Twitching while trying to sleep?

[TheGirls]

I'm probably crossposting this in health & healing.

My DP is 27wks pregnant with twins. She is also working full time, so restful sleep is pretty critical to her survival right now. And she's not getting nearly enough.

She goes to bed at a decent time, but her whole body keeps twitching, keeping her awake. It's only when she's going to bed, and she says it feels like it's mostly in her legs. Her whole body jumps when it happens though. Most nights its "only" for an hour or so, but some nights it goes on for hours. She usually gets up if it goes on for more than an hour and walks around, reads a book, then tries again. She feels that that helps sometimes. The other night she got up and tried again twice, ending up going to bed around 2am. She gets up at 5am for work. It was not pretty. She has cut out all caffeine, but that didn't help, and we're out of ideas now.

Has anyone had this happen? Any suggestions for things she could do to help it? I'm really worried about her getting so little sleep when she can't make up for it during the day!

[Strong Mama]

I am sorry to hear she is suffering like that. Lack of sleep while pregnant with twins is brutal. It sounds like restless leg syndrome, quite common in pregnancy actually. I have it, too. I am 17 weeks w twins. The things that help me are 1. taking a warm bath before bed and then having my legs massaged, 2. having the bed to myself where I can stretch my legs out 3. taking tylenol before bed sometimes helps me. I have heard magnesium supplements may help, though I dont know the dosage and I havent tried it. I just figured it was something I was going to have to deal with while pregnant. It sucks. I hope she can find some relief.

[livinzoo]

Potassium or Magnesium are recommended. Some people even say calcium. Calcium is a natural muscle contractor and magnesium is a natural muscle relaxor. I have taken magnesium for years for my TMJ pain. It works amazingly for me. During pregnancy I have noticed I needed to up my dosage a bit. I would start with 400-500mg of magnesium a day and see what she feels like after 2 weeks. Too much magnesium is not harmful, it just causes diareah.