Symptoms of Restless Leg Syndrome

Symptoms of restless leg syndrome include uncomfortable leg sensations like cramping or tingling generally in the calf region of the leg.

When RLS is advanced, a person may feel these symptoms of restless leg syndrome in the hands and arms.

Unusual sensations typically surface at nighttime and at rest.

Often, sensations can be reduced or eliminated by stretching, walking, or exercising the affected muscles. As a result of these symptoms of restless leg syndrome, people with restless leg syndrome often have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep.

Symptoms of restless leg syndrome include:

• Strange itching, tingling, or "crawling" sensations occurring deep within the legs. These sensations sometimes occur in the arms.
• Restlessness - Floor pacing, tossing and turning in bed, rubbing the legs.
• An irritating sensation in your legs that gives you an overwhelming urge to walk around and move them.
• Symptoms of restless leg syndrome occur or worsen when you are lying down, sitting, resting or relaxing for long periods of time.
• Restless leg syndrome symptoms improve when you move your legs around.
• Symptoms of restless leg syndrome are worse in the evening and throughout the night, particularly when you lie down.
• Little movements of the toes, feet or legs may be visible when you rest.
• Involuntary, repetitive, periodic, jerking limb movements occur either in sleep or while awake and at rest. These movements are called periodic leg movements of sleep or periodic limb movement disorder. About 80% of people with RLS also have this condition.

In some people, the symptoms of restless leg syndrome do not occur every night but come and go. These people may go weeks or months without symptoms of restless leg syndrome (remission) before the symptoms of restless leg syndrome return again.

Symptoms of RLS vary in duration and severity from others. Mild RLS symptoms occur episodically with mild disturbances of sleep and cause little distress.

In moderately severe cases, symptoms of RLS occur only once or twice a week but result in delay of sleep onset with some disturbances in daytime functioning. In severe RLS cases, symptoms occur more than twice a week and result in interruption of sleep and impairment of daytime functioning.