Hi Zombiewoof:

Suboxone is, like methadone, primarily used to treat addiction. It is made of buprenorphine (the part that helps restless leg) and nalox. The nalox mades it so someone with an addiction problem can't take a bunch of Suboxone all at once to get high, while it seems to have no effect when the Suboxone is taken as prescribed (like for me).

Suboxone comes as a rather small film. I'm prescribed just a part of the film and my (clever, dexterous) husband cuts it and places it in slots of my pill container (M-Tu-W etc). The size I take is teeny. Suboxone is absorbed under the tongue where it dissolves. Buprenorphine comes in a pill form (without the nalox), but (according to my doctor) is more expensive than when taken as Suboxone--why that is how he prescribes it.

Interestingly, for me, it doesn't take effect quickly. I go to bed three hours after taking it.

Realize it isn't the Suboxone that works. It's the buprenorphine in the Suboxone.

I really understand your sense of desperation. I stood on the very same ground. I'm sure I now have PTSD from it. Lack of sleep is torturous. Anyone subjected to this torture would become anxious and focused on getting effective treatment. I eventually developed insomnia--I remember one night only sleeping an hour and a half--which was the worse pain I ever experienced. I'm sure my brain caught on to the fact that sleep brought the RLS symptoms and refused to go to sleep to avoid them.

But, with effective treatment, I almost immediately started to fall asleep quickly and effortlessly (and like "normal" people) on a nightly basis. From total desperation to this---Yes, miraculous is what it felt like.

Not that every night is always perfect.

And anxiety does feed the RLS symptoms, so I try to do the things that make my bedtime less stressful. None of the "sleep hygiene" stuff ever made a difference (cold, dark room, with the sleep noise machine going all night etc etc). And, it was recommended that I not read in bed. Nonetheless, I do read a chapter or two, cosy in bed, because it relaxes me. I don't check the time when I shut my Kindle because I don't want to start counting "how many hours of sleep" if my RLS isn't bad and I have something to do the next morning--because that might make me anxious.

For me, I believe nothing was going to make the difference I needed until I was prescribed medication that was effective for me. I believe effective medication is the cornerstone for me. But, even this was not an overnight process. The more time on (what has been for me) the correct course, the more stable RLS management has become.

Zombiewoof: don't give up! I am pulling for you!