Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

Hi All

I am new to the board and wanted to share a little trick that works for me and may work for you too.

I have suffered for years with RLS and just over a year ago I discovered halcyon bracelets which have been amazing. But I am not here to talk about the halcyon bracelets.

When the halcyon bracelets don't completely work, I sit with my legs under me on a hard floor until they go to "sleep"; dead legs. I wait until they are completely numb and then hop back into bed and once the sensation is back and the pins and needles gone, my restless legs are usually completely calmed. It really works a treat for me.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has tried/discovered this or on reading this you give it a go and it works for you!

C

Nef, I haven't heard that trick before but in a way it makes some sense to me. Recently the Foundation presented a webinar on iron levels and hypoxia. One of the things that they talked about was blood flow in the legs and how our levels are elevated above that of controls without RLS. So your trick may be working by temporarily reducing the blood flow in the legs back toward normal. That may provide the temporary respite that you need to be able to fall asleep.

A related trick that many of us use is soaking in a hot bath. This also probably alters blood flow in the legs, which allows us a chance to fall asleep.

To read the summary of the webinar that I prepared go to

http://bb.rls.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9788

Nef , I've never tried that because I have this ingrained idea that having body parts go numb is bad for them, the nerves can be damaged if it goes on too long. I imagine it would have to go on for a very long time, though, because my arms used to fall asleep every night when I lay on my back without a bazillion pillows to mould the support - my arms would be so dead I had to swing them for 4 or 5 minutes to get the feeling back.

It's interesting that you do that on purpose with the legs. I never noticed if my arms were less RLSy after going dead - I would just grumble "if it's not one thing (RLS/WED) waking me up, it's another (dead arms)" but maybe it was not WED/RLS because I had was dead arms. I imagine that the nerves that are pinched to create the lack of feeling are ones involved in sending RLS/WED signals to the brain. Intentionally shutting them down prevents them from signalling. they come back to life but have been re-set somehow and don't send abnormal signals again (for a while. At least long enough for you to fall asleep)/

Good one, thanks.