Key Points

• Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a disorder that causes a strong urge to move your legs. This urge often occurs with strange and unpleasant feelings in your legs. Moving your legs relieves the urge and the unpleasant feelings.
• People who have RLS describe the unpleasant feelings as creeping, crawling, pulling, itching, tingling, burning, aching, or electric shocks.
• The urge to move and unpleasant feelings occur when you’re resting and inactive. They tend to be worse in the evening and at night and are temporarily relieved in the morning.
• RLS can make it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. It may make you feel tired and sleepy during the day. This can make it hard to learn, work, and do your normal routine. Not getting enough sleep also can cause depression, mood swings, and other health problems.
• One type of RLS usually starts early in life (before age 45) and tends to run in families. Once this type of RLS starts, it usually lasts for the rest of your life. Over time, symptoms slowly get worse and occur more often.
• Another type of RLS usually starts later in life (after age 45). It generally doesn’t run in families. This type tends to have a more abrupt onset. The symptoms usually don’t get worse with age.
• Some diseases, conditions, and medicines also may trigger RLS. For example, it has been associated with kidney failure, Parkinson disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, pregnancy, and iron deficiency. When a disease, condition, or medicine triggers RLS, symptoms usually start suddenly. The disorder may go away if the trigger is relieved or stopped.
• Research suggests that RLS is mainly due to the faulty use or lack of iron in the brain. Nerve damage in the limbs and some medicines and substances also may cause RLS.
• The number of cases of RLS rises with age. Many people who have RLS are diagnosed in middle age. However, in about 40 percent of RLS cases, symptoms start before age 20. People who develop RLS early in life usually have a family history of it.
• The four key signs of RLS are an urge to move your legs (unpleasant feelings in the legs often occur with this urge), symptoms that start or get worse when you’re inactive, relief from moving, and symptoms that get worse in the evening or at night.
• Your doctor will diagnose RLS based on your symptoms, your medical and family histories, and the results from a physical exam and tests. Your primary care doctor usually can diagnose and treat RLS. However, he or she also may suggest that you see a sleep specialist or neurologist.
• Treatments for RLS include lifestyle changes and medicines. Mild cases of RLS often are treated with lifestyle changes and sometimes with periodic use of medicines. More severe RLS usually is treated with daily medicines. Lifestyle changes include avoiding certain substances and adopting good sleep habits.
• If you have RLS, see your doctor regularly so he or she can watch for changes in your symptoms. Call you doctor if you notice your treatment is no longer working or if you have new symptoms.
• Try to plan long car trips and other long periods of inactivity at the times of day when your symptoms are least severe. Give yourself time to stretch or take walking breaks. Choose an aisle seat at the movies or on airplanes and trains so you can move around if needed. You might want to consider finding a work setting where you can stand or walk around.