stress and restless legs

[silvia10]

I wonder if the rootcause of all restless legs isn't intense stress? I read some lifestories here and i see a correlation with stress. For myself i definately see a relation to stress.

Ofcourse i don't want to take someone not seriously, it is just a thing that i keep thinking. And it might be easier to tackle stress then something which is so strange then this disease.

Also because if you are under a lot of stress lots of muscles go twitching, which is a natural reaction.

if it might be true, this therapy can maybe help ;amuse.vice.com/en_us/articl...

[Hidden]

Hi, i dont see stress as a cause to having RLS, stress can make RLS worse for SOME people.

[Hidden]

I don't think any "root" cause of RLS has yet been found. i.e. a single cause underlying all cases. There a few known "causative factors" e.g. low brain iron levels.

Stress really isn't even a causative factor, it's an "aggravating factor" i.e. something that makes it worse.

Since "stress" is actually a normal response in all humans, if it were the root cause of RLS then everyone would have it.

Stress to RLS is like blowing on something. Blowing on something does not cause it to burn. For burning, three things are needed, fuel, oxygen and heat. Once the fire has started, blowing on it makes it burn faster.

[macewan13]

Hello Silvia10,

I think this may be true in some cases. Certainly, when I am stressed, I can’t sleep and fatigue makes RLS worse for me. However, I have had it for as long as I can remember and I noticed it in 2 of my children when they were toddlers.

[TheDoDahMan]

I've been pretty laid-back all my life. My stress started after RLS prevented me from sleeping. Now that I've been permitted low-dose methadone, I can sleep again. I don't have to be stressed out from lack of sleep anymore.