Does Placing a Bar of Soap in Your Bed Combat Leg Cramps? | Snopes.com --> --> Snopes Now available in the app store! Open Log in to activate your ad-free access. It looks like you might have a Snopes membership! Log in to enjoy your ad-free experience. Log In From Snopes You're browsing with fewer ads for the next 24 hours, thanks to our sponsor . Learn more → --> --> Fact Check Does Placing a Bar of Soap in Your Bed Combat Leg Cramps? Old home remedy holds that placing a bar of soap between your bedsheets will help prevent leg cramps. Barbara Mikkelson Published May 25, 2005 Image courtesy of Cat Ellis/Flickr Claim: Placing a bar of soap between your bedsheets will help prevent leg cramps. Rating: Unproven About this rating Many people are plagued by nocturnal leg cramps, those involuntary and agonizing muscle contractions that strike in the depths of the night, waking sleepers with jolts of pain that leave them awash in waves of suffering until the kinks finally relax. While many possible causes have been posited for these contractions, those afflicted by them are far more concerned with getting rid of these debilitating cramps than they are with understanding their origin. Over the years, many preventions have been suggested, including: Stretching one's calf muscles prior to going to bed. Swearing off caffeine in the evening. Increasing one's intake of potassium, magnesium, calcium or Vitamin E. Sleeping on one's back with toes pointed towards the ceiling. Increasing one's intake of water during the day. Taking quinine (now available only by prescription) or drinking tonic water (which contains small amounts of quinine). It needs be noted that in 2010 the FDA strongly cautioned consumers against using quinine to combat leg cramps because the drug can cause severe side effects, including death. While all of the above have been said to avert the problem in at least some cases, one further suppression trick appears to work, at least according to anecdotal info