Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

I have had RLS for 11 years. I recently came across a book, "The Lupus Encyclopedia" by Donald Thomas Jr. connecting lupus and RLS. "More than half of SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus (a lupus variation) patients have a sleep disorder that causes fatigue. These sleep disorders include sleep apnea, PLMS, and RLS." Does anyone have personal experience or comments on living with lupus and RLS? Dr. Donald Thomas is a physician associated with Johns Hopkins.

Posted on behalf of Anonymous.

I hadn't heard of a connection before, but since you mentioned it, I did a quick search. The correlation is mentioned on the neurolaunch.com site, but without providing any more information than you have. I found some articles on PubMed mentioning sleep disorders associated with lupus, but I don't have access to the full articles and the abstracts don't mention specific sleep disorders like WED/RLS.

Since the calling card of lupus is inflammation (possibly affecting the brain, kidneys, skin, or multiple other organs), and there seems to be increasing evidence for inflammation playing a role in WED/RLS, maybe it's not surprising that there's a correlation.