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Similarly to Parkinson’s, Restless Legs Syndrome is a neurological ‘disturbance’ believed to be caused by errors in the brain’s usage of dopamine to transmit signals related to movement.
RLS is characterized by an almost irresistible urge/need to move the legs in order to make the uncomfortable sensation diminish or disappear, varying in strength from person to person and also fluctuating in severity as time passes. I can best describe this feeling by noting its similarity to the sinking feeling one gets in his stomach during a free-fall on a rollercoaster, except this one manifests itself constantly and seems to originate from within your bones/muscles.
I have had symptoms of RLS since age 15 (Y.O.B. 1997) gradually worsening very slightly, and often disturbing my sleep. The treatment I was given for RLS was a medication named “Pramipexole” which is a dopamine agonist used to treat both RLS and Parkinson’s.
After a hellish initial few weeks of side effects including nausea, memory loss, hyper-sexuality (which isn’t so bad 😏) and very mild hallucination, I was stable on a relatively high dose of the drug without any significant improvement to the quality of my sleep. At the height of my discomfort, I could only manage about 3-5 hours of sleep out of the 8-12 hours spent in bed.
The week I stopped taking pramiprxole cold turkey was when I experienced the strongest symptoms of RLS, including a sensation in my left arm similar to that which I feel in my legs, but infinitely more agonizing and irremediable through movement. I hardly slept, but it was an interesting experience as I needed a few days to get it all out of my system before starting a new medication - Pregabalin.
Pregabalin is a medication normally used to treat epilepsy among other things, it can be used off-label to treat RLS and Anxiety disorder as well as to induce sleep since it is a nervous system depressant (a win-win-win in my case). The biggest reason for my interest in this drug is that it shows no chance of worsening symptoms over time. I have been taking Pregabalin for just over a month at the time of writing. My first week was excellent because I managed to fall asleep thanks to the drowsiness caused by the medication, but after my body had become accustomed to it, my dose of 100mg was obviously not enough. Since then I have gradually upped the dose to around 300mg per day, with positive results so far. I am hoping that the drug will continue to improve the discomfort during the day as well as night.
I don’t consider RLS a disease or disability nor do I like to brag about whatever inconveniences me, but I felt it was interesting to document this here. You can learn more about RLS at: