Is this sleep disorder?
Question:
Hi all, During my few sleepless nights (no disorder here) I noticed my wife sleeps on her back with her knees bent and soles of her feet flat on the bed a lot. It seems this can last for hours. After I "correct" her pose she will usualy adopt the same position a while later. Her other favorite pose is on the side in a baby position. When she’s falling asleep, her body will usualy jerk for a while, legs most of all. I wouldn’t make a problem of this, but she never seems to get enough sleep, she’s always tired when she gets up, she needs at least 9 hours of sleep, and rarely has "energy" during the day. We usualy go to sleep late at around 1am. She doesn’t snore but she does breathe thru the mouth. Sometimes she has problems breathing, due to "blocked" upper chest. The most problematic are her legs, calves in particular, which are usualy sore and feel heavy. We’re running semi regularly (very slowly), but she doesn’t seem to be getting any fitter and her legs are sore afterwards. I checked these simptoms on the internet and it looks similar to RLS (Restless Legs Sindrome) and PLMD (Periodic Limb Movement Disorder), but it’s also not the same. She’s planning on getting her blood checked (tiredness) but I thought I’d also try with the sleep disorder NG. Does this look like a sleep disorder? Do the problems I mentioned look related to this sleep disorder? Does anyone have any comment or suggestion? Thanks for any info.
Response:
During my few sleepless nights (no disorder here) I noticed my wife sleeps > on her back with her knees bent and soles of her feet flat on the bed a > lot. > It seems this can last for hours. After I "correct" her pose she will > usually > adopt the same position a while later. Her other favourite pose is on the > side in a baby position. When she’s falling asleep, her body will usually > jerk for a while, legs most of all.
if she has jerky legs while she sleeps she’s probably suffering from Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) or Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD or PLMS) and should be checked out by a certified sleep specialist - it can be extremely disruptive to sleep and therefore quality of life. The disrupted sleep will be what causes her to feel tired and fatigued during the day — Beth in Australia (I am not a qualified medical professional and unless I quote sources anything posted by me is my opinion only and you should always check with your doctor) ============================================= Sleep Disorders Newsgroup FAQ Website http://talhost.net/sleep Newsgroup archives http://www.talhost.net/sleep/archives.htm =============================================
Response:
"Bojan" <fzm…@NOsiol.netSPAM> writes: > Does this look like a sleep disorder? Do the problems I mentioned look > related to this sleep disorder? Does anyone have any comment or > suggestion?
You certainly can’t rule out a sleep disorder based on these symptoms, but you can’t diagnose it that way either, really. The most compelling symptom is daytime sleepiness indicating something is up. Talk with your family doctor about it and ask for a referral for a sleep study to be done. An overnight stay in a sleep clinic will monitor her sleep for a night and give hard data to confirm or deny a diagnosis of any sort. The sleep study will typically be read by a board certified sleep specialist.
