I’ve briefly mentioned Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) in this blog, but haven’t addressed it head-on., so let’s do that, shall we? I have only had three nights of true RLS, which were a result of trying to quit Pramipexole cold turkey. Those three nights kicked off The Worst Two Weeks of My Life. For more on those two weeks, see The Disease. I’ll just say this much for now: thanks to RLS, I now understand the concept of “sleep deprivation torture”. Every single time I was JUST on the verge of falling asleep, my legs would tense up, and I would feel that I HAD to move them around. This happened probably a dozen times each of those three nights.

Since getting myself back on a stable dosage of “prami” I have not experienced true RLS. I say “true” here because I periodically experience what I describe as Restless Arm Syndrome. The sensation is exactly the same as RLS, except it occurs in my arms and/or pectoral muscles. It only happens about once a month, but when it does happen, I just get out of bed. I am not about to put myself through the aforementioned sleep deprivation torture. Sometimes I’ll take an impromptu dose of Carbidopa/Levodopa. That helps sometimes, but not always. Whether I take the extra dose or not, the Restless Leg/Arm Syndrome ceases with the sunrise. Therefore, I think RLS is a vampire.