Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

pamhb - Do you use the CBD oil before bed as a sleep aid only. Or do you take it during the daytime also.

I only use it at night, and not during the day at all since I don't need it for either sleep or RLS during the day. By the way, I tried taking it sublingually last night, and found it didn't make me nearly as sleepy. So I'm going back to swallowing it with a bit of juice. My bedtime routine is to take my first dose at 8:00 and my next dose at 10:00. I watch a bit of TV in dim light until about 9:30 pm (nothing exciting), and then read in dim light on my Ipad on the night setting, until 10:00 or so. Once my eyes start closing involuntarily as I read, then I go to bed. I don't have any sugar in the evenings, since I find it winds me up.

I started at a dose of .125 ml x 2, and worked my way up from there. I currently take .5 ml x2. I could probably take less if I just wanted the sleepiness, but I'm still experimenting in terms of spasm control.

Hi pambb,

Thanks for sharing this with us. Having details, like the size of your doses, is really helpful. It gives me the opportunity to compare what I'm doing and see if I'm taking enough in each dose. What I do is similar to what your doing. Sometimes it works great!. And other times it seems not to work at all. I do fine with sleepiness, but controlling the rls has been the tricky, and inconsistent, part. Right now I'm using a CBD tincture and a THC tincture, along with a CBD cartridge and a THC cartridge. I don't know the exact dosage measurement, I just fill the dropped and squeeze it under my tongue, but I'm going to measure them tonight and see how they compare to yours. Recently I went for about 10 days with great sleep, then the last 2 nights have been difficult.

What I don't get, is why it works one time, and another time the exact same thing doesn't work at all! It's frustrating, but I keep a positive attitude. Each night as I get into bed I just am convinced that I'll go to sleep and wake up in the morning. So, thanks again.

I forgot to mention this, Dr. Oz has an online petition for legalizing CBD use, which would allow medical research to be done and lead to development of more effective use and treatments for a number of diseases.

http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/marijua ... 3410653001

If this link doesn't get you there, just type in dr oz petition for medical marijuana. It was established for those addicted to opioids and heroine, when it was discovered cbd was very effective in treating this, but could open the way for more research for other diseases.

NatWest wrote:Hi pambb,

What I don't get, is why it works one time, and another time the exact same thing doesn't work at all! It's frustrating, but I keep a positive attitude. Each night as I get into bed I just am convinced that I'll go to sleep and wake up in the morning.

My personal conclusion is that if one of my triggers is involved, it will cut through my medications no matter what I'm taking. On my bad nights, I now look for what might be a new (or old trigger) for me. I have a thread in this same section that talks about my triggers and their relationship to vascular contraction and dilation.

Hi pambb,

Yes, I completely agree! My experience has been that a trigger will cut through everything. What's difficult is figuring out how that trigger got into my system, when I do everything to avoid it, or are there now new triggers I'm not aware of? When I first discovered aluminum was causing my symptoms I immediately eliminated everything I could find that had touched aluminum: toothpaste in aluminum tubes, antiperspirant that contains aluminum, canned food, anything cooked or wrapped in foil, aluminum cookware and utensils, and on and on. This was in December of 2009. I did not have a single rls symptom again until around the end of April 2010. They just disappeared. Since then I've suspected I must have some new triggers, but I'm having a difficult time determining what they are. But when nothing works, that's what I immediately think.

Gosh, NatWest, you mean I might have to give up my tinfoil hat??? The aliens have given me this disease you know....

Hmmm... tinfoil hat .... as I head to the kitchen drawer.....

Hi pambb, I can only tell you that I wouldn't touch a tin foil hat with a 10 foot pole!

One other thing I didn't know until earlier this year, when a very helpful person on this post told me that baking powder is pretty much powdered aluminum! That meant a whole new area I had to watch out for. And more lables I had to read if we bought any items from the bakery. Fortunately, there is another type of baking powder used at one local bakery that doesn't have the aluminum, but that fact was a real surprise to me.

I'd like to hear what other triggers people have for rls. It might give us more areas to explore in terms of avoiding things.

Natwest, saying that baking powder is pretty much powdered aluminum is a bit of an overstatement. Many commercially available baking powders contain about 20% sodium aluminum sulfate, so it is maybe 5% aluminum. But that is probably enough to set off someone who is sensitive to it.

In addition to buying an aluminum free baking powder, there are a number of substitutes that can be used as workarounds. Perhaps the simplest is a 2:1 mixture of cream of tartar and baking soda. Another replacement is baking soda and vinegar with 1 tsp of baking powder replaced by 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp vinegar.

Thanks, Steve! My baking powder listed "sodium aluminum sulfate" as the only ingredient, but I really hadn't been able to determine how much aluminum that actually was. I know it only takes a minute amount to set off my rls symptoms, so I stopped using it as soon as I found out. I didn't know you could mix up your own version of baking powder using cream of tartar and baking soda. I'll try that, as well as the one with vinegar.

Thanks again, every little bit of knowledge helps!

All joking aside (and my apologies for to the MM readers for drifting off topic), I looked up aluminium and was surprised at how pervasive it is, including in food products. A tough sensitivity to have.

NatWest wrote:…Recently I went for about 10 days with great sleep, then the last 2 nights have been difficult. What I don't get, is why it works one time, and another time the exact same thing doesn't work at all! It's frustrating, but I keep a positive attitude. Each night as I get into bed I just am convinced that I'll go to sleep and wake up in the morning.

I admire your positive attitude and am trying to make it my own habit. It's challenging but I realize I have a choice and I'd rather be hopeful than full of dread. Both are hard though, but at least the hopefulness feels better even if it's sometimes short lived.

Thanks, pambb, I really did not know that! I think I'll do a little more research on that. !!!

And thanks, yawny! I know, sometimes, quite often, actually, it does seem very challenging. But, lately it's been paying off! One thing I'm realizing is that it may just be a matter of increasing my doses. I try to make it last, because it's so expensive compared to prescriptions, but lately I've tried just consuming as much as I thought I could, and I actually had some good nights with 8+ hours of sleep. I think I need to stock up a little more, so I'm not worrying about running out!

NatWest wrote:ThOne thing I'm realizing is that it may just be a matter of increasing my doses. I try to make it last, because it's so expensive compared to prescriptions, but lately I've tried just consuming as much as I thought I could, and I actually had some good nights with 8+ hours of sleep. I think I need to stock up a little more, so I'm not worrying about running out!

Re stocking up: Canada is in the process of legalizing marijuana, over and above the current medical marijuana exemptions. The prediction is that once it is fully legalized, there's going to be a shortage of stock, since the growers won't be able to supply the initial demand. They expect that some of the current licensed vendors will sell out within minutes of getting in new shipments. I think I'm going to have to stock up as well, once we get closer to the date when it is passed into law....