Last night I was up until 3 with my leg, arms and back muscles going nuts. I did some reading on RLS while awake and the description fit exactly what was going on with me. I’ve gotten it before but last night was particularly bad. I’m still feeling some of it now. I took a Tylenol PM and that conked me out finally so I could sleep.
Anyone deal with this? How often does it happen and can you think of any triggers? Nothing is coming to mind for me.
It is a big coffee consumption day for me.
Not to make light of your situation, but I thought this was going to be a thread about reading Robert Louis Stevenson.
I thought about typing it out but I’m too tired. 
I updated the title to clarify.
my husband has this, and i think he gets a bad flare up when he’s dehydrated and has a bad diet. getting him to drink water requires a tremendous effort.
when he has it he will toss and turn, slap his legs. i want to kill him. especially because i think he could feel alot better with nutritional improvements. but i can only babysit so much, lol.
Jen-
Had it for years; it’s my primary sleep disorder now that surgeries have knocked out the apnea. The symptoms are expressed in the extremities but the cause is in the brain. A sleep study would quickly determine whether you have this disorder or something else with similar symptoms. Low blood iron and use of some OTC sleep medications (anything that contains benadryl / diphenhydramine hydrochloride) makes the condition worse and lessen the effectiveness of the prescription meds (mirapex and gabapentin) that are the standard remedy for it.
Chris
What’s funny is in general my nutrition has gotten better this week.
It is still going on. I’m going to have to walk around all day just to get through it. Gads.
Chris, thanks for the info. Any ideas on how to get immediate relief?
I get them also, staying hydrated and taking the B vitamin group has helped me a ton.
My step-mother has this. She takes magnesium and she said that makes a big difference.
“Not to make light of your situation, but I thought this was going to be a thread about reading Robert Louis Stevenson.”
I almost decided to post the same thought earlier!
I have a mild form where my feet get hot and restless when I get into bed. I always run cold water over them before bed and that really helps.
My wife and father-in-law both have this. It is sometimes quite bad for my father-in-law. His mother had it also, which tends to make me think it is genetic.
My father-in-law asked a doctor about it once. The doctor said that his father has it and has had limited success with prescription drugs.
I did some reading on this and did discover some folks that were able to control it with marijuana. My father-in-law will sometimes use scotch, but those two options may not be very appealing to most folks.
Don’t have any good advice, but based on the experience of those close to me it can be very disruptive to rest and does not seem to have any trigger or solution.
I did some reading on this and did discover some folks that were able to control it with marijuana.
Time for you to move up here, Jen. I’ve got three dealers on speed dial 
Time for you to move up here, Jen. I’ve got three dealers on speed dial
What makes you think I don’t? 
I also read it can be related to low iron levels so I’ll be sure to take my multi-vitamin regularly. My calcium supplement has magnesium so I better take that regularly too.
This is really horrible because it just keeps going. Argh. I’m going for a run, hopefully that will help.
Thanks everyone.
Reduction in alcohol and caffeine may help; I have also had success with my electrical muscle stimulation unit (a Compex Sport, but globus models work just as well, I have read). I attache the electrode pads to the quads for 20 minutes and then the hamstrings for 20 minutes and use the ‘Active Recovery’ program. If you decide you would like to try this, you are welcome to borrow mine to try out for a while.
Chris
Jen, my RLS is definitely tied to dehydration, hard training and my anemia / low iron (which is all part of being a female IM triathlete!). Mine tends to flare up right after the monthly visit (blood loss).
When your doc ran your hormones, did he run a CBC (complete blood count)? Look at your test results if you have them.
My anemia came out of left field and KO’ed me for about 6 weeks at age 41. It was a real shocker, and I am iron supplements (as well as hormone) for life now. Did you start HRT yet?
Sue
Mirapex…works like a charm. I could not get to sleep, especially lying on my back. Most nights had to sleep on my side to get to sleep. I take Mirapex every night and have no side effects, but when I miss a day or two, I notice the discomfort even during the day sitting at my desk.
I have had RLS along with some kicking in my sleep since I was a kid. The RLS has been really bad in the past week. I’ve been waking up on the middle of the night with what appears to be an uncomfortable sort of crampy/itchy feeling in my legs. It’s bad enough that I’ve scheduled an appointment with a doctor. Extended car trips and long meetings are also unpleasant.
Triggers for me seem to be too much caffeine, too much exercise, too little exercise, gravol and pretty much all cold/allergy medications (both daytime and nighttime varieties). Except for a cup of coffee in the morning, I am doing well with all the other triggers so I’m at a loss as to why it’s so bad. A Cal/Mag supplement seems to help, but this has done little for me lately. Apparently 300-400mg of Vitamin E is supposed to help, but I haven’t seen any improvement yet.
The problem can be a symptom of something wrong elsewhere in your body so it’s worth getting checked out.
I zonked myself out with Tylenol PM and slept like a baby last night. No problems with it today but yesterday I was climbing out of my skin! I’ll be interested to hear if your doc gives you meds.
I’m going back on my supplements. Multi-vitamin, Calcium with Magnesium. Based on what others have said on the thread I’m hoping that will help. If I get another episode as bad as two nights ago I’ll get in to see the doc.
My wife has this. Some nights she runs a marathon. We’ve tried many homeopathic remedies and iron supplements. No cure so far except making her move to the guest bed.
It really messes with sleep. I’ll be using the Tylenol PM trick again if it comes up, then I’ll call my Dr. Probably just part of the “aging process”. Awesome.