sleep problems and using a weighted blanket.

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Cindy, have you tried a TENS machine for your legs? I have found that it helps enough of the time to have made it worthwhile to have one. I also found that the leg pain and cramping that used to wake me up at night, as well as the restless legs, improved significantly when I started taking Calcium Citrate every day.
 
Cindy, have you tried a TENS machine for your legs? I have found that it helps enough of the time to have made it worthwhile to have one. I also found that the leg pain and cramping that used to wake me up at night, as well as the restless legs, improved significantly when I started taking Calcium Citrate every day.
I was amazed how cheap TENS units are these days! Amazon is full of them, at a fraction of the cost of the last time I'd looked 👍
 
I love my TENS and my weighted blanket. I love pressure in general, I make my husband just hold me real tight when he hugs me but it hurts to be poked or tickled... I will bruise with the slightest poke...and I will throw punches if you even look like you are going to tickle me. LOL
 
I wake up several times during the night my legs never stop moving.
Hey Cindy, my legs used to be like that as well but I started rubbing a magnesium lotion into my legs every night before bed and it took a week or so but really helped! I used one bottle and kept forgetting to order more but my legs have been okay since which is even better! The brand was BetterYou. Definitely worth a shot before a weighted blanket just going by the prices. Although I'm also considering a weighted blanket because I barely get any deep sleep in general 🙃
 
Thank you JukeGen I will definitely try that, and hey I am there with you on not getting alot of sleep yikes:sleep:😲
 
Thank you JukeGen, I just tried the magnesium spray this last week and it worked! It's "Dead Sea Magnesium Oil". Only 9 dollars a bottle. Wonderful.
 
yes it is restless leg
Ah... - a common med used for that here is levodopa/L-dopa (here with benserazide, which after reading it up I think is a good idea).
I was prescribed it to find out if I might have RLS or not.
It seemed to help a bit when underdosed, but not with the full dose. It seemed to then get worse.
It was then that I realized it was my lower back being sensitive to pressure, more exactly the area my sacroiliac joint SIJ.
When I tried to lie on my back more, which is sometimes better for my hunchback/kyphosis, it got worse.
Then I kept that down to under 5 minutes and since then it has gone, comes back when I don't keep to it.
It had been extremely sleep destructive. Now my acupressurist is trying to work on it, but it's a tough one.
 
Where are you from? I've never heard of those medicines so I'm thinking US haha
Hehe, nope, Germany (see my profile). But I think in the last 2 years I've learnt about a lot of meds others haven't heard of ... part of this "business" for me... ;-). In this case however my sleep lab psychiatrist wanted me to try it.
l-DOPA/levodopa is used for Parkinson's. The "spectacular" neurologist Oliver Sacks also used it if you know his books or the film. It increases dopamine (as the name says), as opposed to serotonin, so like my glutamine & theanine etc. as opposed to my GABA, so if I took it, I'd need more GABA to relax more. (Seems strange, do'nit: serotonin relaxes, but now its antagonist dopamine decreases restlessness... neurotransmitters are complicated... but fun.)
If you want to try and can't get the med, there are herbs that have it too (see wikipedia), esp. Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean), and Vicia faba (broad bean).
I've actually still got Mucuna on my list (the one-after-last, which is ALC ;-)....): Ayurvedic, good for neurological disorders and arthritis, so why not... I fear I'll be getting bored in a few weeks, Dr. JayCyll at the end of his list, and no more Mr. Hyde sfx from (having to) overdose.... more stability, less suprises (?!) *yawn* ;->
 
I use a cotton sheet folded to a quarter. Weighted sheets contain materials not suitable to a Fibromyalgia sufferer!
Cotton all the way. Not even wool!
 
I use a cotton sheet folded to a quarter. Weighted sheets contain materials not suitable to a Fibromyalgia sufferer!
Cotton all the way. Not even wool!
Ah, another cotton-fan: Hi, Mr B from Mr CS :cool:. Even certain cotton processing (occasionally even organic) gives me problems, even 'detectable' by my wife... :rolleyes: Unfortunately even "100% cotton" is not 100% cotton...

As far as I've read however, many fibromites - as opposed to us 2 - have like non-fibromites no problems with synthetics etc. despite oversensitivity to other things, esp. heat/cold, certain meds, then light & sound etc. Question is also if it causes pain (in this case tactile/static and/or mechanical/dynamic, praps even thermal allodynia), overheating, the smell irritates etc. (In my case it's sort of overheating, pre-fibro). So here goes..:
Researching suitable clothing textiles for fibromites I found:
fibromyalgiaresources: soft materials, incl. fleece (so synthetic), but also things loose & light like silk.
fightfibromyalgia: clothing as trigger is a fairly new concept: belts, waistbands, tight elastic socks, detergents. Next to the fairly natural cotton, silk and satin: stretchy knits, fleece and flannel, usually all synthetic. fibrowomen: similar, shorter.
verywellthealth: Focus on allodynia. Similar, adding viscose/rayon (part-synthetic). Wear less at home... contradicts weighted blankets.
healthcentral (Karen Lee Richards): soft cotton and polyester knits, watch for fabric & seams, style & size: neck & waist areas, underwear. fibromyalgia-symptoms: similar, shorter.

As I wrote above, you can get weighted blankets with only organic cotton and glass beads from cura of Sweden (price crash) and now sweet zzz mattress (maybe they made cura 'come down'). However I've hardly seen this discussed much, it'd just be my solution if my tests had worked out.

fedupwithfatigue/nationalpainreport (Donna Gregory) claims the weighted blankets stimulate the skin to release serotonin, which calms, "like a hug from someone we love does". (Now there's a challenge: Hugs are brilliant, but not longer than a few minutes.... )
Others say it reduces anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD, autism, feel safer, protected.
There are over 200 studies on them on pubmed, esp. focusing on anxiety, however 0 on fibromyalgia (also 0 on blankets or cotton).
The 2 most recent ones are of mixed opinion whether there is enough evidence or not:
Study by Ekholm et al, 2020: "Weighted chain blankets are an effective and safe intervention for insomnia in patients with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also improving daytime symptoms and levels of activity."
Review by Eron et al, 2020: "Weighted blankets may be an appropriate therapeutic tool in reducing anxiety; however, there is not enough evidence to suggest they are helpful with insomnia."

I think adding blankets hasn't helped me, so weights won't either, partly cos they make it harder to change/twist my positions. But I'm thinking from recent experience that the pressure of my body on the mattress gets too high (altho I've softened those areas with toppers).
If I were anxious or depressive, hadn't got control of my hyperactivity and traumata, had less problems with long hugs, then I'd think it likely I'd try it more.... But my wife remembers someone with anxiety etc. using a nursing/breastfeeding pillow and also myself, sometimes having used a hugging pillow, as alternatives.
 
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