Restless Legs Syndrome or RLS. No, it’s not the title of my new novel. It's a condition. I suffer from it. Have for years. Now don’t go running away screaming. It’s not a disease and it is not contagious. It is damned annoying, keeps you from going to sleep and, hopefully, having a nice dream.
If you’re with me still you’re probably thinking, “What the heck? I thought this is a site where books and stories are discussed.” It is, but sometimes I like to write about other stuff. Like this topic. It is important.
I don’t want to waste much time explaining what LRS is. Anyone who suffers from this annoying condition knows what I’m talking about. If you don’t, then you don’t have it, but if you are interested in finding out about it, there are 885,000 sites out there (I kid you not!). Many of them describe it to death, many of them offers cures. Most of them want your money. Some might work, some probably don’t, and all the medical ones usually also cause side effect, some even worse than RLS.
I wanted to post on one of these forums, but you have to join the groups, and that can be a pain. I actually did join one (The WE MOVE Discussion Forum), until now I haven’t been approved to post. So I said forget it. I don’t really want to discuss it anyway. I just like to tell people what helped me. Now, this may not work for everyone, because everybody reacts differently to what we put into our bodies, be it medicine or just food. I told some of my friends about this and it worked for them. Don’t expect a great secret, like saying a bunch of mantras, smoking a sacred leaf, bowing east and west, or sit in a ‘relaxed’ position with your legs crossed into a pretzel. This is so simple, it’s almost a letdown of the suspense you must feel right now.
Before I go to bed I drink a glass of Tonic Water and it calms down my nerves (because that’s what LRS is, a nervous condition which creates involuntary movement of your legs). It’s the quinine that does the trick.
My wife saw a few years ago on ‘Ann Landers’ a letter suggesting to take quinine for leg cramps. I found it helps me to sleep with my LRS. Medical people will probably shrug this off as another crazy folk lore thing, because they can’t explain it scientifically, but hey, not everything needs to be explained, as long as it works. And this definitely works for me. It’s cheap and has no side effects. And it isn’t addictive, either. Hell, some people drink Tonic Water with Gin. Maybe they sleep good after that, assuming it’s the gin that puts them to sleep. (I don’t know)
Quinine is an alkaloid found in the bark of the cinchona tree, a tree native to South America. This information is for you scientists who are a bit more inquisitive and need to have everything explained. (No offence intended).
If you suffer from RLS, try it out and tell your friends about it. Maybe word will spread this way and save a few people from losing sleep.
If you don’t know what the heck I am talking about here, don’t lose any sleep over it. LOL. Count yourself lucky you don’t have it, but don’t relax too soon, especially if you’re a young person. It can find you at any time. If it does, you’ll know what to do.
