My oldest son suffers from some sort of restless leg/twitching/sleep walking disorder. It is only at night, which makes me suspect it is not RLS but rather PLMD. It was dx’d by sleep study/doctor - not Mom over the internet, LOL.
Currently he is taking gabapentin. He says it helps somewhat, but not enough. If he takes a higher dose then he is too sleepy during the day. His wife says he will get up at night, go to the kitchen, eat something, come back to bed, have no memory of it at all.
He also has Tourette’s - in tic form - which he’s had since he was very young. I’m not sure how prevalent it is today (he is 24). I wonder if as an adult he is suppressing it during the day and it comes out at night. This happened when he was in school - when he got old enough (2nd/3rd grade-ish) teachers would call his attention to it and ask him to control it, but soon as school ended he’d tic uncontrollably. We never did find a medication that helped him.
Anyway, I’m hoping someone out here has some insights into this? Avenues he might try? What about a weighted blanket?
I have suggested to him he take magnesium, and a good multi vitamin.
Thoughts anyone?
We had a veterinarian that was raised locally that had Tourette’s Syndrome.
At one time as a teenager he was one more barn rat in our race training stable, a very good one.
He made involuntary strange noises and say cuss words he was not aware of, which made his life difficult. Horses never seemed to mind at all about his strange vocalizations.
Medication he said didn’t help, but helped stabilize his moods somewhat, so less stress and that helped. Then, so long ago there was not much medications or knowledge as there is today.
In the time others worked on one degree, veterinarian, he achieve two, adding entomologist.
He became so good he was consultant on insect problems all over the world.
He said what helped him most was to take an hour or two for endurance runs.
He left veterinary supplies with us and would run from his clinic here, a good 30+ miles, and take care of our horses in training and broodmares, then run back to his office in town.
When for some reason he didn’t make time for his runs, he said he had trouble controlling his Tourette, which was hard as some clients would drop him because of that.
That was some decades ago, he is not with us any more.
Sad, he was an excellent human being and veterinarian too.
Our father had mild Tourette also and his was motor control problems, little jerky motions and accompanying noises like clearing throat or cough.
The only medicine had decades ago for that was supplementing with B-12, which he thought helped some.
Some times, just the act of trying to find routines or products that may help in itself seems to be helpful, tell him to keep trying just for that reason alone.
I don’t remember anyone that has Tourette I knew mentioning leg restlessness or sleep walking.
May be part of that for your son or a separate problem.
Good luck to your son that he finds some ways to manage.
We each of us are different but I find bed socks really help. I have neuropathy from chemo therapy and diabetes so my feet are really difficult when I get into bed. During the day I don’t have any problem. The socks - and this sounds weird - seem to tell my feet where they end so they don’t seem to buzz as much. I also take a magnesium supplement.
I have MS. ONE of my many, many symptoms is that occasionally one of my legs starts jerking when I am sleeping, jerking enough so that it can wake my husband, and eventually it wakes me up.
In the grocery store one day I noticed “Hyland’s Restful Legs” combination homeopathic remedy. I bought it and took one pill. The leg jerking at night abated. When my leg jerked again at night I took another pill. Eventually my legs stopped jerking when I was asleep. If I remember correctly this took several months, only taking it if my legs started jerking again.
Around a year later I had to take another pill of this remedy.
I have not had to take another pill, and it has been around two years ago. I still have pills in the original bottle I bought.
I do not know if this would work for you, but it is over the counter, it even ends up in grocery stores and drug stores, and it is not very expensive at all.
It could be worthwhile for you to try it. I have NO side effects from this remedy except that my darn legs STOPPED jerking every night while I slept (I tend to get bad side effects from most prescriptions from the doctors so this is a great relief for me.)
My mom suffers from restless leg where when she gets into bed her legs twitch and jerk pretty badly. She then gets out of bed and rides her exercise bike for about an hour (!) and says that gives her relief. She also has neuropathy in her legs. Was diagnosed with Parkinson’s-- but I am not fully convinced she has it.
I have minor , occasional bouts of what I can only hope is not RL . I am fine until I lay down to sleep and then my calves just feel like I need to stretch them. So I get up and do that for a few minutes and it makes a difference, thankfully.
My husbands elderly uncle had it badly and he would have to walk the floor for hours at bedtime. He is not able to walk now so I have no idea if it bothers him or not. He has advanced Parkinson’s.
I hope your son can find relief.
I get restless leg BUT taking 800mg magnesium a day keeps it away. I also eat plenty of veggies etc but somehow need that extra mag. Please do write back with what you try and what works ok?
Just throwing out another possibility. My restless leg symptoms are caused by my food allergies. Originally diagnosed by my Dr.as restless leg it cleared up after figuring out my allergies. If I eat poorly and react then that night my legs will drive me bonkers. If I treat the allergy symptoms with Benadryl the leg shaking goes away.
I need both magnesium and calcium. Mine manifests as an unconscious need to move a little bit. If I force myself to keep still the need becomes conscious and crawling and painful. I can’t just ignore it when I’m falling asleep because the movement occurs every 10-30 seconds. It’s worse later at night or when I’m really tired from physical exertion.
Someone on my FB Long Covid Support Group has said she has had success with … a bar of soap in her bed. Apparently, place a bar of soap under your sheet, presumably near your feet. However, soap does contain magnesium so it might not be as ludicrous as it first appears.
Yes, I had heard of that. LOL. I read the magnesium thing too.
Which makes me wonder if soaking in Epsom salts at night would help…?
I suffer with restless leg syndrome at night a lovely side effect from my breast cancer treatment….when I feel them getting “restless” I take magnesium and it works like a charm!
