Leg Pain When I Wake Up
Waking up with aching legs – Waking up with aching legs can be causes by lifestyle factors – for example, long periods of walking or standing the previous day can leave legs sore. Poor sleep can also contribute to leg ache, as our bodies need a good night’s sleep to recover from any muscle soreness.
Another possible cause of painful legs is poor circulation. While some medical conditions such as diabetes can lead to poor circulation, lifestyle factors such as sitting or lying in the same position all day can also contribute. If you have varicose veins, you might find you get experience leg pain and itching.
Varicose veins are caused by veins and valves that are too weak to efficiently and effectively pump blood through them, which can lead to these symptoms.
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What helps leg pain after waking up?
Home Remedies For Leg Pain and Cramps – Various leg pain relief techniques can help ease your discomfort when a muscle cramp strikes, including 2 :
Stretching – straighten your leg and flex your foot to stretch out any cramping muscles Massage – using your hands or a foam roller, massage any knots in the muscles to help them relax Movement – get out of bed and press your feet against the floor, or walk around the room to aid muscle movement and blood circulation Applying a cold or hot press – try using a heating pad or ice pack on the painful area of your leg to ease the discomfort. Just be careful not to burn your skin. Over-the-counter pain relief – TYLENOL® PM Extra Strength Nighttime Pain Reliever & Sleep Aid contains 500mg acetaminophen, which can provide temporary leg pain relief, and help with falling asleep.
OTC medication can also help if you’re suffering from back pain at night too.
Why does my leg hurt from sleeping?
Musculoskeletal pain – 1. Cramps When your muscles are fatigued, certain body movements can trigger cramps. If you’re experiencing cramps at night, this could be from restlessness and turning over in bed. This triggers the muscle causing it to cramp. Interestingly, they can also be caused by a lack of movement, specifically if you hold a position for a long period of time.
Dehydration and a lack of salts in your body fluids are also common causes of cramps. If you’re exercising and using all of the water sources in your body, this can change the salt levels in your fluids. This change in levels results in altered signals sent between the nerves and muscles, causing your muscles to twitch or cramp.
13 Reasons Why You Are Waking Up With Pain. How to Stop.
To avoid this, we suggest making an active effort to keep hydrated and well fed. We may also recommend magnesium supplements, however this is only after our podiatrist has assessed your issue and medical history.2. Inflammation of muscles/tendons You may experience pain and inflammation in your muscles and tendons during the night as these muscles are healing while you sleep, especially if you have an injury.
- However it is not a common symptom of injury pain and may indicate a greater severity of the injury or problem at hand.
- Hence it is important that if this is happening to you to seek professional advice.
- A couple of at-home treatments you could try initially include anti-inflammatory medication (if you can take it), making sure you find a comfortable position while sleeping, and applying cold or heat packs to help reduce your symptoms.
Please be careful in regards to heat and ice burns. 3. Bone Fracture Common symptoms you may experience are aching pain in the bone which is present during both the day and night. If it is a bone fracture, your pain typically doesn’t settle when you’re at rest, unlike, when pain is primarily felt during weight-bearing exercise and only occasionally occurs at night.
- Bone fractures generally occur as a result of a single incident, meaning you can probably pinpoint the exact time where it occurred, such as from a heavy knock, or if the bone was exposed to a high load from a major fall etc.
- It will often feel like the bone itself is sore instead of the surrounding muscles, and you can often pinpoint the exact sore spot.
Anti-inflammatory medications and resting in a comfortable position can help to ease your pain, however your body’s pain is signalling to you that something isn’t quite right. Therefore, if you suspect a bone fracture, you should get it investigated by a medical professional as soon as possible to prevent any serious future complications.
How should I sleep to avoid leg pain?
How can I stop leg pain at night? – Sleep is restorative, so it’s important that you get enough of it, And that starts with getting rid of disruptions. There’s little you can do to block out the lights and sounds of a Des Moines night, but leg pain is one disruption you can control. There are several things you can do to ease the nightly aches from varicose veins to catch some Zs:
Elevate your feet. Put a pillow or folded blanket underneath your mattress. Nothing bulky, just enough to raise the foot-end of your bed three or four inches. This helps relieve the pressure on the veins in your legs and lets gravity pick up the slack in getting blood back to your heart. Ease into the evening. Many people are active up until the moment they jump in bed. Start winding down earlier in the evening. Put your legs up and relax so that your veins can calm down before you call it a night. A little leg massage can also help the circulation in your legs and prevent pain later on. Do some yoga. Exercise is not encouraged too close to bedtime because it will keep you up — even though it’s the best thing for your veins, But gentle stretching and yoga can help you relax and improve blood flow. Drink plenty of water. Hydration is key to healthy circulation. But don’t drink it all right before you lie down — that will lead to other sleep disruptions. Just make sure you’re properly hydrated all throughout the day.
Easing the pain may be enough to solve your sleep issues. But if your problems persist, there are many other options that can get to the root of the problem. Varicose veins are often permanent, making the leg pain when you’re sleeping permanent as well. Varicose vein removal ranges from treatments using heat energy to minimally invasive surgery.
Why do my legs feel tight when I wake up in the morning?
Why you feel stiff – Most of the time, that tight feeling when you wake up is a result of overnight changes to the lubrication in two different features of the body: the joints and the fascia. The fascia is a complex group of connective tissues that surround and support the muscles, soft tissues, organs and bones.
Think of fascia as a fibrous web that wraps around and through muscle tissue to give it structure and stability. It forms multiple layers, with a gel-like lubricant in between that allows the layers to slide and glide smoothly, and which helps you to feel loose and limber, said Dr. Antonio Stecco, a fascia researcher and professor of rehabilitation medicine at New York University.
In certain situations — like when your body temperature drops, when you’ve been still for an extended time, or when lactic acid builds up in the muscles and fascia during intense exercise — the lubricant becomes thicker and more viscous and the layers of fascia can’t glide as easily, leading to feelings of stiffness.
When you sleep, many of those thickening situations occur: you’re usually still for a long time (say, eight hours) and your body temperature tends to drop. Your joints may also contribute to feeling stiff in the morning. In healthy joints, a thick fluid lubricates the space between the ends of your bones, which are capped with cartilage, to help them move freely and comfortably.
Whenever you’re still for a long period of time (like when you’re sleeping), the cartilage sucks up the lubricant like a sponge, Dr. Capetta said, making your joints feel creaky.
Why are my legs so stiff in the morning?
Why You Wake Up Stiff and Achy Wednesday, 16 March 2022, 10:43PM(UTC) Source: The Body’s Natural Ibuprofen Scientists have discovered that we wake up stiff and achy because our body’s natural ibuprofen has not kicked in yet. As day darkens into night, the in joint tissue suppress inflammation and also the body’s production of anti-inflammatory proteins, our natural pain-dampeners.
- British researchers say that these findings may eventually lead to new treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.
- 10 Ways to Reduce Morning Body Pain
- While waking up stiff and sore is common for just about anyone, it can be especially painful for people with recent injuries or arthritis, fibromyalgia, or other inflammatory conditions; those recovering from a recent surgical procedure; athletes after a hard training day; or just plain ordinary folks who have spent hours shoveling snow or garden compost.
- While you can’t reverse the effects of joint aging, you can reduce the severity of morning stiffness with these tips:
- Don’t sleep on a worn-out mattress and/or pillow—or one that doesn’t provide the right level of support for the neck and spine.
- Try a new sleeping position. Sleeping on your stomach may contribute to morning pain. Try sleeping on your back or side with a pillow under your knees.
- Avoid sleeping in a too-cold environment.
- Find ways to be more active during the day. Movement lubricates joints. Exercise and yoga relieve inflammation by increasing blood flow to your muscles. Aim for 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
- Be careful not to overtrain (working beyond your limits or strength and/or endurance).
- Watch for poor posture, especially while performing daytime tasks. Change your positions if you are sitting at a desk.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Improve a poor diet. Avoid foods that cause inflammation (often dairy, wheat, sugary foods), especially before bed, and aim to eat a diet with more veggies, fruits, whole grains, and seafood.
- Look for ways to reduce physical or emotional stress that results in chronically tightened muscles and tendons. Consider mindfulness meditation which has been clinically shown to change the way your brain processes pain. How to meditate? Begin by focusing on breathing. Start with a minute and build up to more time. If your attention wanders, return your focus to your breathing.
- Do not smoke cigarettes! Amongst all its many health evils, cigarettes are linked to poor pain relief. Smoking prevents oxygenated blood from reaching bones and tissues. And it limits the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood, making the blood quality lower.
5 Tips for a Better Morning
- Working up from your toes, contract, wiggle, and stretch every part of your body while you’re still lying in bed. This gives your muscles a chance to warm up before jumping into action for the day.
- Move slowly and stretch after you stand up.
- If you can, get into a warm tub or shower to loosen up and soothe the overnight aches.
- Of course, if you take pain medication, ask your doctor about rescheduling and/or altering the dose.
- Take a vitamin D supplement.
: Why You Wake Up Stiff and Achy
