Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Please share your experiences, successes, and failures in using non-drug therapies for RLS/WED (methods of relief that don't involve swallowing or injecting anything), including compression, heat, light, stretches, acupuncture, etc. Also under this heading, medical interventions that don't involve the administration of a medicine to the body (eg. varicose-vein operations, deep-brain stimulation). [This forum contains Topics started prior to 2009 that deal with Non-prescription Medicines, Supplements, & Diet.]
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leanmusclemass
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Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by leanmusclemass »

Hello everyone.

This is a simple DIY bed adaptation you could try: The Restless Legs DIY Foot Treader.

It gives you a fixed, padded platform in your bed to brace your feet against. Walk on it, push against it, flip your feet over the top of it - whatever relieves the feeling.

Couldn't be simpler:

1. Take two long lengths (5m+) of canvas webbing or other strong fabric strip. (I bought two rolls of boxers' hand tape.)

2. Wrap them around your mattress, lengthways, at a distance of about two feet or so. At roughly the point where your feet would lie if your knees were slightly bent, insert a pole or other rigid object (I used a broomhandle), and knot it firmly in place. NB: this is the single most important thing, so knot tightly: the pole must not be able to travel down the canvas strip. If you were being fancy, I daresay you could do something more robust than just a knot.

3. With the pole securely knotted in place, tie the two ends of each canvas strip into a loop, as tightly as they will go. It will all loosen anyway, so be firm. The strips must be snap tight against the mattress.


4. Pad the broomhandle or pole. I just rolled a pillow around mine, and secured that with a belt.

That's it!.

No harness, no straps, nothing at all. Just a ledge at exactly the right place, to brace your feet against.

Give it a shot!
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Polar Bear
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by Polar Bear »

Thank you for sharing what is working for you, great to have been able to construct something for very little cost. :thumbup:

I do something similar by sliding down the bed a little and bracing my feet against the footboard. Not just as adaptable as your own 'invention' with yours being padded etc.
Betty
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leanmusclemass
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by leanmusclemass »

Thanks Polar Bear.
That’s exactly what this is, an adjustable footboard. What I realised was, I wanted to be *slightly cramped* (at my will), so that my body naturally pushes against something at both ends.

I’ve been sleeping on the sofa, which just happens to have hard padded armrests and is exactly the right length, ie slightly too short. My bed is now the same. Happy days!

Thanks for the comment. Good to meet you.

ViewsAskew
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by ViewsAskew »

leanmusclemass wrote:Thanks Polar Bear.
That’s exactly what this is, an adjustable footboard. What I realised was, I wanted to be *slightly cramped* (at my will), so that my body naturally pushes against something at both ends.

I’ve been sleeping on the sofa, which just happens to have hard padded armrests and is exactly the right length, ie slightly too short. My bed is now the same. Happy days!

Thanks for the comment. Good to meet you.


I used to have an excellent sofa to sleep on - it kept me perfectly cramped in just the right way. Never had issues on it.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

leanmusclemass
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by leanmusclemass »

Hi ViewAskew

The trouble with beds is that they’re just not designed with RLS people in mind. I often used to prefer the sofa. I used to find that if I got into the ‘birthing position’, with my feet hanging off the back of it, I could just about stop the feeling. Whether it’s possible to actually sleep like that, I have never discovered. But hanging the feet slightly seems to help me.

Good to meet you!

ViewsAskew
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by ViewsAskew »

Good to meet you, too :-).

I seem to recall that this sofa had a curved back. it was long, and I'd sleep with my leg up and over the back of it - since the WED was always worse in the right leg, I'd hang the right leg!
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

leanmusclemass
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Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:17 pm

Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by leanmusclemass »

It should be possible to replicate that in bed. If you had a reasonably high ‘hump’ (which was fixed), you could hang your leg(s) off that. I found last night that if I lay on my front (I often sleep on my front), wedged my knees into the back of my foot treader, and then raised my legs when the feeling started, it quickly went away again. You can’t have any bedclothes on, though (obviously!). I’m working on a system of bungee cords at the moment, attached to the bed, so the ankle joint is gently pressured in both directions simultaneously. Will report back.

Polar Bear
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by Polar Bear »

Before I was using medication I also found that I could sometimes make it through a tv show if I lay on my stomach with my knees bent. I then tried it in bed, the slight weight of the bed covers helped my legs stay in the air without much effort from me. It did help ease symptoms a little, but not sufficient to sleep.
Betty
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation

ViewsAskew
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by ViewsAskew »

Polar Bear wrote:Before I was using medication I also found that I could sometimes make it through a tv show if I lay on my stomach with my knees bent. I then tried it in bed, the slight weight of the bed covers helped my legs stay in the air without much effort from me. It did help ease symptoms a little, but not sufficient to sleep.


Similar here. It got to the point that these things work as long as I'm awake and not sleepy. Once I get tired, nothing works now except medication. But, I got 20 years out of things like this! Definitely worth it.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

EeFall
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by EeFall »

This is all pretty strange, especially since I understand what you're talking about :lol: even up until a year ago I would take naps in the evening on our sectional but I had to have my feet touching one side and I would be slightly bent on my side, pillows above my head would also help. My wife thought I was odder than usual :D

leanmusclemass
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by leanmusclemass »

Hi EeFall.

It is funny sometimes. My doctor is a terribly nice but very earnest german man. I tell him things like: 'I have to get into the birthing position with my legs hanging off the back of the sofa’, and he looks all serious and concerned, butI’m pretty sure he’s thinking ‘mental health’. :0)

badnights
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Re: Simple DIY bed adaptation: The Foot Treader.

Post by badnights »

:) haha
of course, he should be thinking "neurological abnormalities" -
but he's probably not :(
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
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