RLS Sleep Disorder

If you are suffering from RLS or restless leg syndrome, you will crave a good night’s sleep more than anything else. This condition can be extremely frustrating – you are tired, you long for sleep and just when you get into bed and are ready to relax, you get these symptoms of uncomfortable or even painful sensations in your legs and a general urge to move the legs to gain relief. Sometimes you have to get up and move around to relieve the discomfort which may even increase during the evening or the night.

Although no cure exists for RLS, different types of treatment can be used to manage the condition and relieve discomfort so that by trial and error, you will get that good night’s sleep.

If your symptoms are mild, self help treatment at home should be sufficient:

• During the day, develop an exercise program that relieves the RLS symptoms.
• Wrap your legs in ace bandages or wear compression stockings or tight pantyhose.
• If you have low iron levels, take iron supplements to balance this deficiency.
• Reduce or even eliminate altogether caffeine, alcohol and tobacco use as these substances often actual increase the symptoms of RLS.
• Keep a diary of your sleep schedule to help you pinpoint the ups and downs and the triggers.
• At bedtime, have a few minutes exercise before you get into bed such as pacing, walking or jogging.
• You can also try stretching your legs, do knee bends or rotate your ankles.
• Relaxing can be very helpful – trying meditation, yoga or just deep breathing.
• Try applying heat or cold. Some people find one or the other method helpful. Take a bath or soak your feet in hot or cool water, use a heating pad or hot water bottle or you may prefer a cold compress.
• Lie on one side with a pillow between the knees can be helpful and soothing.
• Use a natural healing product (which is available on line) to apply to and massage into the affected area both during the day and at nighttime to bring relief and help you to relax and to sleep.

If your symptoms are more severe, you can try applying electrical stimulation to your feet and legs to help reduce the nighttime leg jerking which you may be experiencing. Using a portable, bedside TENS unit, you can apply electrical stimulation to the area for 15 to 30 minutes at bedtime.
If none of the above helps and you are still not getting a good night’s sleep, then it is wise to seek the help and advice of your doctor. He will give you a definite diagnosis and be able to help with medication. But be very weary of all drugs and investigate the side effects especially when used for the long term. Some of the medications prescribed for RLS are:

• Hypertensive medications which, though generally prescribed for high blood pressure, can be effective in combating RLS.
• Dopaminergic agents which, though normally used to treat Parkinson’s disease, can increase the brain chemical dopamine that regulates muscle movements.
• Benzodiazepines which are sleep medications, or central nervous system depressants, but which also suppress muscle contractions. These medications can cause daytime sleepiness.
• Non-benzodiazepine sedatives which are sleeping pills that can be helpful.
• Opiates such as low-potency Darvon or high-potency Percodan which are pain-killing and relaxing drugs that can suppress RLS in some sufferers. However they can be addictive and should only be used in low dosages.
• Anticonvulsants such as Gabapentin or Neurontin, which are used to prevent seizures, but will reduce muscle contractions in some RLS sufferers so that the sensory disturbances such as creeping and crawling sensations in the legs decrease.

The problem with all of the above medications is that they are actually prescribed primarily for other conditions and their use for RLS has evolved over time. One drug may be helpful to one individual but even be detrimental to another sufferer. In addition, medications can lose their effect over time so that a change of medication is necessitated. There is a lot of trial and error that can take place.

In the meantime, NINDS (the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke) continually conduct and support research on RLS so as to increase the scientific understanding of RLS, to find improved methods of diagnosing and treating the syndrome and to discover ways to prevent it.

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