Restless Legs When You Sit

My father recently told me that lately he regularly suffers from restless legs while sitting. Not so much during the day, but especially in the evening when he is watching television with my mother.

He can hardly keep his legs still. There is no longer any real enjoyment of the program he was watching.

I know from fellow sufferers that they also have to deal with this. Unfortunately, this sometimes also occurs during the day when they have to sit for a longer period of time.

Driving, traveling by train or plane are a real challenge for them. The same applies to a night out to the cinema, theater or friends.

Rest

Restless legs are especially common in situations when you are resting. As long as you are in motion, you usually have no problems.

By rest I mean sitting or lying down.

Most people move around regularly during the day. They go to work or do odd jobs around the house. The time to rest is often later in the day, so in the evening and eventually at night.

Unfortunately, I know from experience how very difficult it is for your body to play up when you are tired. Sitting down for a while can really become a task. Your system needs it to recharge. The moment you want to take that well-deserved rest, your own body works against you.

Evening

Personally, I have less to do with restless legs when sitting in the evening. I’m going to bed before it gets to that point.

Compared to other people, I go to bed extremely early. During the night, however, I get up several times, often several times longer than half an hour.

In total I take quite a lot of time for my night’s sleep. With all the interruptions involved, I still get a somewhat acceptable number of sleep hours this way. You can talk about the quality of my sleep, but for now this feels like the least bad option for me.

When I get up at night, it helps me to sit down for a while, with my feet flat on the floor. The restless feeling in my legs then disappears after a certain period. Some nights it takes more than half an hour. I can usually go back to sleep for a while afterwards.

Sometimes, however, the restless legs return as soon as I go back to bed. In that case it gets a bit complicated. The only thing I can think of is massage, breathing exercises and relaxation exercises from yoga. Fortunately, I have developed a nice program for that.

I am always pleasantly surprised when I fall asleep.

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