Are you finding it hard to sleep due to ankle pain at night? If you haven’t sprained your ankle recently, you may wonder why your ankles suddenly feel achy at night.
This type of pain is quite common. According to studies by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, around 11.6% to 43.7% complain of ankle pain, with a significant number experiencing it at night.
In this article, we learn more about ankle pain at night and the treatment options available from a foot and ankle specialist.
Causes of Nighttime Foot Pain
Nocturnal ankle discomfort can be a result of a condition or activity during the day that causes pain, including the following:
- Wearing unsupportive shoes
- Ankle injuries
- Medical issues
Here are some reasons you may be experiencing ankle aches during sleep.
Doing Too Much During the Day
When you’re more active during the day or spend most of your time standing, you build up more irritation and fatigue in some tendons or muscles, leading to ankle pain in the evening. This strain can also worsen pain from arthritis or Achilles tendinitis.
Ankle Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis causes the cartilage to become damaged or worn out and affects any joint in your body, including the ankle. It’s mainly caused by inactivity during the day, which leads to less blood circulation to your ankle joints.
Ankle osteoarthritis stiffens your ankle joints, thus becoming more painful, especially at night.
Unsupportive Shoes
Spending your day in high-heels, flimsy footwear, or worn-out shoes will likely cause nighttime foot pain. The lack of support stresses your ankles, especially if you spend much of your day standing.
Muscle Weakness
Your joints are more likely to experience pressure as you move if the muscles around your ankle are weak. As a result, your ankles may roll outward or inward when you’re standing still.
Lack of adequate muscular support can cause the ligaments, tendons, and muscles around the ankle to become irritated during the day, leading to pain at night.
Peripheral Neuropathy
This condition causes damage to the nerves located outside the brain and spinal cord. According to AAFP Foundation, peripheral neuropathy affects about 1-7% of the general population.
This condition causes a sensation of pins and needles in your ankle. It can also lead to burning pains in your ankle joints.
Ankle Bursitis
Bursitis occurs when the tiny sacs of fluid that lubricate and cushion your joints become inflamed. This can be caused by repetitive stress and acute injury. Ankle bursitis most frequently affects the heels or the area where the foot meets the ankle.
Treatments Options from a Foot and Ankle Specialist
A foot and ankle specialist may recommend expert foot care tips to relieve night ankle pain. Depending on the cause of the pain, you may require nonsurgical or surgical ankle treatments.
Nonsurgical Ankle Treatments
Nocturnal ankle discomfort can be treated with either nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, ankle bracing, or the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) method. When these don’t work, your foot and ankle specialist may opt for nonsurgical treatments, including the following:
Physical Therapy
Physical therapists help you prevent ankle instability, increase your ankle strength, and avoid stiffness. They work closely with specialists to develop a personalized activity and sport-specific therapy plan to strengthen the tendons and muscles of your ankles and improve your mobility.
Your plan may include agility and endurance exercises, balance training, water exercises, and resistance exercises.
Injections
ACL surgeons may recommend steroid injections to reduce inflammation and pain and enhance ankle joint mobility. Additionally, other types of injections use the cells in your body to regenerate injured and torn tendons and ligaments in the ankle joint. These injections shorten the healing time and may eliminate the need for ankle surgery.
Surgical Ankle Treatments
Your sports medicine specialist may recommend ankle surgery in case of chronic ankle pain and persistent ankle instability that hasn’t improved after months of nonsurgical treatment.
Ankle surgery helps clean the joint or reconstruct and repair torn ligaments. There are various methods of ankle surgery, including the following:
Ankle Arthroscopy
During this procedure, a hip replacement surgeon inserts an arthroscope into your ankle joint through tiny incisions. Through ankle arthroscopy, your surgeon gets a clear view of your joint, cleans scar tissue and chipped bones, and reconstructs or repairs torn or stretched ankle tissues.
Ankle Fusion
Also known as ankle arthrodesis, ankle fusion works for people with severe arthritis who don’t qualify for ankle replacement surgery.
An ACL surgeon fuses the two bones below the ankle joint during ankle fusion to reinforce the ankle and reduce instability. This procedure is long-lasting and relieves pain, thus restoring some function.
Anke Replacement Surgery
This surgery is also referred to as total ankle replacement or ankle arthroplasty. It’s recommended for people with damaged ankle joints and severe ankle arthritis.
During ankle replacement surgery, the sports medicine specialist uses a plastic or mental ankle replant to replace the diseased ankle joint. This kind of surgery restores the normal functioning of the ankle and reduces pain.
When to Contact a Sports Medicine Specialist
If you’re experiencing sudden ankle pain at night without injury, you should consider seeking treatment from a foot and ankle specialist. Further, seek medical help if you have any of the following symptoms:
- Ankle pain that makes you feel nauseous or faint
- Loss of sensation or tingling in the foot
- Pain that doesn’t go away in two weeks
- The ankle appears to be at an odd angle or has changed shape
Get Treatment for Your Ankle Pain at Night With Elite Sports Medicine + Orthopedics
The ankle is one of your body’s most hard-working and complex parts. Factors such as strenuous physical activity, wearing unsupportive shoes, osteoarthritis, and muscle weakness can all lead to ankle pain at night. It’s essential to seek help from a foot and ankle specialist to get to the root cause of your pain.
Elite Sports Medicine + Orthopedics provides integrative care for people with disability and musculoskeletal pain. We have subspecialized orthopedists trained to treat top athletes and everyone in general.
Contact us if you’re looking for surgical knee replacement and to get expert solutions to your ankle pain.
Author: writers-amwn
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