Restless Leg Syndrome

Restless Leg Syndrome is a disorder where you feel strange sensations in your limbs, usually the legs. These may vary from a feeling of needing to move your legs to intense pain.

Patients with RLS usually have worse symptoms at night or when they’re trying to relax. As a result, people with disorder often suffer from insomnia.

Often people with RLS are falsely diagnosed with disorders ranging from severe stress and insomnia, to other problems like arthritis.

While you may only have a slight tingling sensation when you try to sleep now, you could develop severe pain and insomnia in the future. It’s best to go to your doctor as soon as you suspect there’s a problem so it can be treated early.

If you wake up in the middle of the night due to leg movement, you may actually suffer from a similar disorder called periodic limb movement disorder, or PLMD. With PLMD, your legs move and jerk while you sleep, usually every minute or so.

While Restless Leg Syndrome can keep you from falling asleep, PLMD can disrupt your sleep as well by waking you repeatedly during the night. You may actually have both problems.

About 80% of people with RLS also suffer from PLMD; however, most people with PLMD don’t have RLS. That’s why you should be evaluated by a doctor, so you can get treated for the proper condition.

Most people consider RLS to be annoying, but in the long term, it can be detrimental to your health. Sleep is important for our body to function properly. If you can’t get to sleep at night because of painful or annoying sensations, you’re probably not getting enough sleep.

If you’re waking up repeatedly in the night, even if you don’t remember it, you could be deprived of certain types of sleep that come later in the sleep cycle. If you’re feeling tired, irritable, or overly stressed, you symptoms may be relieved with a good night’s rest. Getting treated may help you realize how detrimental this disorder has been to your life.

Treatment options may include lifestyle changes, or in more severe cases, medicine. The important thing is that, while it is not curable, RLS is treatable. You don’t have to live with it! So don’t wait, see a doctor today and find out what they can do to improve your life.

From Restless Leg Syndrome to Body