Do your muscles feel "tight," especially in the morning? Do you always need to stretch with constant aches and pains in your neck, low back and hips? Do you feel old and stiff with morning fatigue, sleeping problems and many tender spots?

Cramping during sleep is usually due to an exaggeration of a normal muscle reflex. When you turn during sleep, you contract your calf muscles and stretch their tendons. This stimulates nerve stretch receptors in the tendon and sends a message back to the spinal cord, telling the calf muscles to contract. Sometimes, the muscles remain contracted and hurt. Painful muscle cramps at night can also be caused by pinched nerves, a partially-obstructed flow of blood to the legs and abnormal mineral or hormone levels, so if you have this problem, check with your doctor. If you do not have a serious cause, you can often prevent night cramps by exhausting the stretch reflex before you go to bed by stretching your calf muscles with wall pushups/ and applying a heating pad for 10 minutes before you go to sleep.

The only drug that has been shown to be effective in treating night-time leg cramps is quinine, but the Food and Drug Administration has ruled that none of the over-the-counter drugs used to treat night-time leg cramps are recognized as safe or effective and therefore, will be subject to regulatory action. Doctors often prescribe 1 or 2 quinine pills at bedtime, but they can cause birth defects and miscarriages, so they should never be taken by a pregnant woman. They can also cause ringing in the ears, headache, nausea, disturbed vision, chest pain and asthma">