I have discovered a cure for insomnia that requires no drugs or other external factors. It works for me and I am curious to learn if it will help anyone else. It is based on the idea that boredom tends to lead to sleepiness and the concept that focusing on one “critical” factor can help to take all other distracting thoughts out of your mind.
I find that when I close my eyes that if I look very carefully, I can see various slight gradations in shades of black and white and gray. They seem to move slightly and meld together over time. This is a very boring thing to do and I often find I get distracted within a few seconds. So then I have to start the process again after realizing my failure (the sin of thinking about things that are important in my life). While I cannot prove this with a stopwatch, my belief is that about 100% of the time if I am able to concentrate on what I see beneath my eyelids for at least 2-3 minutes, then I fall asleep. So I am doing something boring and not thinking about anything interesting. That puts me to sleep quickly. Please let me know if this works for you.
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davidadill
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Very interesting! I’ll try this the next time I can’t sleep (and if my not sleeping is unrelated to my legs moving). I wonder if this would work in calming the legs down as well? Thank you for the tip!
I certainly have been sleeping better since taking Floridex magnesium before my evening meal. Other types of magnesium don’t have the same effect. The other essential is my Ropinerole. Not only does it calm my legs, after about an hour, it makes me sleepy. Lately I have needed to increase my Ropinerole on some nights. I do try to keep it down to 1 mg but some nights the rls is so bad I get up and take another .25 mg.
I like your eye boredom technique. Maybe chasing "floaters" would also work. I'll try it.
I'm addicted to Audio Books, but sometimes the books are just too interesting and they keep me awake. NAPFLIX is supposed to be deadly boring and good for sleep. Try this really interesting lecture on Einstein. It is actually a very good introduction to Albert Einstein, but in spite of a background in science, it just bores me to sleep:
I tried doing this myself and had no relief from it. I'm not saying that it doesn't work for some but when my RLS was at its worst it was impossible to focus on anything when you feel like there's bugs crawling in your legs or you're watching somebody drag their nails over a chalkboard, it overrides your ability to stay calm and focus on something but maybe your RLS was not as severe as mine. Also you sound like somebody that falls asleep fast, ever since I was a child it takes me a minimum of an hour to fall asleep and not just exacerbates the RLS and the more you think about it the more bothers you so I do get the premise behind your idea. I have done meth much research on gabapentin and Lyrica which are almost identical, Parkinson's medication such as ropinirole which does work in some people but only in about half and when you stop the RLS will return if not even more severely. The Parkinson's medication like ropinirole is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor which helps your body except the natural dopamine that it currently contains in the brain. The one thing that works for me after I tried all that plus about 10 different supplements that people recommended was that my Dr said to take two Tylenol number 3 an hour before bedtime and it worked like magic the first night. Opiate painkillers such as codeine which is in Tylenol 3 work on the same part of the brain and nervous system that RLS does and it replaces the dopamine and adds extra dopamine which will prevent the RLS from occurring at least until you fall asleep and once you're asleep it shouldn't start up again. If anybody is ready to give up or end it all meaning life please just beg your Dr to prescribe two Tylenol number 3 to be taken 1 hour before bedtime. There is a very low risk of addiction since it's not like surgery where you would take two Tylenol 3 every 4 hours 24 hours around the clock. I'm begging you all if you're ready to give up please give this a shot and if it works for you please take the time to write it on other RLS websites so the community can be informed. It's no fun trying 50 medications and supplements that 49 of them do absolutely nothing or cause the issue to become worse when you stop them. We need to educate the community and stop this horrible affliction. I give you my word if you try the Tylenol 3 an hour before bedtime I can guarantee it will cure RLS in 90% of all patients as a bare minimum. Good luck with your RLS and I hope you're not too bored staring at the inside of your eyelids hahaha just kidding. Best wishes
There is absolutely no reason to think that boring yourself to sleep will help with RLS. When my legs awaken me, I run in place pounding my feet hard for 11 minutes, which for me is 2000 steps. Then the RLS will be gone for at least 2-3 hours. The boring strategy helps me to go back to sleep quickly, so that I can be sleeping for most of those 2-3 or more hours.
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