Anyone got a hacksaw?

[CatherineLindsay]

My left leg is driving me batty tonight! Anyone else up with rls tonight? X

[Shumbah]

Bless Catherine feel your pain

Just done a long hall trip 24 hours

Had my moments

Don’t worry about the parachute , I you know what I’m saying 😫

A little hack that helps me for 20 /30 mins post

Stand facing the wall , put your hands flat on the wall . Place your feet as far from the wall as you can (sort of looks like a triangle )on your toes then lower your heals for 20 seconds . Should really feel stretch your calves if that is the area that bothers you .

I hope that helps my love

[Izzybelle22]

Awww, you misplaced your hacksaw? Had I seen your post earlier I would have let you borrow mine! Isn't it the worst? I feel for you ... as I do for myself and everybody else out there with RLS. Some nights and days, I wonder if I will ever survive. Fingers crossed tonight is better. Good luck!

[Hidden]

Sorry to hear that, I do have a hacksaw, but I hope YOU don't.

There is a lot of a debate on this site about various remedies for RLS and I always think there's perhaps a little too much emphasis on the physical.

This is not well accepted by some members who become indignant because they think I'm suggesting that RLS is not a physical condition, as if it having a "psychological.element" to it means it's all the mind and similar connotations.

That's not what I mean.

I do have RLS and it is physical and when it occurs, there's little I can do to stop it.

Stress is a mediator between the psychological and physical elements of RLS. Heightened stress levels worsen RLS and insomnia.

However, a few years ago, I learned that "accepting" my RLS symptoms was a better tactic than strugglng with them. I used to lie awake all night in bed, struggling. Then, I started getting up, but still struggled. Then, I decided that while I was up, I might as well do something useful. I think that's when I stopped struggling.

Luckily for me, slight physical activity and definitely mental activity reduces symptoms. Overall, it doesn't help the insomnia, but nights were less of a nightmare. It may not lessen the incidence of symptoms but it does lessen the (I need a hacksaw), impact of them.

I recently discovered a form of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy which gives some support to my experience called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, (ACT).

That doesn't mean of course that you shouldn't ignore the physical, ( apart from hacksaws). Legs exercises, as suggested could help.

You don't say what, if any, medications you take for your RLS or any other physical things you do, or avoid doing. Perhaps, if medications, then they may need adjusting or changing.

[Bajatom in reply to Hidden]

Thank you Manerva, I agree with your analysis. Attitude is important. I've always wondered if there was some evoluntionary advantage for humans to have a few individuals in each small clan with RLS. Someone whose legs woke them up several times a night to get up and toss wood on a fire, check for snakes, tigers, enimies, and inclement weather, guaranteeing the survival of the group. So when my legs wake me an hour or two after finalling falling asleep, I first just let myself feel this agravating alarm clock, then accept my responsibility to stoke the fires, walk around the inside perimeter of the house, maybe step outside to check the sky since astronomy is my hobby. I do my calf stretches, maybe some yoga. On bad nights, when I go back to bed and wake in a hour or two with the "alarm" buzzing again, I take it as a sign to arise early and complete some task such as making a batch of vegan banana muffins, starting the coffee, editing something I've written, mopping the kitchen floor, and hope I get a short nap or energizing meditation session in during the day. Needless to say, we eat a lot of muffins.

[Hidden in reply to Bajatom]

Interesting theory about the evolutionary advantage, but I thought it was the men that checked for predators, not women, yet I read that more women get RLS than men!

I'm not sure that making muffins counts as a survival skill, but sounds yummy.

[Hidden in reply to Bajatom]

I’ve often wondered the same about the evolutionary advantage.

And then I’ve tbought that for most people genes were & still are passed on by having kids as young adults well before most folk’s rls kicks in - I used to sleep solidly till around age 50 - and most folk died by around middle age!

I liked to think my ancestors helped the species to survive but not so sure.

Seems to be a quirk of our recent longer survival?

[Bajatom in reply to Hidden]

Well, for sure, each of us would not be here without ancestors. Some genes may not express themselves until we hit 50. Or maybe until our lifestyle at an older age helps them kick in.

[Bajatom]

Maybe the women with RLS woke up and kicking to relieve RLS awoke their husbands who then got up to stoke the fire.

[Hidden in reply to Bajatom]

More like kicked their husbands awake.