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What non-medication measures have helped with your RLS?
Sleep Health | Last Active: 7 hours ago | Replies (10)Comment receiving replies
Yes, I have found surprising help using a vibration plate. It's certainly no magic cure in the sense that it doesn't last forever, but I am a severe sufferer and before I was given the right titration level for meds to settle my legs (which I desperately want to get OFF of) I was up and down all night, and a year ago had heard that vibration plates help with RLS. So I bought one. And sure enough, when I would be woken up by my RLS, I would step on my plate at level 1 for 2 minutes, then get back in bed. It doesn't last forever, but thank God that it at least quieted my legs so I could grab another 2 hours of sleep before having to repeat. B/c I also deal with other issues, like fibromyalgia, I learned the hard way to go light/gentle on the level setting. As to why it helps with RLS, I think it basically interrupts the messages your brain is sending to your neurological system. Kind of like paddles that reset your heartbeat. This is my totally NON medical best guess, but my understanding is that this is the crux of what's happening. Hope this helps somebody out there,
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@cpj88 Hi cp88. Your vibration plate (I think) works in a way that is similar to how using a long handled-massager on my legs helped me. Interrupting "RLS messages" with the shaking--or overriding the messages with stronger stimulation--whatever makes it work.
With the massager, however, I didn't need to get out of bed to use it. I wonder if you could put the vibration plate under your leg in bed?
If the planets were aligned correctly, within a couple minutes of holding the massager on my leg, the RLS stopped--again, similar to your vibration plate.
Now, I've moved on the using Nidra bands--a prescription device that Medicare bought for me (after a 13 month rental period, which Medicare also paid for). The Nidra bands are sort of like a TENS unit, only Nidra is high frequency and TENS is low. I wear them below my knees every night. These are even easier to use than the massager (I just press a button to turn them on and then go to sleep as they run).
Particularly when RLS was waking me multiple times every night, having something "easy" let me return to sleep more quickly. And the massager could get heavy to hold--the Nidra bands are the easiest method I've used. (I have lived through the "every two hours with RLS symptoms" nights and it's terrible--every moment of sleep is precious--the quicker I could go back to sleep was paramount).
I think it was very clever of you to turn to a vibration plate--your cleverness rewarded by how it helps.