Girls have calf cramps in the middle of the night

Many people must have encountered this situation: they suddenly have calf cramps when they are sleeping late at night. It hurts so much that they can't move their bodies. When they touch their calves, they feel that the leg muscles are a little hard! So what causes calf cramps when sleeping late at night? Could it be caused by catching a cold or lack of calcium? Are calf cramps a sign of calcium deficiency in the human body? Are there other causes of calf cramps? Let’s take a look at who are the culprits both in front of and behind the scenes!

What causes late night calf cramps?

Leg cramps in the feet are actually muscle spasms, which are a spontaneous and forced contraction of the muscles. Muscle cramps in the calves and toes are most common. The pain is unbearable when they occur, especially leg cramps in the middle of the night, which often wake people up in pain. The pain cannot be relieved for a long time, affecting the quality of sleep. Then why does calf cramp occur?

In fact, most calf cramps are related to calcium deficiency. During muscle contraction, sodium ions play a key role. When the calcium ion concentration in the blood is too low, muscles are easily excited and cramped. Teenagers grow up quickly and are prone to calcium deficiency, which often causes leg cramps. But calf cramps are not only caused by calcium deficiency and cold, but also by reasons you never know:

1. Severe cold irritation

Severe cold is the most common direct cause of leg cramps, which can directly stimulate the thigh muscles to contract violently and the blood vessels to contract suddenly. If you have leg cramps when you sleep, why not think about whether you like to kick off the quilt when you fall asleep!

2. Hypocalcemia

If you don't kick off the quilt, you need to supplement calcium and zinc appropriately. Especially the elderly. During muscle contraction, sodium ions play an important role. Because the elderly's protein absorption capacity is weakened and the outflow of high-quality protein is significant, children and pregnant women consume too much calcium due to the body's consumption of high-quality protein. When the calcium ion concentration in the blood is too low, muscles are easily excited and cramped.

3. Sweating a lot

Long fitness time, large amount of strength training, heavy sweating, a lot of loss of body fluid and electrolyte solution such as low calcium, low potassium, low magnesium, a lot of metabolic waste deposition, extracellular fluid disorder, it is also very easy to cause muscle spasms.

4. Weakness, illness, fatigue and aging

Excessive exercise, especially strength training, causes continuous muscle absorption in a short period of time, producing a large amount of metabolic waste in the body. The muscle tension at night is not improved, and the excessive accumulation of acid and alkaline metabolic substances cannot be cleared in time, which can stimulate calf cramps. The elderly are weak and sick, have poor energy and have a decreased metabolic function, which is also one of the reasons.

5. Vascular elements

If you have eliminated all the above factors, don't ignore it, because the most serious ones are usually in the back. Leg cramps may also have a vascular component. It is usually the internal cause of leg cramps. When atherosclerosis occurs in the aorta or venous thrombosis exists, the blood circulation system is blocked, some tissues suffer from ischemic oxygen deficiency, and physiological functions are disrupted, which can cause coldness, numbness and intermittent claudication in the lower limbs. Metabolites cannot be taken away immediately, and when they reach a certain concentration, they will stimulate muscle contraction and cause painful cramps.