Restless Legs

[Fash]

Anyone ever experience restless leg syndrome?

2 summers ago some friends and I were partying on a dock, and some people complained about my leg tapping.. they mentioned restless leg syndrome. I was like wtf? I am still amused that they come up with a name/condition for everything.

Anyways, I always thought it was normal as my knee has been bouncing since I was in grade school... incessantly and uncontrollably. So I asked my doctor about it, and she gave me Requip to try...

Less than 2 weeks in, one day I was bouncing my knee, the next I wasn't. It took effect that suddenly, and while I only took the pills for about 2 months (if that) the effects remained ever since. I was no longer constantly in need of motion and activity.. I could sit still.

It's back now. It's gradually returned over the past 2 months, and it's more annoying now than ever because I'm conscious of it (just like after people mentioned it the first time).. I hate taking medication, but that's probably where I'm headed again.

[Syenye]

I tap my legs, and I have since I was a little kid. It's not so much the tapping that bothers me (though others sometimes complain) but the inability to sleep at night due to the urge to move. It doesn't happen too often though. I'm a little more worried about the increased gambling urges that the meds warn of.

[Aslanna]

Some patients taking ropinirole have shown urges to behave in a way unusual for them. Examples of this are an unusual urge to gamble or increased sexual urges and/or behaviors.

Don't go to Vegas. And if you do go bring condoms.

[Ashur]

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/rest ... s_legs.htm

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder characterized by unpleasant sensations in the legs and an uncontrollable urge to move when at rest in an effort to relieve these feelings. RLS sensations are often described by people as burning, creeping, tugging, or like insects crawling inside the legs. Often called paresthesias (abnormal sensations) or dysesthesias (unpleasant abnormal sensations), the sensations range in severity from uncomfortable to irritating to painful.

The most distinctive or unusual aspect of the condition is that lying down and trying to relax activates the symptoms. As a result, most people with RLS have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. Left untreated, the condition causes exhaustion and daytime fatigue. Many people with RLS report that their job, personal relations, and activities of daily living are strongly affected as a result of their exhaustion. They are often unable to concentrate, have impaired memory, or fail to accomplish daily tasks.

Some researchers estimate that RLS affects as many as 12 million Americans. However, others estimate a much higher occurrence because RLS is thought to be underdiagnosed and, in some cases, misdiagnosed. Some people with RLS will not seek medical attention, believing that they will not be taken seriously, that their symptoms are too mild, or that their condition is not treatable. Some physicians wrongly attribute the symptoms to nervousness, insomnia, stress, arthritis, muscle cramps, or aging.

RLS occurs in both genders, although the incidence may be slightly higher in women. Although the syndrome may begin at any age, even as early as infancy, most patients who are severely affected are middle-aged or older. In addition, the severity of the disorder appears to increase with age. Older patients experience symptoms more frequently and for longer periods of time.

More than 80 percent of people with RLS also experience a more common condition known as periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD). PLMD is characterized by involuntary leg twitching or jerking movements during sleep that typically occur every 10 to 60 seconds, sometimes throughout the night. The symptoms cause repeated awakening and severely disrupted sleep. Unlike RLS, the movements caused by PLMD are involuntary-people have no control over them. Although many patients with RLS also develop PLMD, most people with PLMD do not experience RLS. Like RLS, the cause of PLMD is unknown.

I experienced symptoms a few months ago over like two nights and I was freaking out. I would sit down and my legs would just twitch/burn until I'd get up and walk around. It would go away for fleeting moments while I was busy, but I just couldn't shake it. I tried adjusting how I sat and a number of different other things. It happened to me two nights in a row and I was ready to commit to drugs or whatever to make it stop.

Then, all of a sudden, the symptoms went away the third night (right before I called my doctor). If they come back I'm calling my doctor the very next day.

[Fash]

I'm a little more worried about the increased gambling urges that the meds warn of.

Hehe, I noticed no such urges... I love to play poker but I didn't play at all during this time... like I said I only took the pills for 2 months to kick the habit. That's how I viewed it, as a habit... and I kinda-sorta blame Rock Band for ushering it back, as it focuses on my moving to the music and constantly using the kick pedal.

[Spang]

I think I have this syndrome, but I'm not taking drugs for it. I've gone this far without them, and so have lots of people, before it had a name and drug to go with it.

[Sylvus]

I've heard that symptoms can also be brought on by dehydration. So if you're wary of taking medicine, make sure you're staying adequately hydrated and see if that helps at all.

[Fairweather Pure]

It's only an issue if it bothers you. No need to medicate if it dosen't. Most people don't even notice or care that they have RLS.

[Winnow]

When your legs start moving involuntarily it usually means you need to go to the bathroom!

[Truant]

I have bouncy legs, and have since childhood.
I don't do it in ways that make noise, and as such, I don't care if it bothers someone.
It's never bothered me, so I don't see a need to medicate and stop it.

[Ashur]

I've heard that symptoms can also be brought on by dehydration.

Hmm, let's hope that's what it was for me. I am not a fan of regular medication. My wife takes a freaking cocktail of pills for a number of things and it's played trainwreck on her sanity IMO. She's going through withdrawals like a junkie from some pill they gave her for her sleeping disorder that they're weaning her off of.

[Aardor]

I've heard that symptoms can also be brought on by dehydration.

Hmm, let's hope that's what it was for me. I am not a fan of regular medication. My wife takes a freaking cocktail of pills for a number of things and it's played trainwreck on her sanity IMO. She's going through withdrawals like a junkie from some pill they gave her for her sleeping disorder that they're weaning her off of.

Ambien? Any sleeping pill that is habit forming is a PITA to get off of. I take a ton of pills, but luckily all of them (currently) are for allergies and not taking them only has the side effect of stuffy/runny nose, and being able to drink alcohol without a migrane.

[Lalanae]

Eric bounces his leg while he plays WoW. It sometimes makes a little sqeaky noise from his chair. It drives me nuts.

[Ashur]

Ambien? Any sleeping pill that is habit forming is a PITA to get off of. I take a ton of pills, but luckily all of them (currently) are for allergies and not taking them only has the side effect of stuffy/runny nose, and being able to drink alcohol without a migrane.

The other way. She's borderline narcoleptic and it's to keep her awake. Pemoline (Cylert) was the one she took for years and they took it off the market, so they've been trying other stimulants on her.

[Aabidano]

I've done it on and off as long as I can remember. If I'm in position where it makes noise I can stop and it doesn't bother me.

[iandaina]

Cymbalta can help with RLS, I had the burning, tingling omfg i have to move my frigging legs right now feelings, when I went on cymbalta it went away. Course, now I'm on effexor, and the feelings are back, but even the low dose of cymbalta helped with the RLS and neuropathy. Other than that I haven't found anything that works; course I haven't looked real hard either.

[Winnow]

haha, none of the above will work. Only make things worse!

You need to hydrate really well before hand, keep plenty of fluids at bedside and then just set the heater to around 80F, cover up with 3-4 blankets and turtle in for about a full day. Make sure you have someone checking on you every hour while you sleep. A good inside the ear thermometer works best for them to monitor your temperature while you sleep.... or you can use those plastic temp slides that go on your kids foreheads if you don't have the ear one.

You will sweat like crazy under those blankets so it is very important to hydrate well before you lay down and then wake up every few hours and drink a couple glasses of juice or water.

Your restless legs should be still by dawn.

[Sirensa]

Sylvos is a leg bouncer. Constantly. Has no idea he even does it. Does it in his sleep even. Drives me batshit insane.

[Ashur]

But all women are batshit insane, I don't think Sylvos is sleeping with all of them.

[miir]

Sylvos is a leg bouncer. Constantly. Has no idea he even does it. Does it in his sleep even. Drives me normal.

[Kilmoll the Sexy]

I have restless penis syndrome

[Asheran Mojomaster]

I have RLS but it does not bother me. I don't take any medication for it specifically, but I do take Klonopin for anxiety so it only takes me like 30 mins - 1 hour to sleep and once I am out I stay out. If I smoke enough weed that 30 minutes drops to around 10. I do bounce my leg sometimes, but not nearly as much as I used to. I think I would have to agree with the hydration thing. I drink anywhere between 80 and 120 oz of water every day, and while I did not notice this before, my legs and sleeping habits seemed to get better once I started doing that.

Of course, if its causing you serious sleeping problems and pain in your legs, go see a doctor. I don't agree with medicating for every little thing, but thats a good enough reason...just stay away from the sleeping pills. Ambien is EVIL.

[Winnow]

I think I would have to agree with the hydration thing. I drink anywhere between 80 and 120 oz of water every day, and while I did not notice this before, my legs and sleeping habits seemed to get better once I started doing that.

Drinking that much water, do you stick in a catheter in at night and let it drain out into a bucket beside your bed?

[Asheran Mojomaster]

I think I would have to agree with the hydration thing. I drink anywhere between 80 and 120 oz of water every day, and while I did not notice this before, my legs and sleeping habits seemed to get better once I started doing that.

Drinking that much water, do you stick in a catheter in at night and let it drain out into a bucket beside your bed?

Nope, I piss regularly, but not too much, and I guess I lose quite a bit of it from sweating while running or working out. I've noticed a definite difference in how well I fell in general since i started drinking that much water. You have to understand however, that when I say I drink that much water, I mean that much water and pretty much no soft drinks or any other drink except for the occasional glass of grape or orange juice.

I'm sure part of my ability to drink that much has to do with my insanely high metabolism. Lots of water is needed to burn all of those calories and fat.

[Ashur]

Cymbalta can help with RLS, I had the burning, tingling omfg i have to move my frigging legs right now feelings, when I went on cymbalta it went away. Course, now I'm on effexor, and the feelings are back, but even the low dose of cymbalta helped with the RLS and neuropathy. Other than that I haven't found anything that works; course I haven't looked real hard either.

omg Hi Daina!

[Xyun]

I used to make fun of those commercials, then I got RLS and I had it coming to me. It would happen mostly when I was trying to go to sleep, was fucking annoying as fuck. Didn't take any medication, just put a pillow between my legs and squeezed. I think part of it was because i was sleeping on the floor. When I got my bed delivered the RLS dramatically decreased and it is very rare nowadays.

[Daboohk]

Maybe psychophysiologic illness? I would wager most people didn't know they "had" it until they saw the commercial. I didn't even realize there was a fucking leg-moving disease. I just thought people got the jimmy legs and/or arms a la Seinfeld.

[laneela]

I have Restless Toe Syndrome. I'm wiggle my toes almost constantly. Apparently, I do it in my sleep too. And it's hereditary. My mom does it, my sister and I do it and my 6 month old niece does it.

[Kryshade]

I think some of you are alittle mistaken about RLS. Nervously bouncing your leg is not what restless legs syndrome is. Thats just a nervous habit and has nothing to do with restless leg syndrome.

I get RLS pretty bad on a frequent basis. I actually get it in various parts of my body. My arms, shoulders, back etc. If you have had RLS you would know it. It's an eerie, tickling, creeping feeling that feels as if its coming from inside your muscles. Movement makes the sensation temporarily go away but usually it will come back within a few seconds to minutes, Its also a building sensation. I can ignore/resist it for a time but eventually the feeling builds enough that you HAVE to move your leg to make it go away. It fucking sucks when your tired and trying to go to sleep and you feel like you have something crawling or tingling inside your leg muscles.

Being a pretty bad sufferer or this condition I've learned a few things. It happens much more frequently when I'm overly tired. If I stay up too late and go to bed too tired I'm almost certainly guaranteed to get it. I've also noticed that staying in one position too long late at night can help bring it about (i.e. long gaming sessions sitting in a chair).

I have found a non-drug cure that works really well for me and others that have the same problem. I've found that if I exercise the muscle group that is "twitching" (Thats how I refer to it as it feels like a miniscule twitching deep inside my muscle). If my legs are restless, I get up a do a shitload of squats or lunges or whatever targets the area I'm feeling the "restlessness" in. I get it in my arms/shoulders a lot as well, so I do pushups for that. I've found that if I exercise the muscle group to exhaustion it makes the feeling go away and stay away. I've actually been woken up in the middle of the night from this and I get up, bust out 40-50 pushups (nearly complete muscle fatigue) and the feeling is gone immediately. The first few times I did this my wife would wake up and wonder what the hell I was doing doing pushups on the floor at 3am. She's used to it by now though, and it works wonders for me.

They say they don't know what causes RLS. I have a pretty good theory. Our muscles contract from chemical transmittors that are released from one nerve ending to another. I think the symptom is caused by a slow "leak" of the chemical transmittors. Not enough to actually cause a contraction of the muscle, but enough to feel a "stimulation" of that muscle on a very small basis causing an overwhelming urge to move. Movement causes the muscle group to use the leaked transmitters causing the feeling to temporarily go away. Exercise to exhaustion (my solution) makes sense in this case as you basically exhaust the supply of this transmitter causing no more leak or RLS. (It's just my theory!)

Anyway, nervously bouncing your leg while at school, work etc is NOT RLS. I do that a lot too, it's just nervous energy. RLS is as described above. Just thought I should clear that up and offer my solution for those that do suffer from this. Give it a try, you'll be amazed. The key is you have to do it until it burns or you can't do another squat or pushup. Only takes a few minutes to get there and the feeling is gone. Al ot better than popping a pill for something that tends to be sporatic in it's onset.

[laneela]

So Kryshade, seriously (no restless toe syndrome nonsense), as of about a year ago, I've been getting this tingling on my outer thigh area (usually on my right leg). It's a gradual tingling that works up to a tingling/burning sensation. It happens when I'm sitting for a while or when I'm lying down. I thought it was circulatory but I'm not sure. Does that sound like it could be RLS? (and no, I have no intentions of going to the doctor because I feel like I have ants in my pants)

[Ashur]

Kryshade - precisely!
Laneela - maybe

[Kryshade]

So Kryshade, seriously (no restless toe syndrome nonsense), as of about a year ago, I've been getting this tingling on my outer thigh area (usually on my right leg). It's a gradual tingling that works up to a tingling/burning sensation. It happens when I'm sitting for a while or when I'm lying down. I thought it was circulatory but I'm not sure. Does that sound like it could be RLS? (and no, I have no intentions of going to the doctor because I feel like I have ants in my pants)

The problem with RLS is that its so hard to describe to others. Some people mention a "burning" like you did but that to me implies pain which there is none with RLS. The best I can think of is the creeping, tingly, twitchy feeling that feels like its coming from some unknown place inside a muscle. If it happens when sitting or lying down (I never get it when standing), starts off as a minor feeling but gets worse and worse if you try to ignore it and the only thing that helps is to move the area your feeling it in than I would say that is definately RLS. Usually a minor movement like pointing your toes up, sliding your leg a foot on the bed, or just "shifting" in general is enough to briefly make the feeling go away, but in a lot of cases it comes right back very shortly after you've stopped the movement. I've read up OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS on it, I've seen where some think its a circulatory thing, but in my opinion I think it's more of a nerve thing, thus my theory in the prior post

Also, from my understanding Requip is a mild anti-seizure medicine which for some reason seems to help RLS. That would support my theory on the leaking neuro-transmitters as it would block the reception/transmittal of those.

[laneela]

Yeah... it is usually a gradual thing. What I feel is a tingling, kinda like when your foot falls asleep, but on my muscles on my outer thigh that gets more and more uncomfortable gradually and gets to the point of where I get this icy-burn type feeling. I tend to just stretch my legs and it makes it better though it's making me worry because from stretching my legs so often now, my knee joints crack at will and I'm worried about arthritis in the future. The feeling doesn't keep me from sleeping though. It makes it so that it takes me longer, but falling asleep has never been a problem for me.

[Aslanna]

I didn't even realize there was a fucking leg-moving disease. I just thought people got the jimmy legs and/or arms a la Seinfeld.

It's not a disease it's a syndrome!

[iandaina]

But all women are batshit insane, I don't think Sylvos is sleeping with all of them.

OMG HI ASH!

You know it's the men in our lives that drive us batshit insane, I've always said if I get divorced I'm becoming a celibate lesbian.