How to Read When Legs are Restless

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.]
rthom
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by rthom »

:thumbup: :clap:

EeFall
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by EeFall »

badnights wrote:my ex used to lie on his stomach to deal with it, but I never could - my back hurts too much. However, I do place pillows under me and curl up over them, stomach downward and legs bent; I guess the same principle is involved (if there even is a principle and it's not just coincidence).

eefall doesn't your laptop overheat from the pillows?


I always have a laptop pad underneath the laptop. My old one had a plastic table attached to a beanbag. The one I have now is very lightweight, a side view of it would look like a flattened donut but it totally dissipates all heat from my lap and raises it at a small incline so that it is about 4 inches above my lap. Forgot to mention it because I don't even think about it being separate from the laptop anymore :D Also the pillows are couch pillows, not like a bedroom pillow. They are about 18 inches square and 4 inches or so thick.

badnights
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by badnights »

ah perfect. Good trcik.
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
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I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

Going Crazy
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by Going Crazy »

My remedies for being able to knit or read in the evening are: take iron and Vit C every afternoon on an empty stomach, control any pain with Ibuprophen, be active during the day, eliminate wine, and take part of my Mirapex with a Gabapentin at 8:00PM and the other Mirapex 9-9:30. If I do get a twinge of leg movement, I get up, walk around and ensure I am sitting on a firm surface with lower back support. I also wear a skirt while sitting so there is no pressure in my groin from snug pants. Finally, like many others, I find that laying on my abdomen does help reduce and/or eliminate my symptoms. Hope this helps!

Rustsmith
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by Rustsmith »

I started using a tablet computer, which I can carry with one hand and operate with the other. It does almost as much as my laptop and can run any of the e-reader software. I download books from Amazon and can read while walking around the house. The only "obstacle" is our cat :D and she knows to stay away if I have the tablet in my hands and am upright.
Steve

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, and are not medical advice.

Polar Bear
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by Polar Bear »

Yep, I use my Kindle Fire HD which is a small tablet. Can't imagine how I ever managed without it. Can walk and read, and also no other lights are needed as the screen is illuminated.
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

badnights
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by badnights »

she knows to stay away if I have the tablet in my hands and am upright.
:lol:
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
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I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

jul2873
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by jul2873 »

We live in a house with a high kitchen island with tall, padded, comfortable stools. For some reason, I can sit on those stools in the evening when I'm not comfortable anywhere else. I often set up camp there after dinner, with my laptop and iPad mini with my books on it.

TimG
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by TimG »

I'm the original poster and want to again thank everyone for your helpful suggestions. I'm going to try, as one poster suggested, taking iron with Vitamin C in the afternoon on an empty stomach. (I'm already taking a low-dose daily iron tablet with OJ in the morning.) What dose do those of you who supplement with iron take?

I've noticed that if I do a lot of moving around during the day ( I use a high-end pocket pedometer) that I sometimes experience less intense restless legs in the evening. Cycling on my indoor stationary bike seems to help as well, and reading while cycling is good, as I've written previously.

Sometimes nothing works very well, and if I am reading while sitting, I do so in short spurts, then get up and move around, then sit and read some more. Trying harder to focus on reading when my legs are restless makes the restless legs worse.

I've been taking Pramipexole 0.25 mg daily for about two years now, thankfully with no augmentation.

Polar Bear
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by Polar Bear »

TimG, I agree with you regarding the trying to focus on reading can make the symptoms feel worse.
Many people including the medical experts speak of using mind concentrating techniques to get through symptoms. This has never worked for me and just seems more like an explosion waiting to happen.
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

jul2873
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by jul2873 »

When my symptoms get really annoying in the evening, I stand at the kitchen island and play bridge on my mini-iPad. I really concentrate when I play bridge, and often this will block the symptoms, while I'm waiting for the kratom to kick in. Perhaps any video game might work as well.

ViewsAskew
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by ViewsAskew »

Polar Bear wrote:TimG, I agree with you regarding the trying to focus on reading can make the symptoms feel worse.
Many people including the medical experts speak of using mind concentrating techniques to get through symptoms. This has never worked for me and just seems more like an explosion waiting to happen.


Just realized something...if I try to concentrate, it almost never works. But, if I'm interrupted with something important and am naturally taken away from my thoughts, it frequently works.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

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badnights
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Re: How to Read When Legs are Restless

Post by badnights »

I take 325 mg ferrous sulfate with 500 mg vitamin C twice a day; once at 2 PM and once at nighttime (somewhere between 11 PM and 2 AM). I would take half the C except I can't find it in smaller pills. Sometimes I split them but usually I don't bother.

I haven't tried it in a year or more, but when I stopped or forgot the iron before, I noticed worsened symptoms within days. My ferritin is over 100 but not by much - I forget my last numbers, maybe 120's - despite taking that much daily iron for a few years now.
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
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I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

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