Sleep Starts

[Char31]

Since I was about a year old I have had episodes of disrupted sleep.  After about two hours of sleep I would awaken because of a massive jerk.  These jerks will continue throughout the night occurring approximately every 30 minutes and would prevent me from falling back asleep.  The jerks affected my whole body and where characterized by a feeling of tightening in my legs that accelerated to the point of an involuntary jerk or jump.  Once these jerks started they would occur every 30 to 45 minutes and would continue throughout the night for about four or five hours.  I do not experience any visual or auditory disturbances and I do not have a feeling of falling that occurs with the jerks.  These "episodes" would occur about once every other week.  When I was a child, I was told that it was just due to stress or growing pains.  However, these jerks or jumps have continued throughout my life and I am now 35 years old.  As I got older, I was told it was RLS and then it was PLMD.  However, I was recently advised by a sleep specialist that I have a problem with sleep starts.  Do my symptoms coincide with that of sleep starts?  Is there any course of treatment I can persue?

[KatEyes]

Did the PLMD diagnosis come from a sleep study? Did the sleep doctor's assessment of sleep starts follow a sleep study? Sleep starts are common during sleep stage transition. I have PLMD and RLS and your description is quite similar to mine. It is probable that the ones you become aware of are just a few of what you actually experience but sleep through. I would accept whichever diagnosis has been confirmed by a sleep study. The sleep study should also reveal how disruptive of your sleep stages your movements are. If they are significantly disrupting your sleep you may need to consider medication. If they do not, just keep an eye on them in case their effect increases.