Night Cramps

Night cramps are like nightmare; they are sudden, painful, and shocking. Night cramps are sudden muscle cramping mainly in leg or in hip joint muscles. In some instances muscles in feet or in thigh may suffer from sudden cramping.

However, painful and intolerable the cramping is, hardly the issue is covered with any serious physical issue. Mostly night cramping are result of dehydration or exhaustion of muscles but in some cases night cramping might be the reason for underlying diabetes or peripheral artery problem hence if night cramping occurs regularly at night, it is better to contact the family physician at the earliest.

The problem of night cramp in conditional; the problem gets increased with ascending aging. Some time cramping becomes regular occurrence in case of pregnant women.

There are different triggers behind the occurrence of night cramp with a person and these triggers are to be considered as causes for the problem. Some general causes behind night cramps are alcoholism, chronic problem of Addison’s disease, long term taking of blood pressure medication, dehydration, cirrhosis, flat feet, diabetes type-2, diuretics, and imbalance of electrolyte in body, hypothyroidism, muscle fatigue, and Parkinson’s disease; sometimes history of taking oral contraceptive medicines and pregnancy triggers the discomfort of muscular cramp especially at night time. In some instances, peripheral artery disease induces the problem of night cramps.

In most of the instances night cramps are considered as botheration which interrupts course of sleep at night and proves to be great painful jerk at normal course of activities or rest. But there are some situations where you may require seeing a doctor.

When a patient suffers from severe and relentless cramping, or faces cramping as reflex action of toxemia in body, as regular interruption in sleep at night, or experiencing heavy difficulty in running normal course of activities in day time, he/she should consult a doctor immediately for further clinical investigation of the matter.

In case of mild to mediocre night cramping, some self-care may sort out the problem efficiently. Those self-care treatments are narrated here.

Consumption of adequate water and dilute fruit juice, wearing good footwear, light exercise, and proper lying posture at bed will help to reduce the frequency of night cramp. Some time taking hot bath before bedtime helps in natural cure for night cramp problem.