RLS?
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Anonymous
RLS?
I had never heard of RLS before tonight, but now I think I have it. My whole life (as far back as I can remember), I can remember laying in bed and feeling like there were things crawling up my legs. I can even remember when I was little in the middle of the night having to flip on my bedroom lights and lifting of the sheets because I thought maybe a bug had been crawling up my leg. Thoughout my life too I have noticed many nights after I began to relax, that I would feel this sensation as if a "worm" was crawling under my skin of my thighs. I had always just assumed everyone felt this way. It wasn't until recently when my wife began to complain (which drove her to anger tonight as I was apparently doing it relentlessly and causing neither of us to get any sleep) that I keep jerking thoughout the night, that I went online (just now) to look up what would be causing this and I stumbled across RLS/PLMS. I haven't spoke with anyone in my family to see if anyone else has ever had these sensations (considering I just found out RLS existed tonight). I have always noticed that no matter how much sleep I get, I have always felt very groggy in the morning. I don't usually do a lot of waking up in the middle of the night though. I guess I am now going to have to find a way to consume less caffeine (my one guilty pleasure). I am not on any medication, so I now it isn't any type of reaction to any medication. When I was a baby until approximately the age of 7, I experienced Febrile Seizures, could that have any coorelation? Well.....off to bed I go to hopefully sleep now. Maybe my wife will give pitty on me the next time I start jerking insessantly!
Hey, Paul--
So sorry you NEEDED to find us, but glad that you did so you're getting some answers.
I was definitely like you... just assumed that either everyone's legs feel like that or that it was just some idiosyncracy of my body telling me I was tired and needed to "call it a day". As a matter of fact, my husband has always jerked in his sleep, and wiggles his legs around a lot at night when he's tired... so I think he may have RLS and/or PLMD. But EVEN THOUGH he knows about my RLS, our brother-in-law's and now our younger son's, and he DOES believe in it.... he STILL says to me when I comment on his feet wiggling as much as mine or more, "Everyone's feet get fidgety when they're tired!"
But I digress.... as usual for me, anyone here can attest.
It's not "necessary" for all RLSers to not sleep. My son, bro-in-law and I all sleep relatively well with our mild-moderate cases (I have the most frequent and disturbing symptoms of the three of us... sometimes RLS 24/7 anytime I sit for more than a few minutes.) For the three of us, actually, going to bed is the temporary "cure" for the sensations. If I don't try to just get to sleep quick, nothing will help my symptoms. I had a rare mid-afternoon severe flare-up yesterday (probably partly due to on-coming flu symptoms) and had to take a nap because trying to do anything else was futile (and soooooo uncomfortable). I didn't get to sleep as long as I'd have liked to, so I awoke with pretty serious symptoms, still, but they did ease a tad and I made it through to my normal bedtime again.
Also, it's not uncommon to complain of "unrestorative" sleep, even when you DO sleep. I've woken up tired lots of times, and I think I jerk much less than many here do. For me, I think I "fight" my RLS in my sleep... tensing, stretching, etc., to try to "control" it... and that of course would be exhausting to do all night.
Don't know if there's any link to your febrile seizures or not. Can't recall that being mentioned by anyone before. Maybe someone else will remember if it has.
But anyway, welcome to the forums, and I hope that your wife will feel a little more sympathetic when she hears that there's a serious reason for your kicking in the bed.
Take care-- Sara
So sorry you NEEDED to find us, but glad that you did so you're getting some answers.
I was definitely like you... just assumed that either everyone's legs feel like that or that it was just some idiosyncracy of my body telling me I was tired and needed to "call it a day". As a matter of fact, my husband has always jerked in his sleep, and wiggles his legs around a lot at night when he's tired... so I think he may have RLS and/or PLMD. But EVEN THOUGH he knows about my RLS, our brother-in-law's and now our younger son's, and he DOES believe in it.... he STILL says to me when I comment on his feet wiggling as much as mine or more, "Everyone's feet get fidgety when they're tired!"
But I digress.... as usual for me, anyone here can attest.
It's not "necessary" for all RLSers to not sleep. My son, bro-in-law and I all sleep relatively well with our mild-moderate cases (I have the most frequent and disturbing symptoms of the three of us... sometimes RLS 24/7 anytime I sit for more than a few minutes.) For the three of us, actually, going to bed is the temporary "cure" for the sensations. If I don't try to just get to sleep quick, nothing will help my symptoms. I had a rare mid-afternoon severe flare-up yesterday (probably partly due to on-coming flu symptoms) and had to take a nap because trying to do anything else was futile (and soooooo uncomfortable). I didn't get to sleep as long as I'd have liked to, so I awoke with pretty serious symptoms, still, but they did ease a tad and I made it through to my normal bedtime again.
Also, it's not uncommon to complain of "unrestorative" sleep, even when you DO sleep. I've woken up tired lots of times, and I think I jerk much less than many here do. For me, I think I "fight" my RLS in my sleep... tensing, stretching, etc., to try to "control" it... and that of course would be exhausting to do all night.
Don't know if there's any link to your febrile seizures or not. Can't recall that being mentioned by anyone before. Maybe someone else will remember if it has.
But anyway, welcome to the forums, and I hope that your wife will feel a little more sympathetic when she hears that there's a serious reason for your kicking in the bed.
Take care-- Sara
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Anonymous
paulrbeers
Sara-
Thank you for the reply. After reading more this morning about RLS and talking to my wife about it this morning, it all seems to fit. One nuance of mine that has driven my wife nuts for years has been my habit of wiggling my toes while sitting and watching t.v. While she was surfing the web this morning find out more about it, she was astonished to find others with RLS do that too. I am now in the process of finding a neurologist in my area (that is covered by my insurance) to discuss this POSSIBLE condition (while I am pretty much convinced this is what I have, I want to hear a specialists opinion). I have also always been very "jittery". My parents always pointed out how even when I sat just talking, I would either have to change how I crossed my legs every few minutes or bounce my leg up and down. I always thought it was due to nervousness, but never thought of myself as a nervous person. How crazy. Maybe this is it. I hope so.
Thank you,
Paul
Thank you for the reply. After reading more this morning about RLS and talking to my wife about it this morning, it all seems to fit. One nuance of mine that has driven my wife nuts for years has been my habit of wiggling my toes while sitting and watching t.v. While she was surfing the web this morning find out more about it, she was astonished to find others with RLS do that too. I am now in the process of finding a neurologist in my area (that is covered by my insurance) to discuss this POSSIBLE condition (while I am pretty much convinced this is what I have, I want to hear a specialists opinion). I have also always been very "jittery". My parents always pointed out how even when I sat just talking, I would either have to change how I crossed my legs every few minutes or bounce my leg up and down. I always thought it was due to nervousness, but never thought of myself as a nervous person. How crazy. Maybe this is it. I hope so.
Thank you,
Paul
Yup, don't feel bad, Paul.
On the couch watching TV, I wiggle, flex, stretch, bounce, rub and press my feet into the floor or the coffee table. I change positions often (but try not to be toooooo obtrusive about it
) I get pretty bad RLS when we drive home from family gatherings, because it's late, I'm a passenger, and we also go up in elevation. I'm frankly amazed that we still HAVE floorboards in any of our cars or our motorhome from driving at night.
Good luck with the neurologist. Many RLSers are originally self-diagnosed, because (I think) if you don't live in a body that does this, or know someone who does, I think it sounds pretty trivial to a lot of docs, so they don't aggressively research... but some of us do! I heard the name RLS by accident from friends who suffer, but the first time I read a website about it (about 5 years ago now, when mine was still more intermittent than now), I had pretty much all the classic symptoms. There was no question in my mind then (and certainly not now that my condition has progressed) that that was what "my foot thing" had been all these years.
Hang in there!
Sara
PS... Glad your wife's also reading about it!