Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Full body spasms while laying down?

Posting again so soon...
Does anyone else experience full body spasms when they are laying down? It feels like the jerky moments are coming from the lower back area? My doctor couldnt specify whether this was directly related to the AS..

Hi again Jennyfaaa - I cannot lye down flat ! Am like to a beached whale... The pain is indescribable. I need help to get upright. MRIs are fun, not ! I have to take pain meds for getting into and getting out of. Especially bad if doing a long MRI scan. That can take two people to get me upright again.

I have retrolisthesis, osteophytes and fusing in the spine. All good stuff... But, we Keep on Keeping on -

Molly C

Hi,Hope you are doing ok.
A lot of weird symptoms I have had in the past were all due to a side effect of a medication I was taking. It took me years to figure it out since I thought it was the disease(which it can be ). But since it happened to me a few too many times, I thought I would offer it as an option to what you are describing.

I had anemia from a medication and once I was off my anemia went away and stayed away.

Hi Jenny, I have had really bad leg spasms, only when lying down. If I take magnesium chelate before bed it goes away. I'm also anaemic so im pretty sure it's either not enough oxygen to the legs due to anaemia or low magnesium.

The best explanation I heard about such spasms was from a physiotherapist. She said that when the body experiences pain such as the pain of A.S. the body goes into a sort of muscle spasm around the area of the pain. This is the body's natural way of protecting an injury. So the brain feels the pain and then brings on the muscle spasm to protect wherever the pain is.

Now when we go to bed at night we naturally try to relax so as to hopefully get some sleep. The muscles are however so tightly spasmed that they can't relax in the natural way. So they just go into a sort of jerk like spasum that relaxes them instantly and not in the slow way that a muscle would usually relax before sleep.

I used to get such painful muscle spasms myself at one time. Thankfully now that my A.S. is under better control I only very rarely get this problem. As for an answer to it all, well to be honest I never did really find a proper answer. I used to dread going to bed at night and would take extra painkillers just to try and get a bit of relief. The answer is I think to try and not get to much stressed by pain in the evening before going to bed. There are probably some relaxation exercises that if done before going to bed might help. The thing is to find and learn the right exercises. I would suggest you see a physiotherapist and see what she/he has to say about this. I even wonder if your doctor could prescribe some muscle relaxant that may help.

Thank youuu!!!!