Thanks Mellow.  Yeah, I did alot of the research on the med when it was prescribed.   I knew it caused drowsiness...that was fine. The worst part is, as drowsy as it makes me, it's kinda like it makes me too sleepy or too drowsy to fall asleep.  I toss and turn worse than I did when the RLS symptoms were at their full peak.  Last night was awful.... Dr. called in some Ambien for me. 

 

I tend to have muscle spasm in my legs at night, I take a low dose of flexeril (muscle relaxer) stops the spasms and I sleep like a baby, no side affects.

Thanks, Petey. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I decided to go off the mirapex.  It did help aleviate the RLS symptoms.  BUT, I felt like crap.  I felt "drugged" basically.  My sleeplessness was probably worse by taking that medication than it was while I was either dealing with the RLS symptoms or the insomnia.  I did take 1 ambien last night.  I fell right to sleep about 9:30ish pm,  so I didn't even notice any RLS (no relaxing on the couch-just straight to bed after back from bowling).  Woke up this morning about 4 am (normal wake up time on weekdays), and I don't have that hangoverish feeling and cloudiness.  I feel better rested...not fully rested but it's a start.

 

I guess the mirapex works well for RLS but the side effects were too much for me to handle.  I don't like feeling the effects of any medication....and I'm way past the "recreational" days.  The Dr. gave me 30 day supply of the Ambien and I'll just take that in the evenings before bed in the work week and I'll see what happens on the weekend with my legs...

 

SO, heads up for anyone else if they have or will ever have the RLS.  If mirapex is prescribed, the physical side effects were kinda nasty with me.  There's other side effects including pleasure seeking behavior changes (compulsive shopping, gambling) but I don't think I was on it long enough to be affected in that regard.  Although I did go to the grocery store yesterday and bought 3-12 pak cases of cup of noodle soup, 1 box of hot chocolate,1 box of apple cider, 1 box of chai tea,  a box of oranges, 2 boxes of instant flavored hot cereal and 3 boxes of chewy granola bars and took it to work for everyone in the department to utilize and stay "fueled" during our extended hours.  That's really more along the line of a supervisor or director responsibility to square up the staff.  But what the heck, soup, hot cocoa and hot apple cider is alway yummy on cold rainy days  I figured everyone else on our floor might think so too!   I don't think I would have normally gone to that extent (haven't in 6 years that I've been there) so it could have been the med that altered my "shopping" behavior....oh well.

hey missmysia,  I take 2mg of Requip 1/2hr before going to bed.  helps my legs to relax. 

 

 

Hi Aimless. 

I looked into the requip and one of the side effects is tiredness too.  I have insomnia to begin with...  I don't like "side effects" of medication.  Sometimes it seems like the side effects are worse than the symptom you're trying to treat.  AND that pleasure seeking side effect took a few days to clear out of my system...Oh my gosh....I went and bought a cat gym, a doggie bed....just some weird, off the wall, gotta make my animals comfy thinking!  I'm an impulse buyer big time BUT...I get buyer's remorse as I'm standing at the checkout so I rarely follow through...

 

So....because I'm usually pretty active right up to relax time...I'm just going to spend whatever few minutes, maybe up to a good 30 minutes of relaxing before the RLS sets in, take an Ambien and then go to bed.  I haven't had any side effect on the ambien YET.  I'm only taking it on M, W, Th and Sunday nights vs. every night.  I have a tendency towards addictive behavior's and I just don't need to get caught up in sleeping med addiction.  I seem to be feeling pretty rested lately.  It's made a big difference on my mental energy level.

 

Thank you, Therm and Sass.