Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

I don't ever remember a time when I wanted to sleep when others did and I should have. From reading under the covers with a flashlight to coming home at 5 AM and settling in with a book. Medication still makes it worse, but it's always been there. I've often wondered if it wasn't a circadian rhythm disorder along with the RLS and PLMS.

What's truly fascinating to me is that I can be physically tired but my brain is not tired. Until my brain is wiped out, I do not want to go to sleep.

What's truly fascinating to me is that I can be physically tired but my brain is not tired.

Yes. I have a hard time describing what it's like. There's a loss of cognitive acuity, despite the alertness. It's like one part of the brain is tired and another is wide awake.

I was never a morning person, and I always liked to stay up late, but I think not to the extent you're describing. I didn't have a lot of trouble falling asleep except for occasional delays caused by my legs. Until this RLS/WED went insane, then I got worse and worse - took about 4 years after starting meds to get so far out of whack it was a real problem. I think,. Maybe quicker. I was so messed up for a while there it was hard to tell what my circadian rhythm was.

badnights wrote:

What's truly fascinating to me is that I can be physically tired but my brain is not tired.

Yes. I have a hard time describing what it's like. There's a loss of cognitive acuity, despite the alertness. It's like one part of the brain is tired and another is wide awake.

I can't imagine trying to explain it to someone who didn't know it. It's like an OCD thing - your brain has this obsession with staying awake, despite being tired, not being able to do a good job, not being accurate, etc. and you compulsively keep doing things to stay awake. I can be head-bobbing and still find another reason/purpose to be awake. Crazy. For me, it's on this continuum. Some nights it's mild and I can get control of it and get myself in bed. Others? Forget it. Just not happening.

Oh yes.... the head bobbing, and yet continue to try to read, drop the Kindle, pick it up again.
I thought it was only me who was a bid odd !!

When I read through the last part of this thread, I think back and realize just how lucky I was just before I retired to work in an office where everyone, my peers as well as the senior management above me, was heavily involved with frequent international travel. We were all constantly jet lagged, so it wasn't surprising to find someone in the office at odd hours or on the verge of falling asleep just after lunch. The coffee bar was just across the hall from my office and it was usually a busy place as we all tried to stay awake and to function throughout the day.

So just maybe my RLS provided me just a bit of a functional advantage over everyone else. At least my system was geared a bit more toward being able to function in spite of the travel induced sleep deprivation. It may also have allowed me to be able to function a bit closer to normal while traveling because the 9 to 12 hr time changes weren't as damaging to my ability to function when compared to my associates, who always seemed to be a step behind for a day or two after arrival.

Polar Bear wrote:Oh yes.... the head bobbing, and yet continue to try to read, drop the Kindle, pick it up again.
I thought it was only me who was a bid odd !!

You know how toddlers fight naps? I feel like a toddler who just refuses to sleep.... Glad to know I have good company .

Rustsmith wrote:When I read through the last part of this thread, I think back and realize just how lucky I was just before I retired to work in an office where everyone, my peers as well as the senior management above me, was heavily involved with frequent international travel. We were all constantly jet lagged, so it wasn't surprising to find someone in the office at odd hours or on the verge of falling asleep just after lunch. The coffee bar was just across the hall from my office and it was usually a busy place as we all tried to stay awake and to function throughout the day.

So just maybe my RLS provided me just a bit of a functional advantage over everyone else. At least my system was geared a bit more toward being able to function in spite of the travel induced sleep deprivation. It may also have allowed me to be able to function a bit closer to normal while traveling because the 9 to 12 hr time changes weren't as damaging to my ability to function when compared to my associates, who always seemed to be a step behind for a day or two after arrival.

And, I was really lucky having had my own business for 20 years. I could schedule around sleep issues for much of it. It wasn't until it was severe that I couldn't any longer easily do that. But, I could stay up working until 1 AM and not get to my office until 9 or 10 and no one cared, especially as I walked across to the hall from my bedroom to my office!

For most of the last two years, my consulting business consisted of working as an expert witness in a civil lawsuit that ran to the MANY millions of dollars. I often wondered what either my clients or the opposition would have thought if they had known that the majority of my data analysis and report writing occurred between the hours of 3 and 9AM.

Of course, I spent quite a bit of time worrying what would happen if the opposing counsel learned about my RLS and the medications I am taking. The attorneys that I was working with said that they could only bring up my health if it dealt directly with my fitness to serve as an expert. However, I kept envisioning sitting on the witness stand and being asked "Mr. Smith, it is true that you are a chronic abuser of narcotics?" or "Mr. Smith, when was the last time that you used marijuana?" Since this would have been in front of a jury, there wouldn't have been any truthful answer that I could have given that wouldn't have been severely damaging in their eyes (the court would have been in VERY conservative Texas). Fortunately, the case was settled out of court last month (I understand that we essentially won). So I will never know, although my counterpart expert for the other side is a friend, so I intend to buy him dinner when I see him next and ask a number of questions, including they had any idea about my health.

Maybe you want to keep it under wraps in case you ever do face him in court

Beth, is highly unlikely that I will ever see him again. I am not soliciting any further consulting business. If someone comes to me with a request to do something interesting, I might try it. But I pretty much expect that the lawsuit was my final consulting job. I am happy with the idea and accept the concept of complete retirement. Finally, my move to Colorado has distanced me from any potential clients and my engineering license is not valid here. The absence of a license doesn't completely stop me from working, but it does complicate things.

well I'm glad you're going to enjoy your retirement properly. I for one cannot wait til I can relax a little and get off the treadmill. I mean, I love my work, but I don't love being sub-productive and constantly playing catch-up, never catching up, always slipping a little farther behind ... I can't wait to get rid of that pressure. I assume I will sleep more (if I live that long) because I will be able to sleep in the middle of the afternoon if my body will let me. But I wonder if it really works that way