If you suffer from restless legs syndrome like I have for years and years, you're willing to try almost anything to get relief from your symptoms. Did you know that you can actually get temporary relief from a medical disorder like Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) - just by focusing intensely on something that you really enjoy doing?

There's nothing magical about blogging per say, but it is very true that you can experience temporary RLS relief when you're mentally focused on something other than your creepy, crawly RLS sensations.

One thing I've noticed is that if my attention is diverted by something I really enjoy doing (like blogging), or by an emergency, then my symptoms go away - at least temporarily. For example, lets say my RLS is in high gear and one of my children fall down the stairs, or I hear a loud bang outside the house in the middle of the night. While I rush to take care of the situation or try to figure out what happened outside, my mental energies are completely distracted from my RLS symptoms... and I realize after the fact that my RLS symptoms are relieved (at least temporarily, but long enough to be a noticeable phenomenon).

There must be some neurological connection between RLS symptoms and what my mind is focusing on. I notice the same behavior when I wake up early in the morning from RLS.

If I can engage in some activity that I'm very interested in, then my symptoms go away. The very action of posting this forum thread has helped relieved the symptoms I was experiencing only moments ago! It's something that I enjoy doing, and that requires me to focus my attention on something other than my legs. If I were to try to go back to bed though, I'm sure from past experiences that my symptoms would return. It's why I continually get up so early, and why many RLS sufferers are early risers - we have to get our minds active and our bodies moving before the RLS jolts start taking away our sanity.

Do you notice this "mental distraction phenomenon" as well?