Fatigue
Overusing your muscles and exercising intensely can lead to fatigue, which can increase the likelihood of experiencing leg cramps. As you can see, a lot of these causes are interconnected. In the words of Dr. Miranda-Comas, “physiologically, when the muscle is fatigued, it’s not as synchronized in using nutrients”. In simpler terms, the more tired your muscles are, the more nutrients they lose. Knowing this, we can’t be too surprised that experiencing leg cramps at night are common.
Explaining this link, Dr. Sontag states that “although there is no one definitive cause [of nighttime leg cramps], they are likely associated with muscle fatigue and nerve dysfunction. There’s also new research to suggest athletes that underwent higher-than-normal-intensity exercise had an increase in the incidence of nocturnal leg cramps.”
