[Savage Beast]

My wife has had Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) for many years. She described the symptoms to me long ago, but I couldn't relate them to anything. (I am an M.D.) When I first read about RLS, I recognized it immediately as what she had been describing all those years.

She describes it as a feeling, in both legs, of discomfort that is not quite pain. It happens mostly at night, but not exclusively, if my understanding is correct. It helps to move the legs or get up and walk around, but in the middle of the night this, of course, interferes with sleep. She doesn't feel this all the time. It seems to come and go. An attack is brought on or made worse by exercize, which is bad because she loves to exercize, particularly hiking and mountain climbing. When she feels the discomfort, having something on her legs, such as a blanket, makes it worse.

The symptoms are not so severe as to be debilitating, and she does not describe them as pain, but the Syndrome has made her very uncomfortable many nights for a long time.

[dawn53]

They argued that its prevalence had been exaggerated by pharmaceutical companies and uncritical newspaper articles, and that giving people diagnoses and powerful drugs were serious downsides of defining the elusive syndrome too broadly.

So is there a test for this problem (i.e. does it show up on an EMG)...or is the diagnosis purely subjective? And what are the "powerful" drugs the article speaks of?

[sibb1213]

I experienced this during my pregnancy 31 years ago. I told someone that if I could just take my legs off at night I could sleep well. After our son was born, no more problems. I feel for anyone who has it.

[oldcomputerguy]

I’ve had a few bouts with a mild version of it, and I believe it is related to diet. I have never had it consistently enough to figure out exactly what brings it on, but suspect refined carbohydrates may be indicated.

[Martins kid]

Sleeping bags are torture for those with RLS.

[raybbr]

I am quite surprised by the repsonses so far. Usually the scoffers here on FR can't wait to deride those of us who have this syndrome.

I get it sometimes. It's horrible. It takes about an hour of constant mild pain to finally go to sleep.

I take ibuprofen or I get up and walk around. I notice that it's less frequent if I have exercised during that day. Like running or doing leg exercises with weights.

The refined sugar is an interesting idea. I tend to eat ice cream before I go to bed.

[Grampa Dave]

I have this syndrome and it had plagued my poor wife and I for about a decade. It came shortly after a sleep lab showed I had severe sleep apnea. That may be a common denominator/link.

We could never pin down the cause. Sometimes if I didn’t walk a mile or so each day I had it. Then sometimes I had it after nice long walks.

Finally, my wife, an RN, suggested that we try Dr Gott’s recommendation of putting bars of soap under the sheets.

We did, and it worked for a week. Then, we put the bars unwrapped under the sheets, and they worked for months.

On a recent 10 day cruise, I used the bars only for one night and had no problems. We feel that the constant motion of the ship at sea (at sea every night) had a neutralizing impact.

My wife and the FP she has worked with for decades recommend the bars of soap for their patients, and their patients have had excellent results. One friend said that bars of wood would probably work. He feels that you bang your leg against the bar soap and it stops the RLS syndrome. He still uses the bars of soap.

Dr Gott’s web site has a lot of excellent comments on this weird but often very effective and low cost way of treatment for RLS syndrome.