Restless Legs Syndrome - RLS and Daytime Sleepiness

Less sleep than almost anyone - and often not sleepy by day.

People with restless legs lose more sleep than almost any other patient group. Even so, according to a review of 26 studies, only 20 to 25% of untreated people with idiopathic RLS are at increased risk of daytime sleepiness, and in one experiment they stayed awake longer than healthy volunteers whose sleep had been restricted to a similar degree.

This volume explains that contradiction and shows what it means for attention, concentration and responsibility in daily life. It separates three words that are constantly muddled: sleepy, tired and exhausted are not the same thing, and they are associated with different factors.

For anyone who does fall asleep during the day, it sets out an order of search: sleep-disordered breathing first, then the medicines, mood and the iron store. Daytime sleepiness warrants assessment for additional contributing factors rather than automatic attribution to RLS. And fewer leg movements do not necessarily relieve the daytime symptoms.

WHAT IS IN THE BOOK

- Sleepy, tired, exhausted: three words, three different things

- How sleepiness is measured in the first place

- How many people with RLS really are sleepy during the day

- More awake than healthy people with the same sleep loss: the finding and its meaning

- Sleep-disordered breathing as a common additional cause

- Depression, iron deficiency and the treatment itself as contributing factors

- Driving, working, carrying responsibility

- Children and adolescents: the other presentation

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

For patients who can barely function during the day, for everyone whose work carries responsibility and who must judge their own alertness, and for relatives who want to understand the contradiction between little sleep and little sleepiness.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Volume 17 of 52 in the book series on restless legs syndrome, part "Sleep". Every volume can be read on its own. The statements in this volume rest on 207 professional sources, each one listed individually in the reference section.