My initial reaction was that it was most unusual for such a widespread disorder to have escaped notice until relatively recently.

My second reaction was UNLESS it is a relatively new disorder.

My third rank of thoughts was that, while I don't have RLS now, I can remember as a child having a similar problem at bedtime that my mother would soothe with rubbing alcohol.

I was a preclampsic (sp) baby. More interestingly, I was low on Vitamin D, had rickets bad enough to require braces for awhile, and was fed cod liver oil on the orders of an old country doc.

Perhaps RLS is, indeed, a new manifestation of our relationship to the sun and Vit D.