How Do You Get to Sleep with Restless Leg Syndrome?

restless leg syndrome can stop you getting to sleep

It’s hard enough to be an insomniac and not know how to sleep. So imagine how much harder it is for people suffering from Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS).

Patients with restless leg syndrome complain about an uncontrollable urge to move their legs because of a creeping, crawling, itching or tingling sensation. The only way to relieve themselves of these odd feelings is to move their legs. This results to interrupted sleep or in severe cases, almost no sleep. Because of this, restless leg syndrome patients also worry about how to sleep more at night. They wake up tired, find it hard to concentrate, and are unable to function normally throughout the day just like most insomniacs.

Because of the similarities, many of the recommended natural remedies for insomniacs are applicable for restless less syndrome patients as well. The goals are the same after all: find ways on how to sleep better so that they can take on the new day with enough energy.

To help keep the restless leg syndrome symptoms at bay, experts recommend the following:

  1. Cut back on the caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol. All three substances are known to interfere with sleep, so keep your intake to a minimum.
  2. Develop a regular sleep pattern. Some patients opt for a later bed time and also wake up later in the morning, since the leg sensations occur in the early evenings. Whichever schedule you decide to adapt, sticking to it is important to help condition your body to the idea of regular sleep.
  3. Do mild stretching exercises before bedtime. Stretching and gentle exercise can help lessen the persistence of restless leg syndrome symptoms.
  4. Watch your diet. Studies show that RLS may be caused by iron, folate or magnesium deficiency, so making sure you have enough of these nutrients in your diet can help prevent the attacks.

So if you are wondering how can I sleep with restless leg syndrome, try some of these tactics to see if they help

Study Finds that Insomnia and Restless Leg Syndrome Pose Greater Risk for Women than Men

restless leg syndrome can stop you getting to sleep

A Sleep in America poll of all adults revealed that women have more difficulty falling and staying asleep than men. This also means that they experience more daytime sleepiness at least a few nights or days a week. Women take longer to fall asleep than men and pose a rather indistinctive symptoms than men. This is due to the biological and physiological characteristic present in women. Some contributing factors for why women sleep differently are believed to be sex chromosomes, hormonal and physical changes, estrogen influence on our body, and biological conditions like menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause. Pregnant women doubled the risk factor for RLS compared to women who have never given birth and men.

Nearly half of women struggle to get to sleep at night

Although women generally go to bed at a sensible time compared to men, 46% of women were complaining that they have trouble sleeping every night. This was according to several clinical studies gathered by Neurology Medlink and from several respected contributors. Aside from dealing with menstrual cycle, postpartum, menopause and pregnancy. Women are more resistant to high altitude periodic breathing than men and 10% of pregnant women are diagnosed with having restless leg syndrome. Another unaddressed problem is the diagnosis of sleep disorders in women. Sleep disorders in women are said to be under-recognized, misdiagnosed and mistreated. This should be communicated accurately without gender bias.

When women can’t sleep it can effect them in more ways than one

When a woman suffers from poor sleep quality compared to men, and is at higher risk for breast cancer, miscarriage and infertility, then the need to include these unique psychosocial issues into research should be prioritized. But how much sleep do we really need? These are the kind of questions I hear from my friends and family. What the research says though is that there is no magic number. But there’s no doubt that nobody wants to have their sleep disturbed by nervous leg disorder, man or woman.