Please share your experiences, successes, and failures in using non-drug therapies for RLS/WED (methods of relief that don't involve swallowing or injecting anything), including compression, heat, light, stretches, acupuncture, etc. Also under this heading, medical interventions that don't involve the administration of a medicine to the body (eg. varicose-vein operations, deep-brain stimulation). [This forum contains Topics started prior to 2009 that deal with Non-prescription Medicines, Supplements, & Diet.]
Hi,
I'm back (not exactly new) to the Board.
My RLS is getting worse but I'm trying to avoid presecription drugs. I went through a sleep clinic and Mirapex or Requip are the only things the physicians offered me for relief.
I've done quite a bit of research (thanks to he RLS Foundation) and I'm trying to stay up and active through the time my RLS usually strikes. This means I'm going to bed at 1:30 AM and getting up at 9:30 AM.
Anyone else ever tried this?
-Madalyn
I have thought for sometime if I could go back in time that I'd find a job/career that I could work third shift! When one is able to adjust their wake/sleep schedule it may be helpful for those without 24/7 RLS.
Are you finding that it is helpful for you? How long have you maintained this routine?
Looking forward to hearing more, Hazel
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation.
Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell. --W H Auden
Hi Hazel,
I'm just starting, so I'm not sure how this will go. I work for myself and can set my own hours (lucky me). I have to develop the habit of staying up later and being active which should take about 2 weeks.
I worked the 3 to 11 PM shift years ago and would get home around midnight, going to bed at 1 or 2 AM. I rarely had restless legs! That's what gave me the idea.
I've read that it's the dopamine level that's the problem and it normally drops at night but in those of us with RLS, it drops too much. If we get thru that period of low dopamine, we're OK.
In Ann's notes from last years conference there was discussion on the cyclical production of dopamine... ours is later in the evening opposed to *normals* which is usually before 10pm - seemed to fit into my RLS description... my production seems timed to be around 2-3am signalling sleep and feel best if I can wake up late morning 9am or so and feel more rested...
You can find more on this by doing a search for conference 2005 notes.
I do not spring out of bed at 6am... no no springs on these feet ... and once I turned 50 the stamina deminished, probably was deminishing for years before the crash and the rls worsened... not certain how much is related to the body just deterioriating, hormonal changes, etc.
For years I seldom went to bed *early* usually working on something late into the night... remodeling the house, ripping out carpet, painting, etc as I just couldn't sleep... so I do think that there is something to this.
However, re-setting my circadian rhythm would not work for me... there are therapies where they try this... I don't think it is possible for me to achieve that. Last few nights, no matter with Ambien cr I still can not fall asleep before 2-3am... ughhhhhhhhhh
I think living within my body's own rhythm would allow me to live without the use of most of the medication I take now. That is why even though I could work in this position for say another 10 years, it is my preference to retire as soon as I am able, adjust my routine to my ole body's cycle, find volunteer work, part time job and other projects to fit within my bodys schedule instead of the other way around!
Might live a little longer doing this!
I am so glad that you have the opportunity to do this! Hopefully you will find things improving vastly!
**************Positive Energy**************
Hazel
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation.
Music can be made anywhere, is invisible and does not smell. --W H Auden
Simcha wrote:I've done quite a bit of research (thanks to he RLS Foundation) and I'm trying to stay up and active through the time my RLS usually strikes. This means I'm going to bed at 1:30 AM and getting up at 9:30 AM. Anyone else ever tried this?
I've always preferred to sleep from 2-3am to 10-11am. I work from 12-8pm. I've never thought about it, but that strong preference may be related to my RLS. Or, heck, maybe it's the other way around. Hard to say.
No, I really think there's something to this. I've always been a night owl - wonder how many other RLS people feel better at night and sluggish in the morning?
You know I've always been a night owl and typically go to bed at 1:00-2:00am and then sleep till 10:00-11:00. Well I just saw a new Neuro and he told me I have the sleep disorder trifecta: PLMD (without much daytime RLS), Sleep Apnea and Delayed Sleep Phase. My previous doctor only diagnosed the PLMD and Apnea.
To treat the Delayed Sleep Phase (so I can get to the office on time) he told me to expose myself to bright light for an hour (a light box or sunlight) first thing in the morning after I get up (at whatever time I want to establish as my wakeup time). He emphasised that there could be NO delay in getting to the light after I wake and my waking time must not vary (no sleeping in on weekends). Additionally he said I should limit my exposure to light at night by turning down the lights and wearing sunglasses while watching TV or using the computer.
Well I started the routine a few days ago and WOW! My mild depression is gone, I feel alert during the day and my PLMD is feeling better (I take Requip as well). One top of it I've been getting up at 7:00am! This started me thinking that maybe light therapy could reset not only our circadian clock, but maybe fix the dopamine cycle probems with RLS?
Anway, the difference is like night and day (pun intended) so I'm terified that it will stop working and I'll be back to my yawning foggy old self.
Adventuregeek, good for you! I know there's a connection between dopamine and circadium rhythm and I'm sure some issues with RLS can be treated by adjusting them!
My system works for me because my job does not require early morning functioning (I've adjusted my lifestyle over the years to accomodate my RLS).
So far, my adjustment in sleep time has decreased my RLS by about 50% and I'm sticking with it.
Adventuregeek - continued...
I'm doing the same thing as your doc ordered in that I'm going to bed so late, I have hours of dim light before sleep. My alarm is 9:30 AM and have natural sunlight in my bedroom, so I'm getting bright light first thing when I wake up.
Thought I might try to revive this thread with a question or two. 1st I wonder how those of you who have tried to change your "rhythm" are doing?
Other than my early use of Sinement and the Klonopin to help me sleep, a common thread with most medications I have taken is insomnia. Currently trying Neurontin which seems to help notably with my PLM, at least for now. But, no sleep despite having recently tried Roserem and all the others (Lunesta, Ambien etc.) along the way. Like others, all things being equal in the rls/PLM department, I seem to get some sleep beginning about 6:30 am or so but sometime still the sleep is still restless or fleeting--but sleep it is and it seems to satisfy the body. Sometime, and I wonder if others have experienced this, the shift from insomnia/rls/PLM is very dramatic. In the last few months, about a half dozen times or so, as I was lying in bed trying to sleep in the late morning, it was as if a switch was turned off. And like air being let our of a balloon, all the discomort and inability to sleep just disappeared. In just a matter of seconds I felt literally released from...well purgatory. I cannot tell you what a wonderful feeling ensued and the precious hours of rest that followed. Sometime, I just lay there enjoying the wonderful feeling of peace and calm in my legs and body. However, while this dramatic shift happens occassionally, the transition usually is gradual and undecipherable. Wow, this is getting long.
In any event, I was wondering, as others have, about simply trashing the meds and adjusting my sleep time to early morning. I'm retired and can do this. However, the change in my life would be fairly significant. Also, I wondered that, if I did do this, would the dreadful rls/PLM eventually find me in the morning and begin all over again. Has that happened to anyone else.
Have gone to the circardian link posted and took the sleep test which said I possibly had insomina and rls. Imagine that.
Thanks for reading.
I hope you will all have peace and respite this night.
I keep thinking of jobs where I can work WITH my natural schedule instead of against it. I want to get back into ministry soon, but right now I'm a bit burned out on taking care of other people. I've been thinking of going with the old biology/chemistry major and taking a lab technology program... But then a lot of people have suggested that I be a bartender. (Bartender, minister, not much difference!) I've delivered papers off and on for the last 6 years, but I'm done with that. The newspapers have gotten too greedy and paper carrier pay keeps going down. But it was a great job while it lasted. I'd spend 2 hours in the middle of the night running (literally).
When I get back into ministry I need to be able to function in the morning, though. People just don't get the night owl thing. It's un-Christian or something, LOL. And there is always someone in the congregation who insists that the minister should be up at 6am, and will call to make sure I'm up.
One thing that I've tried recently that has really helped with getting up in the mornings - I got a new SAD light that turns on gradually and simulates a sunrise. You can set it to take up to an hour or so to lighten up. By the time it gets fairly bright, I wake up easily. I really like it, but it was kind of pricey. About $150 at Walgreens.com. It has a sunset function as well, as well as having 10 dimmer settings.
