What is Restless Leg Syndrome

Raena Morgan: We're talking about sleep disorders here at The Sleep Center with Dr. Hajal. Restless Leg Syndrome, is that a new kid on the block for sleep disorders? Dr. Rizan Hajal: Actually, no. It seemed like it was because there was a lot of awareness around the medications that were available around the year, I would say, 2003 and so on. Raena Morgan: Just that that recently? Dr. Rizan Hajal: Who had a lot of advertisement about it. But, there are some literature that was found since the year 1,600 and so on. Raena Morgan: 1,600? Dr. Rizan Hajal: Right. There were people describing those sensations. And so it's probably a very, very old disease. It wasn't known and it was frequently under diagnosed. It still is, I think. And now we have much better options to treat it, though. Raena Morgan: What are some of the symptoms? Dr. Rizan Hajal: The symptoms for restlessness are their legs are very typical, which means by just talking to the patient, we can make the diagnosis. Raena Morgan: You can? Dr. Rizan Hajal: Exactly. There are four symptoms. One is that regardless of what the sensation that they have is it numbing or is it pain, those could be a little bit difficult to identify, but there are four things that we ask them. One is that do you have an urge to move, which means that even if you just have numbness in the legs and the legs are not pushing you to get up and move, it wouldn't be restlessness of the legs. Number two, it would get better when you move because many diseases that give you numbness in the legs would not. And if it does get better when you move, it's important. Does it get worse late at night, is very, very typical, also. Like the symptoms typically would happen at 10 pm, as opposed to at 10am in the morning. Raena Morgan: Okay. Dr. Rizan Hajal: And number four would be that it would get worse when you are resting, which means if you spend the day at the desk typing, it will be worse than the day you are jogging with friends. And this is quite typical, also, of the restlessness of the legs. Raena Morgan: So if you are still or sedentary, you will feel it more. Dr. Rizan Hajal: Yes, a little bit worse, yeah. Raena Morgan: And if you run or walk briskly, you will, Dr. Rizan Hajal: Right. And if you do that at any time of the day, and then it will manifest itself by having less restlessness of the legs at the time you go to bed, which is interesting. Raena Morgan: So a person, the more they move, the better. Dr. Rizan Hajal: Right and those questions are typically to eliminate the other reasons why you get numbness in the legs, which there's so many of them, neuropathy and vascular problems are the most common ones. Raena Morgan: Right and you say you can diagnose a person with restless leg syndrome just merely by talking to them. Dr. Rizan Hajal: Yes, they fit the questions, they fit the mold really well, that's it, we move on to treatment actually. Raena Morgan: And it really would interfere with sleep, wouldn't it? Dr. Rizan Hajal: Oh, it's terrible because you can imagine that it happens late at night, so it's the time when they want to go to bed. It would get worse when they rest, which means when they get into bed and they want to fall asleep. And all of a sudden, they feel like their legs want to go, urging them to walk around and pace around. Raena Morgan: They twitch, their legs twitch. Dr. Rizan Hajal: They twitch, right, and they're unable to fall asleep. And this is the main important difficulty with sleep, is unable to fall asleep initially, as opposed to, you know, waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning. That rarely happens with restlessness of the legs. Raena Morgan: They simply can't get to sleep. Dr. Rizan Hajal: Right. Raena Morgan: And don't they also get kind of creepy, crawly feelings in their legs, too? Dr. Rizan Hajal: That's true and so the sensation could be creepy and crawly. And you can see those are vague terms. Typically for restlessness of the legs, because people have a hard time putting them into words and we found that creepy and crawly is what resonates with them. Raena Morgan: Alright. Because, well, you get a picture, though, with creepy crawly. Dr. Rizan Hajal: That's true. Raena Morgan: Thank you very much for that explanation.