Muscle Cramps and Spasms

I have "Restless Leg Syndrome" the feeling is just horrible. Its even more of a pain in the *** when I'm trying to sleep and I'm getting leg spasms and muscle cramps. There's been a few times where I woke up with a Charlie horse from it. Restless leg's all my life, was told they were just "growing pains" when I was just a boy. It makes it really hard to sleep at night, its like when racing thoughts, anxiety, depression are not keeping me up at night, muscle cramps (painful) and spasms are.

I recently injured a leg muscle bike riding, because I found a good remedy to it was to exercise until my legs hurt, as this would let my body produce enough endorphins to cope through the pain. Since I've been injured I haven't been exercising and my muscles are wasting and the spasms & cramps are getting worse. Also when my anxiety gets really high the spasms get worse. I learned to control the anxiety in my head a lot better now and it seems like I'm seeing more physical symptoms now than mental ones.

My mom has this too and she said the same thing, it drives her nuts when she's trying to sleep. Sometimes when I try to sleep it feels like there's bugs crawling all over my legs, so I might have it to some degree as well. I wish there was something I could say that would help, but nothing mom has tried has worked and the creepy-crawly sensation I get doesn't go away either. I wonder if there is a remedy out there, maybe you could talk to a doctor? They might be able to give you an anti-spasmodic or something to that degree. I know there are medicines out there that are used to treat it, but I don't know anything about them. I read somewhere where massaging your legs might relieve some of the worse symptoms, but I don't know if it would really work or not.

Yeah it sounds like you inherited it to, it runs in my family, both of my parents, all my uncles, cousins have it to. I noticed it wasn't that bad when I was younger and when I stay more active. But when you are disabled for any period of time it tends to get worse. Muscle relaxers do get rid of the cramps, but they aren't a permanent solution when it happens every day/night.

Yeah I think its a good idea to talk to the doctor about it as well, but as of right now I'm uninsured with very little money. Maybe I'll get lucky and get on medicaid because as of now I can't afford no meds and I'm battling life-long depression and anxiety disorders with will power and diet alone. I was taking magnesium which seemed to reduce the frequency and intensity of spasms but the pdoc I'm seeing told me to stop taking all supplements so he can give me some kind of pills. I had a really bad experience with pills before, making everything get worse. So I've already decided to be my own advocate and assert my right to say no. Especially concerning SSRI's which is where the worst experiences of my life comes from. No amount of persuasion will get me to take anything in that class of drugs again.

Home remedies/over the counter help.
What you are describing is nerve pain from restless leg syndrome .
Do you kick right before you sleep/in the middle of the night?
Spasms and cramps can be relieved by over the counter cream/ointments like bengay any menthol cream.Try using a heating pad down by your feet, this will help you relax and promote circulation.(do not use heating pad anywhere near the cream/ointment can cause serious burn!) The cream on the thigh and calf and the heating pad down by your feet.
Talk to your doctor to find the root cause of the nerve pain.
H.

Thanks for the helpful response my friend. Its not really kicking per say, just like the leg muscles jerking/twitching/contracting all involuntary. I know it happens in the middle of the night because a couple times I woke up and witnessed the contractions still happening, I've also had bed partners tell me I kicked them <-- that's how it feels like I sleep sometimes. Constant tossing and turning.

I have noticed if I can manage to stay on my back the circulation gets better and the muscles are less jerky. I also have chronic lower back pain so I prefer sleep on my side. Which I know doesn't help with the circulation any but the back thing is a bummer.

You are so funny!
Yeah I hear you, me too!
We should sleep battle.

Try the heat pad by your feet, this will help and don't sleep in curled up position you have to work extending leg muscles.
Sorry to hear about your back.
Happiedasiy

Sleep battle, that would be intense.

Will do on the heat pad, its been sort of warm out lately so I can just use a thicker sheet around my feet. I noticed a huge improvement in my sleep since I started wearing socks to bed so I'm sure it will help. I never used to wear socks and always slept poorly my whole life.

Socks in bed
on you tube.

I know the weather is warm but get a fan/ac and use the pad. You will gain at least 3 hours of sleep.
I hope you feel better.

Thank you Happie I used to think socks in bed was weird to, I even had an ex girlfriend who absolutely had to wear socks to bed and I thought that was odd, even stranger than the scars all over her legs

But I read during sleep studies patients who wear socks to bed sleep more soundly than their bare foot peers. My feet have always been real sensitive to hot and cold to, so I tried it and I'm now a convert.

I already have the heat pad from when I first started getting back pain. Thanks again for the help.

Let me know how it works out.
Sometimes our pain is so intense, its good to hear someone understands and being able to LAUGH!
The warm heat will
a) take/trick your mind off the constant pain.
B) It will add to blood circulation
c) help your body relax and stay asleep longer.
If it doesn't work there are other things to try also.
Goodnight

You know what they say, laughter is the best medicine if I wasn't in therapy right now things would've just gotten much worse. I was in so much pain when I first started to go to therapy, my level was moderate to severe and I was on no pain pills just "medical" weed. I found a therapist who helps people with addictions, chronic pain and a garden variety of mental disorders using CBT and other techniques. Its completely changed my attitude and the way I look at things. It made the nightmares less intense, less frequent, gave me the courage to stop smoking weed, made so much of the pain go away, I've learned self compassion and compassion for others. It makes me wonder how long I've had the spasms, since weed is anti-spasmodic, analgesic and my main excuse for using it was to calm my anger and reduce my stress/anxiety. Then out of nowhere I started getting acute psychotic symptoms and acute panic reactions from it, so I knew I had to stop.

Post more pointers if ya got 'em, I'm already been doing the following. Eat some Tryptophan containing foods before bed high in protein, nuts, seeds, cheese, yogurt, eggs. Usually sunflower seeds. Wearing socks, going to bed between 10-11pm to give my liver its time to detox, waking up in the morning, eating a balanced breakfast, avoiding caffeine, nicotine and sugar. Keeping the room cool at night, wearing eye covers to block out any light from the city outside, turning the lights off an hour before bed. All this stuff seemed to work when I was also exercising every day, but lately I've been slacking on the exercise due to the injury and my sleep has been suffering because of it.

I discussed some things I felt ashamed about in therapy yesterday and my mind wouldn't stop racing last night, it seemed like it took forever before I fell asleep. Then my sleep cycle was interrupted badly, I woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare wide awake feeling energetic and it took me 3 hours to fall back asleep because my head wouldn't stop replaying the memories back to me. Seems like every time I judge myself this happens, its like who I used to be is my own worst enemy. I became the person I never wanted to be growing up. Now all that is changing so I'm a bit confused.

I find my restless legs occur in cycles. (My SSRI meds also contributed to restless legs and presently other mood stabilizers might be the cause.) When I was young I had charlie horses in hamstrings and calves and shin splints after running. Currently I have night sweats that are unreal. I swim every day and haven't found solution to restless legs.

I know that feeling, the Charlie Horses are the worst. Lately its really been bothering me. I wonder what kind of neurological problem is at the heart of this disease. I was getting night sweats for awhile to before the spasms, my nightmares were so scary I was having panic attacks in my sleep. It seems like when I would go on an 8 mile bike ride the symptoms would get better and I would feel this sense of euphoria that some people call a "runners high" from the endorphins. My legs would ache, I would stretch them out before and after then sleep like a baby on those nights.

I won't take SSRI's because the side effects. For me anyways, were a lot worse than the depression. They made me suicidal, killed my libido, made my anxiety get worse, I couldn't sit still, couldn't sleep, couldn't eat. I ended up throwing the pills away in the trash and terminating treatment from both my psychologist and psychiatrist. Then I had to suffer through intense withdrawals that were worse than the side effects and depression I had before then put together. Then my life turned into the mess it is today.

Yes some side effects from meds are muscles spasms.
Also night sweats is your body trying to balance core temp.
What are the cycles of your restless leg?
Sleep with cotton bedding.
Happiedasiy

I was bothered by leg cramps nearly every night until last year. My
physician prescribed one Aleve (or generic) morning and night; he
also suggested a glass of tonic water (for the quinine) every day. In
addition I take a calcium, magnesium & zinc tablet each day. It took
several months to notice any improvement, but I no longer have leg cramps.