According to the Medilexicon's medical dictionary, restless legs syndrome is "a sense of indescribable uneasiness, twitching, or restlessness that occurs in the legs after going to bed, frequently leading to insomnia, which may be relieved temporarily by walking about; thought to be caused by inadequate circulation or as a side effect of some SSRIs and other psychotropic medications".
If you have RLS (restless legs syndrome) you have a disorder which causes a strong urge to move your legs. This urge is frequently accompanied with strange and unpleasant sensations in your legs. Patients say the only way to relieve those unpleasant feelings is to move their legs.
The following words are from patients as they describe the unpleasant feelings in their legs which trigger their urge to move them: Aching Burning Crawling Creeping Electric shocks Itching Tugging Tingling Some patients experience those sensations in their arms as well.
A significant number of patients say the sensations occur when they are resting or inactive, and not exclusively after they go to bed. Symptoms tend to worsen in the evening and at night, and are often relieved for a short while in the morning.
When we sleep well, we wake up feeling refreshed and alert for our daily activities. Sleep affects how we look, feel and perform on a daily basis, and can have a major impact on our overall quality of life.
To get the most out of our sleep, both quantity and quality are important. Teens need at least 8½ hours—and on average 9¼ hours—a night of uninterrupted sleep to leave their bodies and minds rejuvenated for the next day. If sleep is cut short, the body doesn’t have time to complete all of the phases needed for muscle repair, memory consolidation and release of hormones regulating growth and appetite. Then we wake up less prepared to concentrate, make decisions, or engage fully in school and social activities.
How Does Sleep Contribute to All of These Things? Sleep architecture follows a pattern of alternating REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep throughout a typical night in a cycle that repeats itself about every 90 minutes.
What role does each state and stage of sleep play? NREM (75% of night): As we begin to fall asleep, we enter NREM sleep, which is composed of stages 1-4
