Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

i’m finding thst my old stand-by for calm when I get up at night now not such a good thing. My comfort drink at least once a night, has been hot chocolate made with whole milk & Hershey’s Syrup. Decadent, I know! I think I may be having issues with Dairy. So I need some ideas to replace my hot chocolate with some other soothing drink.

This might sound off the wall but I put together jigsaw puzzles. The concentration and moving around (I usually stand) calm my legs and brain in about 15 minutes but I read and stretch for another half hour and finish off by sitting in the dark quietly until I feel I can go back to sleep. If I try to go back to sleep sooner than about an hour I usually have to get up again.
I also practice 4-7-8 breathing exercises which seem to help but only after I'm basically sorted out. There are lots of websites explaining it but basically, sitting comfortably with eyes closed, inhale through nose slowly for a count of four, hold breath for a count of seven, exhale through mouth for a count of eight.

I drink a little kratom and orange juice while walking around, and then, after about a half an hour, I can go back to bed. In bed I always listen to an audio book, and it has to be a book that I know well and love. Paris in Love: A Memoir by Eloisa James is my favorite for drifting off to sleep easily.

I also use Kratom. I have a stretching routine that lasts about 20 minutes. If I’m really bad and have no other options I play chess (very badly) online. I read somewhere that a cup of coffee can settle the legs so I sometimes try that (oat milk makes a reasonable substitute for dairy). You need to be confident of your ability to sleep with the caffeine however.

I play Solitaire on my Kindle while walking.
The worst is if my legs are exhausted and aching, so I really need to sit/lie down but also really need to walk.
It usually takes about 30/45 minutes.

When I was weaning myself off of lattes, I realized I needed something similiar so I could still achieve some feelings of comfort, so I switched to tea with milk. Had to be warm/hot and had to have some creaminess. Some good versions for nighttime are chamomile or lemon balm teas. There are lots of milk alternatives but I like coconut milk, or coconut milk creamer. If you’d rather not make it in the middle of the night, you could use one of those insulated mugs and make it before bed. They keep drinks warm/hot for 4-8 hours depending on the type you have.

My mom uses Lactaid so she can still have dairy. I am dairy intolerant - severely - but because I take opioids, I actually find dairy helpful. When I do not take opioids, not milk for me - and Lactaid doesn't help me, sadly.

Hot tea, as suggested, might work. Hmmm - does it need to be a drink or food?

All good ideas, thanks! I like the idea of tea with milk. I tolerate caffeine in small amounts so black tea would do. I had thought of coconut milk and will give that a try.

Switch to coconut milk. ☺

Not to sound all “new age”, but have you tried doing some meditative breathing and visualizations while walking? Just meditating doesn’t work when I’m my legs start jumping; however, visualizing happy thoughts has been working very well on settling my mind. The idea is that your brain cannot tell the difference between the memory or the real thing, thus the happy memories will send relaxing signals throughout your body.

I think of things like my mom laughing or holidays with the family - anything that you are proud of or makes you happy. I’ll also visualize people close to me telling me motivation things like, “you can control this, you are strong”, etc. it takes a few minutes to have an affect, but after 5 min or so, it puts me at ease

A friend of mine recommended a spoonful of peanut butter with a glass of milk. Sounds off the wall but when you're desperate you'll try anything. It actually worked and I don't know why.

I read on my Kindle to relax enough to fall asleep, but it doesn't help RLS because it will waken me out of my sound sleep between 1 and 3 a.m.

Either a small pot of tea, caffeine notwithstanding. This contains theanine.
Make a little pot, lay out a tray, ritualize it. A bag in a mug is not a lovely thing.

Or a small cup of warm milk and a banana. This gives you calcium, potassium, magnesium and tryptophan. Add a capsule of theanine or sceletium to stop that ragged feeling.

The peanut butter is good to add to the banana and warm milk.
If you don't do dairy, make some cashew milk in a blender, easy-peasy and totally luxurious. Cashews contain tryptophan and B6, peanuts contain tryptophan.

If you do use dairy, let it be pastured Jersey milk.

There are good reasons for the Old Wives Tales.

These last couple of nights/mornings I gave up on the calming.
Two mornings ago I did some ironing starting at 4.30 am.

This morning I was making an old fashioned (from the 70s) pudding that I remembered, using ginger snap biscuits, tinned crushed pineapple, cream and sherry. It was assembled and in the fridge at 6am. My plan was to go back to bed and what with one thing and another I didn't make it. Let's hope the pudding is as good as I recall it.

Ginger Log - Quickly dip a ginger biscuit into sherry (or whatever) lay it flat, put on a teaspoonful of whipped double cream (get a 250ml carton) and a little crushed pineapple. When you've stacked about 6, lay them on their side. do some more, keep going until the packet is finished. Mine had about 16 biscuits. You've got your log shape and cover it with the remaining fresh cream. I've got some halved red grapes for decoration. Also opened a tin of raspberries, drained and stirred to a puree, these will make a tiny puddle on each plate.
I did a few at the end in orange juice to be more suitable for the children.
I'm thinking if I slice it at an angle it will show layers/lines. We will see.

Polar Bear wrote:These last couple of nights/mornings I gave up on the calming.
Two mornings ago I did some ironing starting at 4.30 am.

This morning I was making an old fashioned (from the 70s) pudding that I remembered, using ginger snap biscuits, tinned crushed pineapple, cream and sherry. It was assembled and in the fridge at 6am. My plan was to go back to bed and what with one thing and another I didn't make it. Let's hope the pudding is as good as I recall it.

Ginger Log - Quickly dip a ginger biscuit into sherry (or whatever) lay it flat, put on a teaspoonful of whipped double cream (get a 250ml carton) and a little crushed pineapple. When you've stacked about 6, lay them on their side. do some more, keep going until the packet is finished. Mine had about 16 biscuits. You've got your log shape and cover it with the remaining fresh cream. I've got some halved red grapes for decoration. Also opened a tin of raspberries, drained and stirred to a puree, these will make a tiny puddle on each plate.
I did a few at the end in orange juice to be more suitable for the children.
I'm thinking if I slice it at an angle it will show layers/lines. We will see.

Same here - have been just working when I get up. Seems easier.

Let us know how the pudding works!

We made something very similar when I was a child only we used tinned mandarin oranges and we arranged the biscuits in a circle, put some mandarins and juice on each, then whipped cream then two more layers of biscuit fruit and cream. It was always delicious - much nicer than the sum of its parts.

Would try it tomorrow but for current attempts (frequently more honoured in the breach than observation) to eschew dairy and sugar.