Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

I am curious to see how many periodic limb movements people have. For those who went to a sleep lab, could you share how many they recorded PER HOUR? Thank you!

I've learned that RLS will be diagnosed with 5 per hour.

My son was just diagnodes after a sleep study. He has an average of 20 per hour.

Didn't know this information existed. I'll have to get a copy of my sleep study results. I didn't know I had PLMD until I had a sleep study for symptoms of RLS. I was dx'd with both.

202 PLM events over the course of my sleep study. The PLM index was 37.2. Does that correspond to how many per hour? Seems like enough to make for interrupted sleep.

Susan

I had 106 plms during my study. I had 172 total with a total index of 32.

As my non-scientific brain understands it, the number of PLMs isn't really too important - it's whether or not you have arousals from those movements. Any arousals - even if only a couple an hour - make sleep more difficult, keeping us from getting the deep sleep (stage 3 and 4) that we need - and staying in it. If you had five an hour, you'd be just about as exhausted as if you had 50, because you'd never get out of stage 2 sleep and into stage 3 or 4. Or if you did, you'd not stay there.

There are many people who have lots of movements, but no arousals. They don't need any help or medication because they get through all the sleep stages. It's those of us that have microarousals (we're not aware of them most of the time, but they still keep the brain from getting deep sleep) that need something to stop them.

Great explanation. Guess I never thought of it that way, but it certainly makes sense. I had 35 arousals from plmd and 96 unexplained for a total arousal index of 32. I also had 55 hypopneas. Good lord, no wonder I'm tired all the time...lol.

P.S. Does anyone know what " Nadir SA02 with the respiratory event was 90%" means??

I had 732 PLMs over the course of 5 hours - 145 an hour. I had 19 arousals.

I think "Nadir SAO2" refers to the least oxygen saturation, which was 90%, during whatever respiratory event you had. I think that's not quite enough to diagnose sleep apnea.

fenris

My sleep study report says PLM index of 26. I hadn't even noticed it until now since their bottom line diagnosis was rls. I only took it because my husband wouldn't do it without me and I knew he had sleep apnea but he wouldn't believe just me.

Just reading one of the reports from the 4 studies we have had done. Arousal Index 2.5/hr PLM's 4.4/hr

I've only part of the reports, I'm onto the specialist for the rest of the information. Makes very interesting reading.

ViewsAskew wrote:As my non-scientific brain understands it, the number of PLMs isn't really too important - it's whether or not you have arousals from those movements. Any arousals - even if only a couple an hour - make sleep more difficult, keeping us from getting the deep sleep (stage 3 and 4) that we need - and staying in it. If you had five an hour, you'd be just about as exhausted as if you had 50, because you'd never get out of stage 2 sleep and into stage 3 or 4. Or if you did, you'd not stay there.

There are many people who have lots of movements, but no arousals. They don't need any help or medication because they get through all the sleep stages. It's those of us that have microarousals (we're not aware of them most of the time, but they still keep the brain from getting deep sleep) that need something to stop them.

I have upwards of 30 PLM's per hour, but few arousals. Yet, I never feel rested even after 8, 9, 10 hours of sleep. It's one of the confusing things about my case. My original doctor mentioned that there is a theory that even if you're not arousing frequently, the amount of movement/activity can result in poor sleep quality. I would suspect that I don't arouse as frequently A. because this is a lifelong disorder for me and my body has learned some coping skills and B. they gave me an Ambien because I had such trouble getting to sleep.

Anyone else out there tired of being an "interesting case"?

Yeah, a lot of people!

Per the arousals, it seems to me (again, no scientist here) that it's not the number of arousals, either. If you interrupt sleep 20 times, it may be no different than 4 times in terms of the total time you get in each sleep stage. You only go through about 3-5 total sleep cycles every night. So, if you interrupt the first cycle during stage 2, have a slight arousal, you go back to stage 1 or stay in 2. You could never get to stage 3/4 all night long (or not much) and then never be rested.

It's the people who have NO arousals that are the ones who aren't bothered, or the ones who maybe get their arousals in a timely way so it doesn't interfere with them getting restful sleep.

If I go to bed at 9,10, or even 11 I always seem to wake up around 1-1:30 and again at about 3:30. I'm on requip and klonopin but still cannot get into stage 4 sleep. I'm tired all the time and been dealing with this for 1.5 years now. Anyone else out there got any suggestions? Tried all of the Ambiem, Rozerem and Lunesta but still cannot sleep through the night.

Hi Tim I can relate to your sleeping habit but it has been going on for me for more than 20 yrs. Over a year ago I did take Requip and would split the dosage and would take the part of it around 4 pm and about 1-2 hrs before retiring I would take the other half. I did not sleep that well but was only take requip at the time.

Now I take 1/2 of .125mg of mirapex around 4pm to stop any onset of rls and then about 1 hr before retiring I take a full .125mg of mirapex and 1mg of clonazapem. I usually go to asleep right away and may sleep for about 3-4 hrs; however now and then I would sleep for about 5 hrs. but that did not happen that often. I have never tried ambien or lunesta. I did try Rozerem but it never worked for me. My dr said that it takes about 7 days to get into your system and I tried it for about 2 weeks and never did work.

I would talk to your dr and see what he/she would suggest.

I hope that this has been of some help to you. Please keep us posted on how you are doing.

Without medication around 45 per hour.