Restless Legs Syndrome

[mom23gr8boys]

My son recently had a sleep study done. He had his first study done when he was 8. He was diagnosed with sleep apnea, he stopped breathing 50 times an hour. We had his tonsils and adenoids removed and I thought he was doing much better. We originally had the sleep study done because he was diagnosed with depression with ADD type symptoms ( The psychologist said he didn't think he has ADD, just attention issues due to depression or sleep deprivation). A few years later the pediatrician diagnosed him with Seasonal Affective Disorder which is a type of depression We supplemented his melatonin and he took a wellbutrin for a while, then lexapro and now he takes Effexor. He has had much success with the Effexor and Foclin combination. He still has many sleep problems, nocturnal enuresis (bed wetting), sleep walking, sleep talking, and night terrors to name a few. He is forgetful and seems to be getting worse not better. He is now 12 almost 13 and had another sleep study done recently, I stayed up all night in the room with the tech to watch him.
First it took him nearly one hour to go to sleep, ( I think he was over tired by the time he was able to lay down at 9:30), within the first 15-20 min he had some episodes of stopping breathing however because of the position he was in the tech wasn't sure if his oxygen thing came off his finger so she went in. His arms were curled up under the pillow so she had to move him. He moved over to another part of the bed and laid on his side. He had no other breathing issues for a while. He was only in stage one for at least 3 hours, when he would try to go into stage two he would jerk and have "arousal" then he would stay in stage one for a long while. Finally about 5 hours into it he went into stage 3 for about 1 or two minutes, he had several corel apnea episodes in a row then he jerked and went back to stage 2 for a long while. Eventually after this jerking and arousing went on for hours he went into REM sleep for about 45 min, he would jerk and arouse during REM however, he didn't stay out of REM long. Once he came out of REM and never went back into REM. During the night he had episodes of talking, moving all around the bed, and sitting straight up for several minutes then he flopped over, straight over over his legs. I find him in this position often when I check on him. While he was in this position he stopped breathing several times. The tech told me that he went into REM for less than one min right before he woke up with a jerk. His sleep test lasted almost nine hours. Does anyone know if the PLMD is what is "causing" his REM sleep disorder.

He has never slept well, even as a baby. I believe this sleep deprivation is giving him ADD type symptoms. When I look up no REM or only 1 REM there is not much info. Any guidance would be helpful. Thanks

[goldandsilver]

Hi,
Poor kid. Sounds like he needs to have the sleep study specific for RLS and PLM. Has he ever used
C-PAP for his sleep apnea. Somestimes iron defiency causes RLS. My daughter has a tendency for low iron counts and she states after the Dr prescribed iron supplements and the restless legs stopped. Not the usuall cause and who knows what that is. I have both RLS and PLM and don't sleep well.
Good iuck with your son. He needs a good neurologist and a sleep disorder doctor. Check in your area for a good pediatric doc.
goldandsilver