ArticleJournal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine2022
Restless legs syndrome is associated with long-COVID in women.
Article in Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gender Disparities in Neurological Symptoms of Long COVID: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuroepidemiology · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of pre-existing sleep disturbance on T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants, pro-inflammatory and pro-resolving mediators, and glucocorticoid sensitivity in Long COVID.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movements of sleep - the relationship with stroke and other cerebrovascular disease.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2026Review
- Nonrestorative sleep is associated with somatic and depressive symptoms in Japanese junior high school students.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2025Article
- Ocular and Neurological Sequelae in Long COVID: Dry Eye, Asthenopia, Sleep Disorders, Asthenia, and Restless Legs Syndrome-A Case Report with Literature Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Unveiling the pathophysiology of restless legs syndrome through transcriptome analysis.iScience · 2024Article
- Correlates of Restless Legs Syndrome in Older People.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Acute and post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection: a review of risk factors and social determinants.Virology journal · 2023Review
- Vitamin D and Restless Legs Syndrome: A Review of Current Literature.Tremor and other hyperkinetic movements (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Review
- Sleep During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Current psychiatry reports · 2022Review
- [Bidirectional aspects of SARS-CoV-2 and sleep disorders].Somnologie : Schlafforschung und Schlafmedizin = Somnology : sleep research and sleep medicine · 2022Review
- Prevalence of restless legs syndrome during the 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic in South Korea: A nationwide cross-sectional population-based study.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
STUDY
objectivesSleep disturbance is common in long-COVID (LC). Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is characterized by sleep disturbance and has been reported after viral infections. Therefore, we evaluated RLS symptoms cross-sectionally in individuals with LC at both current and pre-coronavirus disease 2019 (pre-COVID-19) time points.
methodsAdults on LC-focused Facebook pages were recruited for an online assessment of symptoms before COVID-19 infection and during their present LC state in a cross-sectional manner. The LC group documented baseline symptoms retrospectively. Questions were included about the presence/severity of RLS symptoms and assessments of fatigue, quality of life, and sleep apnea. A control group was recruited and included individuals ≥ 18 years of age who never had overt symptoms of COVID-19. Pregnancy was an exclusion criterion for both groups.
resultsThere were 136 participants with LC (89.7% females, age 46.9 ± 12.9 years) and 136 controls (65.4% females, age 49.2 ± 15.5). RLS prevalence in females with LC was 5.7% pre-COVID-19 and 14.8% post-COVID-19 (
conclusionsThe baseline prevalence of RLS in females with LC was similar to the general population group as well as to patients in epidemiological studies. The prevalence significantly increased in the LC state. Postinfectious immunological mechanisms may be at play in the production for RLS symptoms. CITATION: Weinstock LB, Brook JB, Walters AS, Goris A, Afrin LB, Molderings GJ. Restless legs syndrome is associated with long-COVID in women.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.