I have a few questions for people on here that have RLS. I am trying to decide how many of these are common. Or am I just a freak?
Does your RLS come and go over time? I can go 3 months and not have any problems and then it will be with me every night for a month. It tends to come and go in big blocks of time.
Years ago I used to have the strong urge to move my legs. I remember getting up and doing squats in the middle of the night. By now, the urges are gone. My legs just jerk involuntarily. No urge, just surprise! Jerk…one minute…Jerk…
My neck got jealous and said it wanted some action as well. Jerks to the left, but only at night of course. Anyone else have that?
Heat does make mine worse. Sometime if my RLS is not very bad I can stand in front of a fan and cool my body (and legs) down enough that the RLS will go away.
My go-to medicine was ibuprofen. If I take two of those, my legs will stop in about 25 minutes. I just don’t like taking them every single night. I know it is not good long term.
My doctor prescribed me Ropinirole (trade names Requip, Repreve, Ronirol, Adartrel), but it keeps me awake in the middle of the night. My leg is fine, but I am AWAKE. I sometimes combine it with Melatonin just so I can sleep.
I have tried just about all of the non-medicine solutions (no caffeine, vitamins, don’t exercise late in the day, soap in the bed [just for laughs]). They didn’t fix it. Anyone else have any real medicines that work for you besides Ibuprofen and Ropinirole?
Of course, I will talk to my doc about it when I come around for my annual physical.
Do you take any antihistamines? Benadryl does something to me and makes my legs jerky and ache-y. I know some people use it for a sleep aid.
I agree heat will make it worse.
My legs used to jerk a lot at nigh, but I’m not sure this qualifies as restless leg syndrome. It used to wake my wife up - in fact when we were living in California she would sometimes wake up at night thinking there was a minor earthquake when it was just my legs twitching in my sleep. For whatever reason, it seems to have decreased in frequency with age.
My feet won’t keep still in the daytime. When I’m sitting or reclining, my feet are constantly jiggling, from side to side and up-down. If I think about keeping them still, I can, but the minute I’m thinking about something else, there they go. I’ve worn through the leather on the foot end of my recliner.
Yep, it comes and goes, although it pops up more frequently the older I get. (It first started when I was eleven, and I didn’t know what it was for years). Sometimes I get it in my arms too.
The only thing that helps are sports creams, like Ben Gay or Icy-Hot. The only problem is, I have pets, and if that gets on them, it’s poison to them. Sooooo, I can’t use it anymore.
I’ve heard that drinking pickle juice can help with RLS. I decided to google that and came across a creepy website that before you click it’s got a blurb about Restless Leg Syndrome and pickle juice but when you click it sounds like some vaguely threatening speech in a foreign language. It was on healthy food team dot com.
I backed out of that link and headed down the list of other websites. I saw a thread on a skeptic site and basically some people swear by it buy skeptics think it’s more of a placebo.
The next time I get it (Benadryl can do it to me) I’ll have to see if just getting up and walking around will work to stop it. And then the next time after that see if drinking some juice before bedtime staves it off (sometimes I can it’s going to happen just because my legs get kind of jumpy around bedtime).
I hope my experience will be helpful for you. RLS started out as compulsion to move legs but eventually became the dramatic kick-twitches you describe, though my condition doesn’t disappear for months at a time as yours does I went to a sleep clinic, and the results showed I have periodic limb movement disorder. The odd thing is that it doesn’t occur only during sleep but also in the hour or so before I go to bed.
I’ve been on Requip for years, and it does help keep the PLMD at bay. There’s help out there, so don’t give up. Here’s a good article on it.
That sounds about as quality as the “soap bar in your sheets” thing. I was exasperated enough to try the soap once. My wife laughed at me and kept saying it wasn’t going to work. I replied “How is the placebo effect supposed to work if you convince me it won’t work?! You are not helping!”
IANADoctor and I personally don’t have RLS. What I can say is that, as part of business stuff, I have researched retail clinical networks related to Varicose Vein Care. Those doctors assert that RLS is often related to deep varicose vein issues - not the stuff on the surface that can be seen, but with the medium-sized veins deeper in the legs. And if those issues are treated - they have a few ways to shut down the offending vein juncture - RLS can be reduced or eliminated.
If this sounds of interest to you, I am sure if you Googled RLS Vein Treatment you will get more info. Unfortunately it appears that EVERY doctor claims that they can treat this, so you would do well to check with your doctor first.
