• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Subscribe to the Journal
  • Contact Us
Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy

Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy

Official Publication of the American Sleep and Breathing Academy

Eliminating Insomnia-Like Side Effects of RLS

June 27, 2013 by admin

Occasionally dismissed even by sleep specialists, the problem of restless leg syndrome (RLS) is gaining attention in recent months thanks to a new study from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In the small study headed by Richard P. Allen, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Hopkins, MRI was used to shed light on RLS.

According to a report in Neurology, the MRI found glutamate—a neurotransmitter involved in arousal—in abnormally high levels in people with RLS. The more glutamate the researchers found in the brains of those with RLS, the worse their sleep.

If confirmed, the study’s results may change the way RLS is treated, Allen says, potentially erasing the sleepless nights (insomnia) that are the worst side effect of the condition.

“We may have solved the mystery of why getting rid of patients’ urge to move their legs doesn’t improve their sleep,” says Allen in an ION Publications recap. “We may have been looking at the wrong thing all along, or we may find that both dopamine and glutamate pathways play a role in RLS.”

For the study, Allen and his colleagues examined MRI images and recorded glutamate activity in the thalamus, the part of the brain involved with the regulation of consciousness, sleep and alertness. They looked at images of 28 people with RLS and 20 people without. As more is understood about the neurobiology, findings may not only apply to RLS, Allen says, but also to some forms of insomnia.

 

Filed Under: Articles, Blog

Primary Sidebar

More to See

Xywav Oral Solution for Idiopathic Hypersomnia

February 16, 2022 By Alan Hickey

New Insomnia Drug Improves Sleep Outcomes for Adults

February 10, 2022 By Alan Hickey

Tags

apnea CPAP Health Home Sleep Home Sleep Testing insomnia narcolepsy obstructive sleep apnea Sleep sleep apnea sleep apnea symptoms sleep apnea syndrome sleep apnea treatment sleep appliances sleep buisness Sleep Business sleep center Sleep Centers sleep community sleep diagnosis sleep diagnostic sleep diagnostics sleep disease sleep disorder sleep disorder center sleep disordered breathing sleep disorders sleep heart health sleep industry sleeping Sleep Lab sleep labs sleep management sleep medicine sleep monitor sleep physicians sleep problems sleep studies sleep study sleep technologist sleep test sleep testing Technology therapy Treatment

Footer

About SleepDT

SleepDT Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy is a clinical Journal for allied Sleep Professionals, Neurologists, Psychiatrists, Pulmonologists, Primary Care Physicians, and other medical specialists. We also advocate on behalf of patient care in the field of Sleep Medicine

Recent

  • Sleep Hygiene: Which Bedroom Colors to Avoid and which Promote Good Sleep??
  • Xywav Oral Solution for Idiopathic Hypersomnia
  • New Insomnia Drug Improves Sleep Outcomes for Adults
  • Mark Cuban Billionaire Entrepreneur and Television Personality Launches Online Pharmacy for Generic Drugs
  • Americans Say They’re Sleep-Deprived After the Super Bowl

NAVIGATION

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Subscribe to the Journal
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2022 · Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy