Legs contain long nerves and large muscles. Without good blood flow, they can cramp and without good nervous flow, they can become agitated or restless.
While you are lying motionless in bed, trying to relax and fall asleep, your muscles don’t experience the movement and flow that they do during the day to keep fibers relaxed, fluids moving and waste exiting. This can lead to nocturnal muscle cramps and restless legs.
The National Institutes of Health estimate that as much as 10% of the US population suffers from Restless Leg Syndrome.
Common advice is to include more calcium, magnesium and potassium in your diet. This helps some people.
However, a deficiency in these vital elements is not always the cause. Sometimes your muscles just need extra help to relax and your nerves just need to be soothed so they stop sending aberrant signals to your brain. Massaging them doesn’t seem to help, stomping them doesn’t seem to help.
What do you do at 3:00am when your legs won’t stop cramping or won’t stay still? There are some common drugs that are prescribed to treat the condition but they have limited effectiveness and the side effects can be worse than the condition.
There are several natural and effective treatments that can be used. Cramp Bark and Wild Yam relax skeletal muscles while Peppermint, Sage and Rosemary improve blood and lymphatic flow to the region. St. John’s Wort and Lavender calm down overactive nerves.
The best way to benefit from the wonderful constituents of these herbs is to decoct them with hot water and apply them directly to the skin. Don’t eat them in capsules.
Applying a spray or a roll-on of the decoction to the legs and feet is the most effective method. We recommend a product called Leg Relaxer that delivers these ingredients in an aqueous gel in a roll-on bottle. It is easy to apply and your legs will calm down in minutes so you can get back to sleep.