RLS: A possible technique for mild symptoms?

[Guest guest]

I have not posted anything before and, going by the postings I've read, I

only have a very mild form of RLS. But very often I do have sensations in my

legs when I go to bed and at other times with the compulsion to move them and

they often twitch about every twenty seconds. So much for the background.

What I have found is that if, when one of these 20-second " waves " starts to

build up, I tense my arms and, if I'm lying on my back, dig my elbows into

the bed, the urge to twitch subsides! If I keep doing this as each " wave "

rises, and if the RLS isn't too bad that night, then I get to sleep faster

than I otherwise would. Tensing the arms also helps when the RLS comes on

while sitting in a chair in the evening.

I tried this because I read in the RLS literature that sometimes it might be

the result of a dopamine imbalance. My wife has Parkinsons disease and so I

learnt about dopamine and how it is deficient in PD sufferers. If RLS is

caused by too much dopamine at certain times, especially when the body is

supposed to be winding down ready for sleep, then I figured that moving parts

of the body other than the legs might help to use it up. And for me this

does seem to work! I feel sure it won't help much for serious RLS, but has

anyone with mild symptoms tried it?