I clock up to 20,000 steps a night: my life with restless legs syndrome

I spent years desperate for help and exhausted from lack of sleep. But the condition is badly misunderstood – even by doctors

I’d always known something was wrong with my legs. When I was a teenager, my best friend and I shared her full-sized bed – she would wake me up, giggling: “Lying next to you is like trying to sleep through an earthquake!” Now I’m 45, and my boyfriend says the same thing.

I have Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), a condition that affects up to 14% of the global population, according to the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation. Every night, I feel an uncontrollable urge to move my legs. I get up and walk – a trusty but temporary solution. It stops. I lie back down. It starts again. I try to ignore it, but I can’t. The movements persist in arrhythmic cycles for hours. By bedtime I’m exasperated, in tears. I just want to sleep.

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I clock up to 20,000 steps a night: my life with restless legs syndrome

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