The Oregonian recently published a blurp about a popular RLS technique in their "People's Pharmacy" Advice section:

Q: I finally fell asleep last night but woke back up an hour and a half later. I had started getting cramps and a creep-crawly feeling in my legs. I know some people who have RLS (restless leg syndrome), so I decided to look it up and see if there were any remedies. I'm sitting at the computer right now with a bar of soap under each leg, and it seems to be working! (I thought this idea was crazy, but I figured I had nothing to lose.) Thank you.

A: (from The Oregonian) Placing a bar of soap under the bottom sheet, near where the legs will rest, is one of the wackiest remedies we've come across. We have heard from so many people that is helps, however, that it is clear some folks do benefit. Besides, soap is inexpensive and doesn't have side effects. That cannot be said about the medications prescribed for RLS.

I got a chuckle out of this one, because it sounds so absolutely ridiculous... but I figured "what the heck" - it's worth a shot. But since the soap was recommended to be put under the sheet, I figured it was more of a pressure point related solution than the contents of the soap. And if that's the case, then it should work with any object that's about an inch thick and three inches long by two inches wide.

If you're starting to grab the car keys to run to the store and buy soap - save your gas. Sure, you may find temporary relief merely due to the well known placebo effect, where symptoms seem to magically go away even though no actual treatment was performed (a mind-over-matter trick that the brain and psyche occasionally plays on us).

Or the mere act of getting up and walking over to the sink to get a bar of soap may be enough of a physical and mental distraction to provide some temporary relief. But the relief will be just that - temporary. Your symptoms are likely to return, and with a vengeance if you decided to hold off on your regular medication in hopes that this myth might just do the trick for you.

I recommend that you stick to the tried and trued basics of RLS symptom management. Keep taking the medication prescribed for you by your doctor, get plenty of rest, avoid high amounts of protein, and make sure your iron and magnesium levels are up to par by taking daily vitamin supplements. Combine that with regular, moderate exercise and you'll be doing all that can be done to help minimize your RLS symptoms.

So does soap under the legs help relieve RLS symptoms, or is this just another myth?

In my case the soap seemed to help for about 5 minutes. After that, my excitement was replaced by dissappointment as the creepy, crawly sensations made their way back up my legs and into my arms and hands. Without medication, I get these symptoms every 5 to 10 seconds every day of my life, starting in the morning and lasting through the night.

I sincerely hoped that this natural remedy would work for me, but I'm sorry to report that it's only a myth.