone in seconds and never has come back when I do it that way. Yes I do it with a slight limp but I've never had one so bad I could walk it out.

O.K....Don't laugh but besides drinking more water what has helped me to alleviate foot and leg cramps is putting on some warm socks.

I have below the knees to ankle pains every night which wakes me up after 3-4 hours of sleep. It will be less after walking for a few minutes but always comes back before I get up every morning. I can walk 1-3 miles about 5 days a week and it is never there during the day. It's only at night and makes no difference if I exercise or not. I'm 69 years old also. I have tried supplements, stretching, and rolling my legs.

Like you, I also get aching in my legs when I sit in the recliner or lie in bed. It keeps me from going to sleep, but doesn't wake me up. Like you, I don't have the pain when I'm walking around or sitting in a regular chair. If I can't go to sleep, I have to get back up and walk around a bit to help it. I have HNPP (Hereditary Neuropathy with Pressure Palsies). My neurologist told me it's the pressure palsies part causing this. The nerves can't take pressure on them. I thought PP just caused numbness, tingling and dead leg/arm temporarily, but she said it can cause the pain too. I don't have a solution, but haven't noticed some days, weeks or months are better than others so hopefully you'll have some better times too. I get a lot of shooting/stabbing pains, toe in a vice feeling, etc. that also mostly happen in the recliner and lying down at night. That seemed like typical neuropathy to me. I also get restless leg syndrome at night in the recliner or bed. I hope someone will offer a solution to the aching here. I've tried pillows -- nope. I've tried stretching my legs in bed and that actually makes my RLS worse. As long as I'm awake at night the aching gets worse and worse, but oddly enough, when I wake up in the morning it's gone. Best of luck to you.

Have you tried compression socks during the day?

I also had a cyst removed from inside my L4 spine in 2013 I have very little back problems now though. Like you, when I get the lower leg and ankle craps they don’t go away with any type of stretching at all. The only relief is to get up and walk period. Last night it was 2:15 and 6:00 AM. In the morning early it feels like the muscles in my legs are sore and over worked

I had 3 different types of surgery done on my legs 5 years ago. I thought this may give me relief but changed nothing. I wore the support hose 24/7 for like 6 months. My veins in legs looked nasty and thought for sure it might help but no change.

Maybe 24/7 was too much. Maybe just wear them during the day and see what happens. I'm not liking these "Golden Years"!