Why do charley horses (the type of painful muscle cramp) seem to mostly happen while you’re asleep?
In: Biology
I’ve literally never had one of these, ever.
I don’t know if that makes me wrong or everyone else defective. Lol
Because you sleep in weird positions and your muscles can’t properly relax, or it’s too cold and your body won’t bother shivering, but the muscle still has to warm itself up,so it stays active and pulsates,and eventually it gets stuck
When it happens to me, it’s always when I’m just waking up.
I stretch as usual, but then I mistakenly make a movement that stretches a muscle too much (e.g. bend my foot downward to stretch my tibialis anterior next to my shin, then curl my toes when my muscle is still stretched, thus stretching it more). As a reflex, the muscle reacts to overstretching by forcefully contracting to avoid being ripped apart. This causes the cramp.
The full answers lie in medicine, and they could care less. It seems, for me, its part diet, part activity the day before, and the other listed comments. For me, one “Charley Horse” will hurl me out of bed, clinging to my walker(yes, I am at that age} in pain without a name, and near ready to have ‘all exits’ explode anytime very soon. I can watch the muscles doing a “Conga Line’ on my legs. I ask the MD he shrugs and says ‘eat a banana’.I strongly suspect they happen at night, because of your leg position. I can have a muscle cramp start when I am up and active, and stop it quite soon, not so when you are asleep. If there was a ‘magic pill’ against this, I feel it,1) would cost the price of a Harley,2] be not covered in any insurance, &3) give you more side effects than ticks in a Maine Spring.
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