Hot Feet

[KBear]

New to the board but not to RLS. I once ripped the feet out of pair of footed pajamas in the middle of the night as a child. Anyone have a similar story?

My RLS tends to come on just as I am falling asleep thus preventing me from actually getting into deep REM sleep and resulting in daytime exhaustion. I have occasionally experienced RLS on long flights, car rides, at movie theaters etc. but unless I'm also trying to sleep at the same time this is just an annoyance. There are so many ways to deal with RLS when you are not sleeping (attending, stretching, walking, bouncing legs, etc.) and I have been doing this for so many years that I automatically adjust to it during the day.

It's the RLS when I'm trying to sleep and desperately exhausted that has brought me here. When it starts I will generally put lotion on my hot feet and I occasionaly change beds (grown children moving out means extra beds in the house ). The cool sheets in a fresh bed seem to help. I did use Carbidopa a few years ago but reached augmentation rather quickly and gave up on the meds.

There is so much information on this sight and links to other sites with even more info that I'm feeling just a little overwhelmed. I'm interested in non-pharmaceuticals (at least for now) and so far have tried tonic water (didn't help) and ivory soap, I think the soap may have helped a little, last night was better than the two previous nights. Next I'm going to try magnesium supplements and I'm going to keep the soap in the bed for good measure too.

Any non-pharmceutical advice from sufferers with the same set of symptoms (hot feet, RLS onset when you start to doze off) would be much appreciated.

Kathy

BTW- It's great to find a network of folks who understand. I do have other famliy members who suffer with RLS and I will be sharing anything I learn with them as well.

[becat]

Hi Kathy and Welcome.

My whole family has the hot feet thing going on.
For myself, I found, by accident, that the magnesium I was taking for digestion help really helped with my hot feet.
I haven't spent tons of money on big brands or certain amounts....just buy it where I find one that say all natural.

For myself, I take 500 to 1000 UIs of it a day and within an hour it starts to work.
I have no idea if it will help you, but thought I'd offer that to you as a start.
Also, it could be apart of your RLS, but can also mean other medical problems, so check it out with your doctor.
Have a good one.
Lynne

[KBear]

Thanks Lynne, the info on magnesium dosage helps and I do plan to see my doctor, soon. I seem to do OK for awhile, I actually went a whole week recently without any RLS, then I spiral out of control for awhile. Right now I'm in a spiral.

The soap isn't working tonight but it does give my feet something to play with. I noticed someone else said the same thing. Do I need to remove the paper wrapper or should it work just as well wrapped up?

[Aff]

Hi Kathy, i have exactly the same symptoms as use and believe me, i've tried most things.

Hot Feet is a particular problem and i've slept with my feet on the walls recently in the spare room.

things that may help is the Chillow, a pillow which i put at the end of the bed which stays cold all night.

a very reliable mehtod is running your feet under a cold tap for 2 mins each. however, i'm usually in bed at this time and can't get myself up to go through it even though i know i should.

a fan blowing on my feet is useful, maybe some lotion on your feet as well will give it extra coollness.

magnesium has some effect but not enough.

my next step is shiatsu, tried it once and it felt like it could be useful. but havn't found anyone locally yet but that is my next step for rls.

any more hot feet help would be appreciated.

[ctravel12]

Hi Kathy. Sorry that I am late in welcoming you to this group. As far as hot feet, I do not have the problem when going to bed; however sometimes at night whenI am up my feet get hot(do not know if this is related to rls) I get up and stand on the tile floors (thank the good Lord for tile floors)

It looks like you got some great advise from Lynne.

Are you taking any meds for your rls? Like Lynne said it may be some other type of medical problem and to talk to your dr about this.

Please keep us posted on how you are doing. This is a wonderful support group. If you just want to talk, vent or whatever, we are here for you.

[KBear]

a very reliable mehtod is running your feet under a cold tap for 2 mins each. however, i'm usually in bed at this time and can't get myself up to go through it even though i know i should.

I can relate to that. I'm usually too exhausted to get up and do anything that takes that much effort. I can handle a bottle of lotion next to the bed or getting up and going to another room with cool sheets or walking on cool tile.

After five strait nights of trying everything I could think of baths before bed, hot milk and honey, Ivory soap, aromatherpy lotion, etc. I caved in and called my doctor for some Ambien. I had some success with this drug when I was hospitalized. To my surprise she is letting me try it. Although she wanted me to start with Requip. I think I'm going to have to educate her but that's OK. Now I have the algorithem and a plan of attack.

BTW- I'm not knocking Requip and I may resort to it myself however, I already had one bad experience with the Parkinsin's line of drugs (carbidopa/levodopa) so if I'm going to use meds I would rather not start there. I still tossed for a awhile on the Ambien but I started with 5 mg and added another 5 later. I think I may just go ahead and start with 10 mg and see if that helps.

Today I feel better (I slept!) and I have an appointment to see my Naturopath in a little while, perhaps she will have some new tricks to add to my bag.

I also stated magnesium yesterday 250 mgs to start and added a chewable C to the multi vitamin I already take.