r/RestlessLegs

Just wondering if anyone has tried a weight blanket for their restless legs and if so did it help at all?.

Has anyone managed to find anything that actually helps the god awful rls and body of suboxone withdrawal? I’m on day 4 of coming off subs and oh my god am I fucking miserable. I haven’t been able to sleep in 2 days, even during the day at work it’s damn near unbearable and it’s really making life hard to manage. If anyone has had any luck with any remedies (excluding weed or any other drug that can come up on drug tests as I’m still on probation) thank you in advance

RLS diagnosed 2004. I recognize that y'all aren't sleep medicine docs. I'm just looking for ideas. I want to get off Mirapex because of tolerance, possible augmentation, and significant impulsive-compulsive syndrome. I always talk with my sleep medicine physician about alternative treatments.

EDIT: I edited on 4 Oct 2026, 13:35 GMT/UTC, to add a glaring omission (big goal is to get off Mirapex), and add a couple of things I forgot, e.g., getting off Effexor.

Current Treatment - All prescribed by board-certified sleep medicine physician (MD)

• Gabapentin 800 mg
• Methadone 15 mg
• Mirapex (pramipexole) 0.375 mg - I have had to take as much as 3.0 mg but I have been able to reduce over the past several years due to several factors.
• Nidra TOMAC System (Tonic Motor Activation) - helped me reduce Mirapex to 0.375 (from 0.50).

Adverse effects of Mirapex

• Tolerance, possible augmentation
• impulsive-compulsive syndrome: dream-like compulsive overeating at night - I take Mounjaro which has helped me lose 15% of body weight but Mirapex completely cancels the therapeutic effects of GLP-1 at night.

Comorbid conditions

• 2009 - obstructive sleep apnea (mild), use BiPAP religiously although I take off at night while asleep (I've tried all mask types, CPAP & BiPAP); I've had 6 sleep studies over the years.
• 2012 - idiopathic hypersomnia - diagnosed correctly, i.e., polysomnogram (PSG) followed by a daytime Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT)
• 2013 - type 2 diabetes

Note: Year diagnosed.

Tried but did not work at all or only a little - all prescribed by board-certified sleep medicine physician (MD)

• Iron infusion - didn't help but was worth a try
• Tramadol - helped a little, methadone 15 mg is significantly more effective for me
• Lyrica - adverse effects
• gabapentin enacarbil - adverse effects
• ropinirole (Requip) - minimal therapeutic effects
• melatonin - adverse effects
• Klonopin (clonazepam) - didn't help and made me groggy in the morning (it was the lowest starting dose)

Not tried:

• rotigotine patch

Alternative treatments

• THC-9 2.5 mg (gummies) - helps me sleep through the night and don't need as much Mirapex, but I'm too tired during the day
• magnesium supplements - I take highest recommended dose but does not help RLS
• massage therapy - feels great overall but does not help RLS

Exacerbating medications

• Effexor - I did not have RLS until two years after I started taking an SSRI. Research shows SSRIs & SNRIs (like Effexor) aggravate and maybe even cause RLS. My sleep medicine doc, who was also a psychiatrist, helped me wean off Effexor. It took 10 months but I was able to reduce Mirapex by 50%.

Lifestyle changes

• No more than one standard drink 2-3 times/week
• Reduced nicotine - quit cigarettes 2021; vaping helped me quit (along with several other things); I have recently reduced overall nicotine from 60 mg/day to 40 mg day - has helped some, goal is to quit completely
• Reduce caffeine from 1500 mg/day to 400 mg day - definitely helped
• Walk for 40 minutes 5x/week - helps some
• Sleep hygiene - I try hard but it's a challenge b/c I wake up frequently and am tired during day

Goals:

• No nicotine at all
• Keep working on improving sleep hygiene
• Get off Mirapex

I slept all night last night! I’ve been suffering with rls for a while now the night before I got maybe 2 hours of sleep. But last night I slept a good 8 hours it was amazing. So I have read that Trazadone can make rls worse for some people so this might not be for everyone but I was willing to try anything. So I took one trazadone with some gabapentin and slept like a baby. Hope this helps someone!

I just ordered my next bottle and Amazon noted it’s the tenth time I ordered a six month supply of French Maritime pine bark extract. That sounded nuts so I looked back and sure enough, I first ordered it in 2022 after reading about a small study using Pycnogenol for RLS.

Needless to say, for me personally it’s been very useful.

The worst nights I’ve had since starting it were one where it turns out I’d forgotten to take it, and on international flights where feeling the vibrations of the airplane through my feet really set me off no matter what I take.

Anyway, I think it was a post here that linked the study so I wanted to give my thanks for that info by mentioning it turned out to be very helpful.

My husband found an article on PubMed that said Stevia was linked to restless legs. I have Stevia all day long in everything. Protein bars, my electrolytes, my morning coffee sweeteners. So I went two days without Stevia and I have not had restless legs. I do not believe this is the answer, but I just want to know if any of you use lot of artificial sweeteners? If so, maybe you could try going a day or two and see if it makes a difference. I don’t think it could’ve worked that fast with me, but I am so hopeful.

Before I started taking SSRI, I had been suffering from RLS for a few years. At first it was only triggered by sleep deprivation. Then started having RLS symptoms no matter how well-rested I was.

Now, everyone knows that medication, especially SSRI, can worsen or even cause RLS, but apparently not in my case haha. I can't explain it but my symptoms somewhat ceased to exist... almost immediatelly after staring my treatment. Even my psychiatrist was in awe :0 And to be honest, I'm kind of puzzled myself because I expected the opposote outcome.

THAT'S NOT TO SAY THAT IT'LL WORK FOR YOU - O don't encourage you to try psychiatric meds for your RLS! IN FACT, IT'S STATISTICALLY MORE POSSIBLE THAT SSRI WILL MAKE YOUR SYMPTOMS WORSE. So please don't try this method without consulting a professional forst.

I just wanted to share this unusual story of me overcoming my struggle :] I'm curious if someone out there has similar experience? And if there's a possibility of RLS returning after I stop taking the meds?

I ran out of blood pressure med, Lisinopril, last night and didn't know it until midnight, so I went to bed without it. And I had no restless legs - it was the best night in over ten years. I got the refill today and took the Lisinopril at 1:30 pm and took a nap at 3:30 pm, during which I had restless legs. This surprised me since I only have restless legs during the day when I eat something with a color additive, such as Red Velvet Cake or Cherry Limeade. First question - do any of you get restless legs from food additives?

Second question - Could Linsinopil trigger restless legs or was it the "iron Oxide-Red" the drug company used to coat the outside of the pill red that did it?