Restless legs-anyone else?

[Sadie Lake]

My FIL sometimes has restless leg syndrome, and has talked about it before but I always wrote it off with a flip of my snobby hair. He's totally ADD and I just assumed he couldn't chill out and sit still. I totally did not take "restless leg" seriously.

Now the universe is punishing me for being so judgemental because I've started getting RLS symptoms at night when I try to go to bed. I googled it and all the mainstream stuff came up with "iron deficiency" and all the Mothering stuff came up with "magnesium deficiency". So, I've upped both but only with minor relief.

Last night I felt like I was going to flip out because my legs wouldn't stop twitching and needing to move! I have to practice my hypnobabies scripts during dd's nap now because I can't get my legs to stop twitching at night enough to relax into it. UGHHH.

Anyone else have/had this? Any recommendations of things that ACTUALLY worked for you? I'm getting desperate!

Sadie

[CookAMH]

Mine don't actually twitch, but often in the car, they get very restless and I have to move them all over. I haven't done anything about it though so I'm no help!

[scrappingmom]

I"ve had RLS symptoms since i was a kid, they've gotten BAD the last year though. Iron, Magnesium, calcium.. all are said to be useful i've personally not seen much change with them but keep it up anyway because teh joy of deficiencies is, you dont know HOW deficient you are it may take a good while to where the help comes.

One thing i've done at night which use to work well and works less now the symptoms have become so bad(where i actually kick without meaning to at night) get some socks wet with cold water right before bed and put them on before laying down, squeeze out teh water first so the isnt soaked Not sure why it works but it seems to for a lot of people

[Delight]

Here are few thoughts:

• Be sure to take your calcium/magnesium supplement at night...a few hours before you go to bed. A liquid supplement would best and most easily assimilated. I'm taking the Bluebonnet brand that has 1200mg calcium, 600 mg. magnesium and 800IU of D.
• Are you doing yoga or any other type of stretching to help? That's really helped me.
• Always have a pillow between your legs or under your legs if you sitting up with a computer, etc.

I had this really bad early on...and all of these things seem to help me a lot. It's so maddening...believe me, I know!

[evening start]

Mine are bothering me right now! It is so annoying. I find putting a hot water bottle under my calves helps the symptoms, and stretching my legs before bed also seems to help. I ran out of my calcium/magnesium supplement last week, and haven't had a chance to replace it yet, so I'm sure that's not helping things.

[LisainCalifornia]

sorry, barging in here---but I had it for years. The last two years it was brutal, and the only help was waking up several times a night to "run" in the bathroom to fatigue my legs. Who needs forced exercise at 2:00 am? It was torturous.

Finally, I went to my doctor for something totally unrealted (I never mentioned my restless legs) and she did some bloodwork on me. I was severely deficient in vitamin B-12, and she gave me a shot of it right there in the office. It was like a miracle cure. I didn't have another bout of restless legs for a few months (that was the longest I had ever gone, it was amazing)--and then it slowly started to creep back. I went in and had my next shot of B-12, and again it was gone.

I never thought I would be over this--I thought it was something I had to live with forever. If you can, try sublingual B12 and see if it helps.

[GinaNY]

Wow, thanks for all this info. The only thing I've tried and has worked for me is for my hubby to massage my calves when I start kicking around in bed. He'll be glad to hear I have some other options to try! LOL