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Cramps at night: what to do?
Author: Mikhail Ziborov - author of the site makefitness.pro. All articles by the author ➤
Sleep is an important component for any person, let alone athletes. It's generally bad when you can't get enough sleep or have trouble falling asleep due to cramps. In this article, I will discuss:
What are Cramps?Twitches at night are a completely normal process (known as hypnic myoclonus). This is how your body deals with the tension you experienced during the day (both physically and mentally). Cramps are sudden contractions of a muscle, groups of muscles, or even the entire body (have you ever had a dream where a ball suddenly flies at you? This is known as startle myoclonus—also a somewhat normal phenomenon). However, there are instances when you haven't exerted yourself at all, yet cramps occur, and they disturb your sleep. Here, it’s useful to consider the concept of fasciculation, which explains that twitches can be due to completely ordinary factors or can be symptoms of specific diseases. Causes of Nighttime Cramps, Twitches, or Even Jerks
Common causes of fasciculation include:
These symptoms also overlap with the symptoms of myokymia. Myokymia refers to muscle twitches, tremors lasting for a period even when awake. We’ve all felt it: a twitching muscle in the arm or eye. Such manifestations clearly indicate that: There is also startle myoclonus. This occurs due to prolonged wakefulness or irregular sleep patterns: sleeping for 6 hours one night, 7 hours the next, and just 5 the following night. In such cases, the tonic system is active, the nervous system is strained, and the body is full of cortisol (the wakefulness hormone), while melatonin (the sleep hormone) struggles—hence the cramps and inability to fall asleep. http://coma.su/content/view/228/31/ If you didn’t find anything on that list that resonates with you, nighttime cramps might be signs of some diseases. Check out articles on myokymia and fasciculation on Wiki. How to Get Rid of CrampsYou need to consider the possible causes of their appearance. For example, if you drink a lot of coffee or little water, it makes sense to reduce your coffee intake, cut down on portions, start following a hydration regimen, and see if the cramps go away. By the way, coffee contributes to the depletion of calcium in the body, so cutting back on coffee is also a favor for your bones and teeth. You can read about the benefits and harms of caffeine here. Stress, intense emotions, worries, and similar factors. It also makes sense to lessen the impact of all these factors on you. Worry less, avoid conflicts, etc. If you find this difficult (if you are an emotional person), try not to reduce stress but rather counteract it. For example, meditate, pray, allocate some time (even a little) for a favorite activity, such as playing computer games, drawing, and so on. A couple of hours before bed, turn off the TV, put down your phone, and pick up a book. This will calm your central nervous system and prepare your body for sleep.
Deficiency of vitamins and minerals. Most often, these deficiencies involve minerals such as: Among vitamins, I can highlight the B vitamins (which are responsible for calming, hence they are included in anti-stress medications) and vitamin D (which affects calcium, and thus cramps). Solving this issue is simple: take multivitamin-mineral complexes (or individual vitamins and minerals) and monitor after which ones you stop twitching at night. Overworked, overtrained, or on your feet for a long time (spending a lot of time awake). Reduce working time or the intensity of work and allocate time for rest or relaxation. This can be for entire days or just a few hours (for example, evenings). You can learn to cycle your training: heavy, light, moderate if you have three workouts a week. Or similarly by weeks. If you have 5 or more workouts a week (or a few per day), reduce their intensity, duration, or change the type of loads—from strength training to endurance training, for instance. Regarding the question, how many times a week you should engage in sports, this will depend on intensity. If workouts are moderate or light, they can occur up to 5 times a week. Heavy workouts are typically performed no more than 2-3 times a week. Although workouts are an essential condition for muscle growth, overloading yourself not only fails to improve your performance but gradually harms your health. Lack of sleep, going to bed late or always at different times. This category includes all problems or disturbances with sleep. Therefore, we strive to eliminate the problem. Are you sleep deprived? Try going to bed earlier to ensure you get enough sleep—that's obvious. Go to bed at approximately the same time, training your body to shed wakefulness hormones and begin to actively produce sleep hormones. If you don’t go to bed on time, you upset the hormonal balance. A varied wake-up and sleep schedule results in the same situation. Everything here is tied to hormones. Stimulants. The issue may be that you are consuming something, perhaps having too much tea at night? It contains enough caffeine to prevent you from sleeping normally. Or perhaps other biologically active supplements or medications? You can read about stress, overexertion, exhausting oneself, and cortisol on the profile @oli_healthy through this link (there are 5 consecutive posts) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv4ttmFFjEk/?igshid=183tuldxgvnei. Means for Calming
Personally, I have used: ConclusionThese are the most obvious and easily solvable problems with cramps. If none of these tips help, consult a doctor. It may indicate the presence of some disease or serious deviation. SIMILAR ARTICLES
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