Be happy! The bouncing is a mild variant of it, when it stops when you're going to sleep... try it when you find yourself banging your head against the pillow repeatedly cos the "ants" travelled up your spine... and you can't quite remember how it happened... it's not fun and the pets get really scared.

yeah, the bouncing (which I do) I wouldn't really call a "syndrome."

but the ants in the spine sounds more serious

So I've got RLS, as spelled out in the headline... last night was really fucking bad, despite taking the medicine I was prescribed to get rid of it I had a major attack which made me unable to lie still in bed and much less sleep until 7am this morning. There are many varieties of this but this is what I have written on my web site about it and about how it affects me:

RLS has about as many manifestations as there are sufferers, clinical surveys have shown that children of alcoholics often are afflicted so I fit the bill right there. RLS often debuts in late teens, as far as I can remember I've "always" had what we called "growing pains" but the first time I remember being in so much pain that I couldn't sleep and just cried was in 1993, and since then it's been with me. RLS feels very different for different people - like pains in the leg joints, restlessness (war of the ants), a pulsating heat or simply a level of discomfort so serious you simply CANNOT keep your legs still. The attacks come almost always during evening or night. How does RLS feel for me? Like I said before RLS varies in symptoms. so it is with me too. Mostly it starts out as feeling like my legs are swollen, hot and pulsating and it only happens evenings and nights. I've got a medicin I take that works but if I don't take the pills when it starts up it escalates into an incredible "war of the ants" in my legs that makes it COMPLETELY impossible to lie still, I HAVE TO move my legs. If I force myself to lie still it feels like I'll go crazy, the discomfort then moves up my spine and into my neck. I only manage to lie still for maybe a minute, then my legs move on their own. Sometimes I also have "regular" pains in my legs, it most often feels like a dull pain in my bones about 4 inches above the knee joint or the same distance below the hip joint.


There has to be others on this site experiencing this, who are you and let's trade tips and stories, it'll make us feel better I think.


Forgot to add; I do have pills that I take for it and they work almost always. They're called Tradolan or Tramadol (same med, diff manufacturer) but I'm not sure if they're called something else in other countries.
[Edited 2/14/07 14:17pm]