A sudden intense pain wakes you up from sleep in the middle of the night. You clutch your leg in darkness and confusion and only thing you can do is wait for the pain to go away. Your muscle feels hard, almost like rock, and you can’t move your leg. Eventually the pain goes away, but the soreness lingers on for the next day or two. That’s Nocturnal muscle cramp for you.
What is it?
Night cramp is an extremely common condition where some muscle (usually in the leg) contract involuntarily and strongly causing pain. This happens due to overuse, dehydration and, some say, electrolyte imbalance. Trigger points in the gastrocnemius muscle may produce cramps too.
What to do?
If you are waking up with a cramp, stretch it. They usually occur in calves or hamstrings. The adjoining figures show how to stretch them. Alternatively you can massage the muscle to make the pain go away. Then drink some water and go back to sleep. Sleep deprivation may trigger the cramp, so make sure you have adequate sleep.
The morning after may be a little sore in the area of cramp. Keep stretching lightly throughout the day at intervals. Go easy on strenuous activities. Try to correct water and electrolyte depletion.
Water
Drink lots of water. Our kidneys filter about 200 liters of blood every day and discard about 1% of it as urine. Chances are you are not refilling it. Drink 2-3 liters a day.
Electrolyte
Refueling the electrolytes would not be such a bad idea. For the day after the cramp, get a pouch of simple ORS and follow the instructions. Most of us use too little water with ORS (to get a better taste), which would result a hypertonic solution, and may not serve the purpose.
For long term maintenance, choose foods enriched with potassium, calcium and magnesium. In our regular diet potassium is aplenty in potato (the name itself indicates that, right?), coconut water and banana. Calcium is in milk & egg, magnesium is in nuts, beans, spinach, tomato, milk. They should be sufficient to maintain your electrolyte levels.
Posture and Ergonomics
They are often the main culprit. Cramps may happen when a muscle cannot handle abnormal stresses. Investigate your daily activities. Subtle adjustments in the working posture, in the shoe or even in the driving seat frequently provide long term solutions.
Dr Subhanjan Das (PT)
BPT, MPT (MSk & Sports), CMP(NZ), Diploma in football medicine (FIFA)
Consultant Physiotherapist of Apollo & Reliva Clinic, HSR Layout, Bangalore
Contact: +91 8967549104
Dr Subhanjan Das (PT) has over 14 years of clinical and 12 years of academic experience. A friendly professional with lots of patience and skilful hands, Dr Subhanjan has worked with thousands of his patients for instant relief of pain and rapid return to activities. He has treated elite athletes for recovery, injury prevention and performance enhancement.
Dr Das is specialized in Orthopaedic and sports physiotherapy and has keeps himself updated with the latest advancements in the field of physiotherapy. He has undergone training on advanced orthopaedic techniques such as Dry Needling, Mulligan Concept, McKenzie method, Pilates, Cupping therapy, McConnel and kinesio taping from the best faculties around the world.
Dr Das has taught in 5 universities across India and has trained physiotherapists in 50+ workshops within and outside India.