If you’ve ever laid down at the end of the day and felt an irresistible urge to move your legs, even if you’re tired and ready for bed, you may be experiencing restless legs syndrome (RLS).
RLS is a common condition that can happen at any time in life. While symptoms can be annoying, there are things you can do at home that can help. Learn more about restless legs syndrome, including what you can do to find relief and when to talk to a doctor if you can’t get a leg up on your symptoms.
What is restless leg syndrome and what do the symptoms feel like?
RLS is a condition characterized by an irresistible urge to move your legs. It can cause unpleasant sensations under your skin that have been described as:
- Tingling
- Creeping
- Aching
- Crawling
- Prickling
- Pulling
These sensations are usually felt in the calf, but can occur anywhere from your ankles to your thighs, and may cause your legs to make jerking motions throughout the night, disrupting your sleep.
When you usually experience restless leg syndrome
Typically, symptoms start to occur after sitting for long periods of time, late in the day or when you lay down at night. They may also occur during periods of inactivity.
While RLS most commonly affects the legs, you can have these sensations in other places like your arms or torso. You may also experience these sensations after you’ve fallen asleep. This is called periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), a sleep disorder which can not only disrupt your sleep, but also affect how you feel during the day.
RLS can start in infancy and occur at any time in your life, with mild symptoms that worsen with age. So it’s important to address your symptoms as soon as you begin to experience them. Because after age 50, many people with untreated RLS have significant sleep loss and daily symptoms, which may cause severe fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, depression and even a lack of social activity as RLS can affect daily life.
How restless legs syndrome is diagnosed
If you’re not sleeping well, and think you may be experiencing RLS, reach out to your doctor. They’ll speak with you about your symptoms, to make sure that what you’re experiencing is RLS and not another condition.
They may order an electromyogram or nerve conduction study to make sure there’s no nerve damage causing your symptoms. They may also order a blood test to check for several things, like your ferritin levels.
Ferritin is a protein that stores iron in your cells, and low levels can be an indicator that you’re iron deficient. A blood test can also check the level of iron in your blood, as low levels are common in people with RLS, and can make symptoms worse.
Your doctor will also go over any medications you’re taking, as some types, like certain antihistamines, antidepressants, anti-nausea medications and antipsychotics, can make RLS symptoms worse.
Although the symptoms of RLS tend to happen while you’re sleeping, a sleep study, also known as a polysomnogram, isn’t typically done. However, if your symptoms are severely disrupting your sleep, your doctor may order a polysomnogram to see what happens to your body during sleep, or a sleep study to check for sleep apnea, as it can make RLS symptoms worse.
Different types of restless legs syndrome
There are two types of RLS. The first is early onset, where a diagnosis happens before age 45. With early onset RLS, it usually runs in families and symptoms progress slowly.
The other type is late onset RLS. It’s usually diagnosed after age 45, isn’t typically hereditary and progresses much more quickly than early onset RLS.
Common causes of restless legs syndrome
Doctors aren’t exactly sure why RLS occurs, but they do know that it often runs in families, and it typically happens to white women. Occasionally, there’s a clear cause: Pregnant women sometimes experience it after 20 weeks of pregnancy, or you may have low levels of iron in your blood (anemia).
Other things that are often linked to RLS are chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes or Parkinson’s disease, nerve damage or kidney failure, and certain medications.
However, for the majority of cases, most people who seek treatment for RLS don’t have any preexisting conditions or an explanation as to why they’re experiencing symptoms.
RLS doesn’t always require you to go to the doctor, and if it’s caused by another condition like anemia, treating that condition will usually ease RLS symptoms. Lifestyle changes, home-based treatments and self-care are often enough to help.
Self-care can help with RLS symptoms
Along with small tweaks to your daily life, self-care and at-home treatments may help. This can include:
- Foot wraps specially designed for RLS – These wraps place pressure on specific muscles in your feet, creating a response in your brain to help relax muscles that are affected when symptoms flare up.
- Vibration pads on the backs of your legs – This can be used as counter stimulation where RLS symptoms are masked or “covered up” to provide relief.
- Heating pads on your legs – The heat can relax muscles and improve blood circulation.
- Hot baths and leg massages – While these are a good way to relax, there’s limited scientific evidence when it comes to improving RLS symptoms.
Make small lifestyle changes to ease RLS discomfort
If you’re experiencing mild to moderate RLS symptoms, try these small changes:
- Get moderate, regular exercise – Physical inactivity can trigger symptoms of RLS, and on the flip side physical activity that is too intense can make symptoms worse. Moderate, regular exercise can help with muscle strengthening, as well as improve your sleep patterns, both of which can ease symptoms. And if RLS develops during pregnancy, doctors have found that exercise, plus light stretching, can be enough to ease symptoms.
- Make sleep a priority – Irregular and inadequate sleep can both aggravate your symptoms. Try practicing good sleep hygiene to improve the quality of your sleep, and keep to a regular sleep schedule to increase the amount of rest your body gets.
- Cut back on alcohol, nicotine and caffeine – Alcohol can cause sleep disruption, block melatonin release and affect dopamine levels in the brain. And caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that can directly affect the muscles and make your symptoms worse. Try cutting back or cutting out these substances completely, and reach out to your doctor if you need support.
If you’re finding that changes to your routine and self-care methods aren’t improving your symptoms of RLS, it may be time to talk to your doctor about supplements and medications that may help.
Medications that can improve RLS symptoms
If your doctor determines that a medication you’re on is making symptoms worse, they may recommend an alternative if possible to help alleviate symptoms. And if things you’re doing at home aren’t enough to get relief, your doctor can recommend and prescribe:
- Iron supplements – Low levels of iron can make symptoms worse. Supplements can help boost and regulate iron levels.
- Anti-seizure drugs – In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved gabapentin for treating moderate to severe RLS.
- Dopaminergic agents – Often the most frequently prescribed drugs for RLS, they increase dopamine in the brain and can reduce symptoms when taken at night.
- Benzodiazepines – Used to treat muscle spasms, anxiety and insomnia to promote more restful sleep.
- Opioids – These are usually only recommended when your symptoms are severe and haven’t responded to other treatments. They’re usually used to aid with sleep, but there isn’t a lot of scientific evidence they help with leg movements.
Medications that treat RLS come with side effects ranging from mild to severe, and sometimes, it can take time to find the right medication or combination of medications that can help. Your doctor will work with you to figure out the best course of treatment for the RLS symptoms you’re experiencing, whether that’s with lifestyle changes, medications or a combination of the two.
When to see a doctor about restless leg syndrome symptoms
If at-home treatments and remedies haven’t worked to reduce or eliminate your symptoms, and restless legs are affecting the quality of your sleep and daily life, talk to one of our primary care doctors. They can diagnose your symptoms and recommend a treatment plan that’s right for you. They can also refer you to a specialist like a neurologist who is well-versed in movement disorders and can help you tackle your symptoms.
