My magic bar of soap
No doubt you have heard of a condition called restless leg syndrome. You've probably seen commercials on television for products that are supposed to cure it. You might even think it's one of those made-up imaginary diseases designed to make money for someone who has come up with a "cure." Well, I'm here to testify that it is not imaginary. I've suffered from it for years and it has cost me countless hours of restful sleep.
At times it is simply an annoyance, but at other times it is a serious problem, causing insomnia and making it difficult for me to function after a sleepless night of tossing and turning. I've tried any number of remedies over the years - exercises, massages, pain pills, analgesic ointments, various mineral supplements - and some of them even work, at least temporarily, but I've never found anything that really worked to permanently relieve the problem. Enter the world of folk remedies and white magic.
From time to time, I would read stories about sleeping with a bar of soap between the sheets as a cure for leg cramps and restless legs and I would always think to myself that this was probably the most ridiculous thing I had ever read. What could a bar of soap possibly do? I could conceive of no scientific basis for it and so I dismissed it.
A couple of weeks ago, I went through a really bad period of restless legs. In spite of trying all the methods I had used in the past to relieve my symptoms, nothing worked. For an entire week, I barely slept, and when I slept, it was not a restful sleep. My days were miserable. Sunday night, September 25, was the worst. I spent much of the night walking the floor. By Monday, I was desperate enough to try magic.
Last Monday night, before I went to bed, I slipped a bar of soap between the sheets. I slept soundly that night for the first time in over a week, so soundly that I found it hard to wake up the next morning. Maybe my body was trying to make up for its sleep deprivation. Every night since then, I have slept with my magic bar of soap, and the operative words here are "I have slept." I don't sleep as soundly as I did that first night every night, but every night I sleep without restless or cramping legs. For me, it's a miracle, because I can't explain it.
Why should a simple bar of soap make a difference? Does it exude some kind of chemical that calms the legs? Is it simply a placebo effect, the power of suggestion? Does it somehow invoke my protective spirits to come and lull me to sleep? Who cares? For now, for me, it works, and that is the only important thing. If it be white magic (or in the case of my soap, pink magic) it is the very best kind of magic!
At times it is simply an annoyance, but at other times it is a serious problem, causing insomnia and making it difficult for me to function after a sleepless night of tossing and turning. I've tried any number of remedies over the years - exercises, massages, pain pills, analgesic ointments, various mineral supplements - and some of them even work, at least temporarily, but I've never found anything that really worked to permanently relieve the problem. Enter the world of folk remedies and white magic.
From time to time, I would read stories about sleeping with a bar of soap between the sheets as a cure for leg cramps and restless legs and I would always think to myself that this was probably the most ridiculous thing I had ever read. What could a bar of soap possibly do? I could conceive of no scientific basis for it and so I dismissed it.
A couple of weeks ago, I went through a really bad period of restless legs. In spite of trying all the methods I had used in the past to relieve my symptoms, nothing worked. For an entire week, I barely slept, and when I slept, it was not a restful sleep. My days were miserable. Sunday night, September 25, was the worst. I spent much of the night walking the floor. By Monday, I was desperate enough to try magic.
Last Monday night, before I went to bed, I slipped a bar of soap between the sheets. I slept soundly that night for the first time in over a week, so soundly that I found it hard to wake up the next morning. Maybe my body was trying to make up for its sleep deprivation. Every night since then, I have slept with my magic bar of soap, and the operative words here are "I have slept." I don't sleep as soundly as I did that first night every night, but every night I sleep without restless or cramping legs. For me, it's a miracle, because I can't explain it.
Why should a simple bar of soap make a difference? Does it exude some kind of chemical that calms the legs? Is it simply a placebo effect, the power of suggestion? Does it somehow invoke my protective spirits to come and lull me to sleep? Who cares? For now, for me, it works, and that is the only important thing. If it be white magic (or in the case of my soap, pink magic) it is the very best kind of magic!
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