The most prominent symptom of RLS is the overwhelming urge to move your legs, especially when you’re sitting still or lying in bed. You might also feel unusual sensations like a tingling, crawling, or pulling sensation in your legs. Restless legs syndrome, or RLS, is a neurological disorder. You usually have these sensations in the calf, but they may be felt anywhere from the thigh to the ankle. With RLS, you have an irresistible urge to move the affected limb when the sensations occur. Although alcohol isn’t a cause of RLS, drinking can adversely affect the symptoms of RLS.

For instance, both dopamine agonists and gabapentin have demonstrated efficacy in RLS secondary to end-stage renal disease (Dauvilliers et al., 2016; Giannaki et al., 2013; Thorp, Morris, & Bagby, 2001). Future studies should assess whether treating RLS during opioid withdrawal effectively manages symptoms and contributes to reduction in relapse to opioid use. It is included in the Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS), a commonly used measure of withdrawal severity (Wesson & Ling, 2003). Previous retrospective chart reviews and small case series have suggested that restlessness in a subset of opioid withdrawal patients may reflect the specific sensorimotor disorder RLS. Distinguishing nonspecific restlessness from true RLS may be important not only to the clinical management of opioid detoxification, but also for managing the risk for relapse following detoxification. Thus, identifying and treating RLS may also be important for mitigating the risk for relapse immediately following detoxification.

Medical Treatments for Restless Legs Syndrome

Your doctor will want to check for other neurological reasons for your symptoms. There isn’t one single test that can confirm or rule out RLS. A large part of the diagnosis will be based on your description of symptoms.

Potential participants were approached by a member of the study staff and offered the opportunity to participate. After providing written informed consent, participants completed a battery of questionnaires. Diagnosis of primary substance use disorder was retrieved from the medical chart. Of the 321 participants with either a primary opioid use disorder or alcohol use disorder, 304 completed a measure of RLS and are included in the analyses below. All procedures were approved by the local Institutional Review Board.

Who is more likely to have restless legs syndrome?

In such cases, restless legs syndrome usually disappears after the woman has given birth. In the majority of cases, there’s no obvious cause of restless legs syndrome. Restless legs syndrome, also known as Willis-Ekbom disease, is a common condition of the nervous system that causes an overwhelming irresistible urge to move the legs. The Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation suggests using a sleep diary to pinpoint your personal triggers and gauge the severity of your symptoms. Always tell your doctor if your symptoms get noticeably worse. Not everyone with restless legs needs to see a doctor, but severe cases can be debilitating.

The catch to this compression wrap is that it requires a doctor’s prescription. But once you’ve got one in hand, you can keep it by your bed for those late-night urges. “Any kind of stimulation to the legs is beneficial,” Dr. Berkowski says. Even rubbing or massaging the legs can provide temporary relief.

Back off of caffeine.

When it develops, and you feel your stress levels are out of control, yoga and deep breathing exercises can help. The body will naturally try to correct some of the things that happened with excessive alcohol consumption. Try these tips for safely staying up late at night when you have to for work or other obligations (and getting deeper sleep during the day). There isn’t any scientific evidence that gluten causes RLS. If you feel gluten may be behind your symptoms, consider eliminating gluten for a few weeks to see if your symptoms improve. The Brief Addiction Monitor is a self-report measure of substance use and functional consequences including ratings of physical and psychological well-being (Cacciola et al., 2013).

• It can disrupt sleep, which interferes with daily activities.
• RLS treatments reduce the symptoms, with therapies ranging from prescribed medications to self-care remedies.
• Secondary alcohol effects such as increased urination and fatigue also disrupt sleep and increase periodic leg movement.
• When it develops, and you feel your stress levels are out of control, yoga and deep breathing exercises can help.
• It never fails — just as you crawl into bed, your restless legs start acting up again.

Talk with your health care provider if you think you may have RLS. The major way by which alcohol worsens the symptoms of restless leg syndrome is through sleep disruption. People of any age can get restless legs syndrome, however the cause of restless legs syndrome differs from person to person.

Health Essentials

It’s more common in people of Northern European descent than in other ethnicities. Additionally, the child must be able to describe the leg sensations in their own words. These options may be useful even if you take medication to manage RLS. If you have an iron or other nutritional deficiency, ask your doctor or nutritionist how to improve your diet. It can be harmful to take certain supplements if you aren’t deficient. There are certain things that may put you in a higher risk category for RLS.

A study presented at the SLEEP 2019 Annual Meeting suggests an imbalance of bacteria in the gut may play a role in restless legs syndrome. Although RLS is a neurological problem, certain environmental and external factors have been known to exacerbate symptoms. Avoiding these common restless legs triggers may help calm your jittery https://sober-house.net/ limbs so you can get the rest you need. Using your diet to safely correct any iron deficiency can help alleviate RLS symptoms. The catch, Dr. Berkowski says, is knowing what your iron levels are. Iron supplements are certainly one way to get those levels up but you’ll need to be sure to consult with your doctor about that.

A lack of iron and an imbalance in the level of dopamine in the brain are often cited as an RLS cause. This is why Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the basal ganglia attributed to abnormal dopamine levels, often accompanies severe RLS. Surgery is typically only considered when other treatment options have failed. The most common type of surgery for RLS is called deep brain stimulation (DBS). DBS involves the implantation of a small device that delivers electrical stimulation to specific brain areas. This stimulation can help reduce RLS symptoms and improve sleep quality.

Causes of Restless Legs Syndrome

Remember, movement helps relieve restless legs syndrome symptoms. Regular exercise not only is essential for optimal health, it can also control your symptoms. I recommend minutes of light to moderate exercise daily if you are experiencing restless legs syndrome symptoms. Make sure you pick an activity that keeps you moving such as taking a brisk walk.

Additionally, typical myalgia during the withdrawal process for opioid addiction can confound the diagnosis for restless legs syndrome RLS. When you drink just before going to bed, you harm your healthy sleep, and you may keep awakening in the night. Of course, for some people, alcohol helps them to sleep, but what you may not know is that it decreases the quality eco sober house review of sleep and makes you feel more tired. People going through substance abuse treatment, normally experience difficulties in sleeping due to the symptoms and again, this only worsens RLS, and if you do not treat RLS symptoms, they will only get worse. Most people suffering from RLS usually report that alcoholism leads to a worsening of the condition.

Facts and statistics about restless legs syndrome

Caffeine is a natural stimulant found in coffee beans, tea leaves, and cocoa beans. It can also be produced synthetically like that found in soft drinks and most energy drinks. Caffeine promotes alertness by blocking the chemical messenger adenosine, a neurotransmitter that causes that sleepy feeling.