Vicky Arlidge of London, England, calls Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) the "Catch 22" of conditions. The more tired you are, the worse it gets. The worse it gets, the less you sleep. Now 35 weeks pregnant, Arlidge has suffered from restless legs since she was a teen. It was manageable until about her fifth month of pregnancy, and then it became unbearable.

"It now comes on every night when I go to bed and sometimes before then if I'm at rest, for example, if I'm riding in the car, watching [TV, etc.]," says Arlidge. "I can now only get rid of it by getting up and walking around/doing exercises until it has gone and then have to try and get to sleep quickly before it comes on again. On average, I am up three times in the night and am losing about three hours' sleep each night. I get it in the arms as well as the legs, which is apparently quite rare. Before pregnancy I only had it in the legs."

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines RLS as a neurological disorder characterized by unpleasant sensations in the legs and an uncontrollable urge to move when at rest in an effort to relieve these feelings. RLS sensations are often described by people as burning, creeping, tugging or like insects crawling inside the legs.

Dr. Philip Becker, medical director of the Sleep Medicine Institute at the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas and a clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, says RLS is estimated to affect approximately 17 percent of pregnant women based on four criteria. Dr. Becker uses the acronym URGE to define these criteria:

• Urge to move.
• Rest worsens symptoms.
• Getting up relieves symptoms.
• Evening worsening of symptoms.

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