The study, authored by James Pagel, MD, of the University of Colorado, focused on 98 junior high, 67 high school, and 64 college students.
“Disordered sleep has significant deleterious effects on school performance,” said Dr. Pagel. “The sleep complaints most likely to affect school performance change with age and educational status. Poorly performing junior high students are most likely to report restless legs at sleep onset. High school students reporting daytime sleepiness have the poorest levels of school performance. Low performing college students are significantly more likely to have trouble with sleep onset insomnia, complaining that they have more difficulty falling asleep than students with higher grade point averages.”
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is when you have a strong urge to move your legs. This urge is very hard to resist. It often comes with other uneasy feelings deep inside the legs.
The urge to move the legs grows worse at night and eases in the morning. RLS makes it very hard for you to rest or go to sleep. People with severe RLS may get less than five hours of sleep each night. This total sleep time is lower than with almost any other sleep disorder. It can occur at any age, from early childhood to late adult life. RLS has an “early onset” when it starts before the age of 45.-American Academy of Sleep Medicine
