i know what you mean with the leg cramps...they can be killers especially at night. well, youve got problems on both ends of your spine so just from the disks youre going to have problems. based on my experience...and my problems are on both ends also...rest is the key. some how you have to take some frequent breaks and give the body a little rest. if you sit a lot get up frequently and change position.
are you doing any stretching?
what has your dr told you about the best way to treat you back and neck problem?

seem to happen more with spinal patients. I cant tell you how many times in the past 30 years I would wake up in the middle of the night and my calf or toes would go into serious time spasms. I would try to get out of bed to walk it of... I did that, but when I came back into bed and move, the spasms would start again.
Over the years I have learned about several things you can do to minimize these problems
- Exercise and Stretching. That will help your muscles. We must all realize that with Spinal Problems, our muscles tend to do more of the work.
- Eating habits. When you eat, what time you go to bed etc. I was told that eating foods high in potassium (ie bananas) would help reduce those spasms. I cant say that really worked for me.
- Restless Leg Syndrome. Some of the effects of RLS is muscle spasms

My muscle cramps are the result of permanent nerve damage to my spinal nerve roots. Decreased blood supply to the nerve roots causes the cramping in my legs and toes(google neuroclaudication or pseudoclaudication.) Usually rest and a heating pad on my back helps.

It could be also be other things. If you have high cholesterol or coronary artery disease, you could have cramping from arterial insufficiency. Like Ron said, restless leg syndrome or altered potassium levels. If it was in one leg only, one might be suspicious of a blood clot.

Most important is to talk it over with your doctor. In the meantime, you could try heating pad to the back or heating pad to calves/toes when it occurs, too, to see if any of the mentioned measures help. If your spine doc doesn't think it's spine related, see your primary doctor about it.

I first had sciatica three years ago (mis diagnosed, I now believe, as piriformis syndrome). Since then I have suffered awful leg cramp only in the affected side. I asked my gp and physio and they both said it was not related to the sciatica. I have to admit I never believed them! Since my sciatica reoccured this april I have been looking at all these forums and it seems that it is a common complaint when you have a slipped disc so it was related all along.
My calf would go solid like a brick and would stay that way for 10 min or so. This, of course, made me scream. My husband, sympathetic as always, would go "oh its only cramp thank god!" and would go back to sleep. I think he thought my back had gone again each time. My leg would then be painful for a good day or so.
I also had it go once in the swimming pool and my foot stuck out sideways for 10 minutes!
Also my calf sort of twitches most of the time. If you put your hand on it you can feel it moving under the skin. This has been the case for the last three years.
Mine cramps at night and also when swimming. I combatted the swimming cramp by working up my distance gradually and stopping to stretch the calf every 5 minutes or so, then I would do 10 minutes. Just before my back went again I had got so that I could do 20 minutes plus without stretching. I was swimming an hour a day by the time the pain came back. Now I have to start all over again!
I have read (about and tried) sleeping with my foot at right angles to my leg (ie not pointed) and this does help. That means I lie on my front with my foot over the side or the end of the bed. It has helped a lot but is not that comfortable. In fact, until my back went again, I had pretty much stopped getting the night cramps unless I had done some aerobics or the like which involved a lot of bouncing using the lower leg.
Pregnant women are advised to drink tonic water containing quinine to combat leg cramps - I wonder if this would help?
I asked my ortho sugeon about it and he confirmed that it is a symptom of the herniated disc.
The cramps have now returned, although most of my leg pain has gone now. I wonder if it is part of the healing process or if my nerve is permanently damaged now given that I had been having these cramps for three years.

Yes, the leg cramps are related to the herniated disc. I had a large L5-S1 herniation and many times I would wake up in the night with the horrible leg cramp in the calf. Made me sit straight up in bed and want to scream. Had to try and stretch it or walk it off to make it go away. Usually took about 10 minutes or so. It has happened only a couple of times since my discectomy 8 months ago, and that could have been part of the healing process of the crushed nerves.