Every night is different because there’s always the hope that tonight will bring a good sleep.

But the reality is, it can take hours, perhaps all night, before the night watchman checks in. Another frustration is staying asleep after going through the most perfect sleep routine only to wake up 20 minutes later with achy legs. There’s no choice but to get up and start again. I would find myself dragging my sorry arse around the kitchen at 4 a.m. completely spent, both physically and mentally, having tried everything to make the monster go away. It doesn’t let you stop moving, like a shark in the water that never sleeps. You try not to look at the clock, but you know exactly what time it is — 3 hours before you have to wake up. And you ask yourself, again, “Why me?”

Often it would turn itself off just as the birds were starting their dawn chorus. The RLS monster would disappear, gone like a thief in the night. A couple of hours sleep and it’s a brand new day, and the night’s struggle a bit of a blur.

Finding help became fruitless. The forums went around in circles recommending this and that drug, only to condemn them years later. I read every research report I could find. Nothing profound emerged, except, one small study from Finland, published more than 10 years ago, that gave me a huge clue…