Clenching Syndrome? (like teeth clenching, but with leg muscles instead of jaw muscles)

[ookla]

While I'm asleep, my leg muscles continuously clench all night long. So when I wake up in the morning, my legs are very uncomfortable. All day long, my legs have a deep muscle ache that won't go away. Rubbing them makes the pain go away, but the pain comes right back when I stop rubbing. Does anyone else have this? If so, what do you do for it?

I take tramadol for RLS and it gets rid of my RLS symptoms, but it doesn't stop my leg muscles from clenching all night long. I'm not on any other medications or supplements.

[Lovekie]

Hi OoklaI also suffered those in my leg but not only at night, I'd also have spasms in my arms and legs, I was prescribed gabapentin and it's totally changed my life.

I didn't just have a few, I had them constantly, it was horrendous but I'd never be without gabapentin now ,hope you get helped in finding what works for you.

[ookla in reply to Lovekie]

Lovekie,

Thanks for the reply. I hope you don't mind me asking: How long have you been on gabapentin, what (if any) side effects did/do you have, how many times a day do you take it, and what dose do you take? Also: Did you try anything else before gabapentin and how long did it take for gabapentin to start working (a lot of people have said it takes 3 weeks to kick in). Sorry for all the questions, I didn't think anyone would know what I was talking about. I've had it in my legs for years, but now it's starting to happen to my arms, too. I was thinking about asking my doctor to switch from tramadol to codeine.

[eliz45]

Hi. I do get leg cramps and am not sure if I have RLS but I do experience what you were talking about. Even if I don't get the huge charlie horse spasms, my legs feel creepy like all the muscles are continuing to fire. One thing I do that pretty much gets rid of them during the day is to sit on the floor and do a few floor stretches. Lay on your back, pull your leg to your chest and then raise the leg. Then sit up and do like a runners stretch. As well as you can do it. Basically hamstring stretches. They sort of normalize my legs for the day. Another thing that is helping me a lot is CBD oil. It is pretty expensive, but I use 2 drops under the tongue one hour before I go to bed. That prevents the cramps until about four hours later. Then I take two more in the middle of the night so that gets me 8 hrs of sleep. The only difficult part is you have to keep the drops under your tongue for 60 sec before you swallow, so you can't go right back to bed. What I do is wake up, take the two drops, then empty my bladder and wash my hands and by that time it is past a minute and I can go back to sleep. Hope this helps.

[ookla in reply to eliz45]

Eliz45,

Thank you for the response. It's not cramps or Charlie Horse spasms. It's hard to explain. The clenching isn't painful and doesn't wake me up (I've become aware of it due to other things waking me up, like having to go to the bathroom, and found my leg muscles clenched - thighs, calves). The pain comes the next day from my muscles "working out" all night in my sleep. It's kind of like the same throbbing and aching you'd feel the day after going to the gym and doing a bunch of leg exercises. If you make a "fist" with your toes and squeeze all your leg muscles, that's what my legs are doing in my sleep. The stretching you described is probably a good idea to help with the ache, but I'd really like to find a way to make my legs stop "working out" in my sleep. I think it's probably similar to people who clench their teeth in their sleep, just different muscles?

[SueJohnson]

I would suggest trying the gabapentin like LoveKie suggested.

[ookla in reply to SueJohnson]

SueJohnson,

Thanks for the reply. I knew if you responded that you'd say that. To be honest, I'm kind of scared of gabapentin. I took it years ago for my RLS and it gave me balance problems along with memory problems. Forgetting words and being unable to finish sentences was becoming a big problem for my occupation. And, on the vain side, I gained some weight.

Another issue I have with gabapentin is it takes 3 weeks to kick in. So if you try it and find it doesn't work, you can't just stop taking it or you'll have withdrawal symptoms. And you might not be able to try a different medication while tapering down the gabapentin. So that could be like 8 weeks lost.

☹️

[WideBody]

I get that too. The best I can tell you is slow breathing (Box breathing). Breathe in slowly, count to 5, hold, breathe out slowly, count to 6 (one more than breathing in) hold. Focus....

Sorry, that's what I do. BTW, it doesn't happen anymore since I started Dipyridamole.

[ookla in reply to WideBody]

WideBody,

Thanks for the reply. It happens while I'm asleep, so I wouldn't be able to do any deliberate breathing technique when it happens. Also: It's not an involuntary thing (like a seizure or spasm), it's an unconscious thing. If I wake up in the middle of my legs doing it, I can just stop doing it... but it will start up again after I go back to sleep. So it's not really the muscles doing it on their own. My brain, for some reason, is telling my muscles to do it.

[radair0502]

Ookla… after eight years using tramadol I experienced augmentation and they switched me to hydrocodone. The withdrawal from eight years of tramadol was grueling and lasted 14 months. My advice about tramadol is this… Try not to stay on it very long, if that’s not possible don’t ever stop taking it. After 10 years of hydrocodone and experiencing opiate withdrawal every five hours, they switched me to buprenorphine which worked great. After six years of prayer, my RLS was cured through the grace of God after 20 years of suffering. Please don’t underestimate the power of prayer no matter how long it might take. I just said a prayer for you… God bless and good luck.

[ookla in reply to radair0502]

Radair,

Thanks for replying and thanks for the prayer. I've already been on tramadol for almost six years. I hope all continues to go well for you.