Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

A thoughtful friend gave me a packet of (probably expensive) hand crafted tea that is supposed to aid sleeping. On the packet it says Skullcap calms the nervous system. For Valerian it says "it is an effective and safe nervine sedative herb for most people. A few people find valerian to be stimulating rather than sedating."
I'm inclined to pass it on to someone else as I'm not willing to see if I'm one of the few who find valerian stimulating, even for one night.
Has anyone had experience with these herbs?

I don't know about Skullcap, but Valerian did nothing for me - it increased drowsiness, but didn't help against the urge to move.

Still, I'm one of the people who tries everything he gets his hands on though. If I was in your place I'd try it for a limited time (maybe 2 weeks), starting with a rather small dose and increasing the dosage with time. Unless of course you feel that it affects you negatively.

What a nice friend...I use pure Valerian when I wake up in the night from breakthrough symptoms. I find it very sedating. Doesn’t stop my movements, but calms me down and knocks me out enough that I can get some solid and/or broken sleep. I am one of those people that often falls into the small percentage of odd/rare reactions to things. My mother is too and she uses Valerian the same way as I do. My husband, who is not sensitive to medications/supplements, and has the usual reactions to things, also uses Valerian to sleep. We all really like it (we all have different sleep challenges, with me being the only one with RLS/PLMs). It’s new to me that Valerian can possibly be stimulating, especially since I see it in every sleep formula at the vitamin stores. But I guess most everything has possible adverse reactions. If you’re able to take daytime naps, maybe you could experiment with it?

Yawny, making a cup of Bedtime Tea before taking a daytime nap is a good idea. I'll be away for a few weeks but will try that when I get home. This blend also has lemon balm and lemon catnip in it.

I LOVE my skullcap tea. It also has hibiscus fennel cardamom, lavender, and a lot of other things, but I am sure it's the skullcap I love (I have no basis at all for that assertion). It's Yogi's tea called Calming - is that the one you have?

I don't think it does anything for my WED, but it sure is a delicious drink and I convince myself it prepares me for sleep.

It’s not a Yogi Tea but a small batch hand made tea. I tried it once at about 6:00am and it seemed not to have any effect. It tasted awful so I will put it in the compost but I’ll be on the lookout for the Yogi Tea.

lol it's probably all the other stuff I like.