What is it, Why do we experience it and How can we deal with it?
Restless Leg/s Syndrome hit me unexpectedly a few years ago and literally has driven me crazy until I came up with a way to knock it over.
Not saying it’s going to work without fail for everyone, because like a lot of midlife/menopausal symptoms, everyone’s different but it sure as heck will make a difference.
This syndrome kept me awake, seemed to only hit at night, just about destroyed my sleep and lifted my anxiety and stress levels.
Until I knocked it over!!!
So what is it?
It’s a compelling need to move, stretch or cool the legs. It can feel like anything like a throbbing ache that centres in the knees and spreads right up to the hips, to a crawling itch, or a burning sensation or as some have described to me, a pain right deep into the bones. It can feel like a jumpiness in the legs that can’t find comfort in or out of the covers. It literally makes the legs incredibly restless, so therefore YOU are restless, your partner is affected and your sleep is being destroyed. As soon as I stand up, it’s gone – that’s the weird part. But I’ve yet to find anyone who can sleep standing up! So I needed to find a way to deal with it.
What causes it?
In most cases it appears at midlife in women, but it does affect men and younger women. If you google it (as we all do with these things) you’ll find it can be a deficiency in minerals like iron, magnesium, zinc, B12, Vitamin C and certain foods can make it worse. Alcohol or caffeine can exacerbate the issue.
What I did to relieve MY restless legs.
We all know food and diet controls how we feel and respond to our stages of life. As much as I love my red wine, I found my sleep is disturbed not enhanced with one too many glasses. I’m a big vitamin taker that helps immensely, but also found it’s the time of day that you take certain vitamins and minerals that make a world of difference. So I moved my calcium and magnesium to my night time dose – and even upped my magnesium. Magnesium is brilliant for relaxing muscles. What I found when the legs were at their worse, was my teeth grinding also kicked in. All the more reason to make sure I’m taking extra magnesium. I must be a nightmare to sleep next to!!! LOL
There’s the famous ‘legs up the wall’ pose that makes a difference to the quality of sleep, but it wasn’t quite enough for the pain in my legs. So I created a small stretch routine that can be done easily in bed. Give it a whirl and let me know how you go.
Being a yoga teacher I knew the power of stretch had to work for these kinds of symptoms. And it DOES. Hope you enjoy my little video here about a stretch I found that made an amazing difference. Hope it helps you!.
Anne Restless Legs from Anne Noonan on Vimeo.
The power of stretch is so totally undeniable. It’s created such a difference to me that I now run Stretch classes aside from Yoga classes. PM me for more detail. Do this a few times and hope you experience relief if Restless Legs are bothering you.
Supplement suggestion:
One of my favourites to relieve tension in the legs and muscles and it helps me sleep at night is Calcium/Magnesium. My favourite brand is available by clicking here. I only use pharmaceutical grade, tested and proven supplements and I wouldn’t recommend anything else to my clients or readers.
Check out my classes and workshops page and if you’d like to talk to me directly feel free to comment or drop an email at annen@tpg.com.au
Great tip Anne, and terrific video. Thanks!