ouch!

It's about 2:30 am. I wake up with a cramp in a calf.

I'm instantly awake. Shifting my leg, carefully. Shifting my body, carefully. Making the moves to minimise the pain. To prevent the full-blown agony of a rock-hard knot in the muscle. Luckily I'm an expert at this :-)

I get the muscle down to a dull ache. I'm able to shuffle -- carefully -- to the bathroom for a drink of water, essential in cramp fix and prevention. Back to bed...

Still a dull but threatening ache. Can't relax. I get up, decide I may as well go downstairs... carefully :-)

I make a cup of tea, may as well enjoy this. Tea is still too hot to drink so I drink more water. And eat salted peanuts with extra salt, salt is the other cramp-fixer.

Since taking up running -- quite a few years ago now! -- I've learnt a lot about cramp. Including this: A cramp is more likely on a day that starts with a run (yes, today) and which then involves a lot of sitting around (today, tick).

I should have seen it coming and drunk a lot more water on my way to bed.

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No matter how much -- or how little -- I drink before bed -- I get up every hour or so to pee. I blame the dex. Why not?! I also blame the dex -- possibly with more cause -- for my ability to fart from one end of the house to the next. Quite satisfying, really.

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I also blame the dex for restless sleeping.

I'll sleep for a couple of hours -- or eight -- then wake up restless. Sometimes I'll get back to sleep. Sometimes I'll get up, go downstairs, do ... something. Something such as, drink tea to relax. Post to the blog, to get whatever -- eg a cramp! -- off my mind. Rub and shake my calf muscle, be sure that it has finished with cramping.

Then back to bed again, for more sleep... maybe.

A benefit of not working, of having few time commitments: I can sleep when I want. Catch up on sleep, later, or not. Do what I want... when I want... when I'm ready to do it.

It's not insomnia. I'm fitting my activities to match when I happen to be awake. And sleeping... when I happen to be asleep :-)

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
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There are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters... Boris Johnson