Some probably saw the Wall Street Journal article (today, Mossberg) on the new Fitbit, a motion detecting device that monitors your movements and estimates how much you are moving and how many calories being burned. It apparently also can be worn at might to monitor sleep (estimating how much you sleep by how much you move). There are several similar devices out there such as Bodybugg, Gowear, and Sensewear (all by the same firm). Google searches will show more on any of these devices.

I have periodic limb movements and was wondering if any of these were useful in monitoring that (presumably if attached to your leg it could show how much you were moving). Of course, these are not sold as medical devices and I am aware of no tests.

Have any of you had any experiences with any of these. If they showed more movements on nights when you felt worse the next day, it could be a sign your PLM were worse and you might see the doctor to change your drug prescription and/or have your ferritin checked.

I'll be watching this thread because I too am interested in hearing if anyone has any experience with these devices. I have read about home use medical devices for detecting PLMD movements but if I remember correctly they were very expensive and for single use. There's also something called KickStrip, but I know nothing about it. I will soon be revisiting my sleep doc as the Ropinerole is up to 4mg and still not working well. Since my cpap therapy is fine, I sure would like some way to monitor my limb movements without a sleep study.

If you have periodic RLS, you might want to research adding a magnesium supplement. I'm no medical or health expert, but have read several articles that indicate magnesium can help counter RLS.

katcw - I read some about it too, have been taking a calcium, zinc, and magnesium supplement. Not sure if it's effectiveness is better in RLS or PLMD, but I figure it could only help. I broke down and started taking them more due to extreme leg cramps, and it sure did help those!