Do you ever feel unpleasant sensations in your legs coupled with an uncontrollable urge to move them in order to relieve those sensations? If so, you likely suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome.
Restless Legs Syndrome affects as many as 12 million Americans, and I am one of them. My symptoms vary somewhat, but most often during an attack my legs feel as though an uncomfortable electric current is flowing from the middle of my thigh all the way down to my foot. Rarely is it what I would describe as painful, but the sensation is just irritating enough to keep me from falling asleep. And when I do finally begin to drift off to sleep my legs will jerk and wake me up again. Lucky for me, I usually feel these sensations in just one leg at a time, but sometimes (usually when I am very tired) they affect both legs simultaneously.
On occasion the unpleasant sensations feel more like “bugs” crawling inside my legs, and for me that is even more unpleasant than the “electric current” described above. Every now and then I’ll have both sensations at once (which is the very worst case for me), but in reality I’m one of the lucky ones. I know of several people who experience those sensations along with burning and cramping as well. My sister Helen has one of the most severe cases of RLS that I know of, and were it not for the medication her doctor has prescribed for it she wouldn’t be able to get any sleep at all.
No one knows for sure what causes Restless Legs Syndrome, but research is underway to determine why we have it and what we can do to cure it. Right now the best that doctors can do is try to treat the symptoms (sometimes successfully, sometimes not), but if you’re one of the 12 million people afflicted with RLS you know that even a little relief can mean the difference between getting some much-needed sleep and having to walk around during the day like a zombie.