Night-time cramps

Ever get cramps in the night? The kind that forces you to jump out of bed to deal with them? I do.  

Mine first started about 20 years ago. Particularly memorable was a night when Dottie and I were visiting her step-mother in Grand Island, NY. In the middle of the night, my feet cramped up.

They were the kind of cramp that points the toes upward and the foot downward.

In both my feet, the cramps were painful and demanded immediate attention. I jumped out of bed and stood up to break the cramps. But they didn’t break.

Don’t ever try to stand on your tippy toes when you’re half asleep. You can’t do it.

Well, I just toppled backward, landed on my behind and crashed into the bedroom wall.

Now, Dottie is a light sleeper, but this would have awakened the dead. She bolted upright from her sleep, completely befuddled. I scrambled to my feet determined to try again.

You know, when cramps are really hard, it takes a bit of time to loosen them. The little time I had to balance on my tippy toes was not enough and I again landed on my bottom and crashed into the wall.

Obviously alarmed, Dottie was shouting, “Earl, what’s going on??!!” Of course, my focus was on those cramps, not having a night-time conversation with my wife.

After two failures, I learned that leaning on the bed while putting weight on my feet was the solution. I’ve used that approach successfully many times since then.

The next morning, Dottie’s step-mother confided that she was grateful we were there because of strange noises she heard during the night.

Over the years since then, I’ve learned a better way to deal with cramps.

Cramps are almost always caused by dehydration or a mineral deficiency, or both.

Now, when I get a middle-of-the-night cramp, I take some water along with one or two capsules of Microhydrin. Microhydrin is rich in minerals and helps the body absorb water. Within 1-2 minutes the cramp is gone and I can complete my night’s sleep without any more cramps. And Dottie can sleep in peace.