THEY roam the night, desperate for relief from a condition no one really understands. Neither vampires nor insomniacs, these driven individuals – and there are millions, many of them elderly – suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome, a debilitating nocturnal neurological disorder that compels those afflicted to leave their beds and pace until the symptoms subside.
The primary manifestations of the condition are jerking or twitching movements, usually in the legs, that most often occur when asleep, sitting still or resting. Dr Gerard Kerins, a geriatrician at the University of Connecticut Centre on Ageing, says sufferers use a variety of words to describe their symptoms, including, “burning”, “pulling”, “creepy-crawling”, “electric”, “prickly” and, infrequently, “painful”.