Food is more than pleasure -- it is essentially fuel for your body. Every component of your food is necessary in some respect, and allowing yourself to become deficient in even the most minor nutrient can have devastating effects. Night tremors can be caused by certain deficiencies, although that is rare. Fortunately, those deficiencies are easy to fix. The key is to discover the cause of the deficiency, which must be fixed before any treatment can be successful.
Night Tremors
Night tremors are more accurately known as static tremors -- they don't necessarily happen at night, but when your body is at rest. It is not unusual to notice them more at night when you are trying to fall asleep. Static tremors can sometimes stop when you move the affected body part, so people who tend to fidget instead of sitting still may not notice the tremors during the day. Static tremors can be caused by many things, and only your doctor can tell you definitively what's wrong in your particular case. But, ruling out nutritional deficiencies can be a good first step.
Low Blood Sugar
Tremors are caused by neurological problems -- be they trauma, disease or nutritional deficiency, the end result is that different parts of the brain fail to communicate appropriately, resulting in uncontrollable movements. The biggest and most easily overlooked nutritional cause of tremors is low blood sugar. Instead of a particular deficiency, it is a deficiency of nourishment in general. It can happen at bedtime if dinner was skipped, which leads you to believe yourself suffering from night tremors. In reality, you are experiencing hypoglycemia, which you can easily relieve by eating a simple carbohydrate like fruit or sugar. To prevent future occurrences, eat a small snack a couple of hours before bed.
Vitamins
Many vitamins play important roles in neurological function, and a deficiency can cause tremors and other similar effects such as difficulty with certain movements and fine motor control. Vitamin E and the B vitamins are the major players in this arena, and fortunately, they are all found in common foods. Wheat germ is the best source of vitamin E, but you also get it from eggs, vegetable oils, green leafy vegetables and nuts. B vitamins are abundant in animal products, especially red meat, fish and poultry. Multivitamins also provide enough of both vitamins to prevent a deficiency, but the deficiency may not be at the core of the problem.
Malabsorption
Tremors caused by nutrient deficiency alone are uncommon because the vitamins involved are so abundant in Western food sources that a deficiency is unlikely except in cases of starvation. Most deficiencies are caused by malabsorption -- in other words, you're eating enough and possibly even taking multivitamins, but your body cannot absorb the nutrients because of some underlying condition. No matter what you eat or what supplements you take, the problem cannot be solved until the malabsorption is addressed. Consult your doctor for a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan.
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