Objective: Restless legs syndrome is a common neurological disorder that may cause sleep problems and have negative effects on daily life. We’ve aimed to investigate the domains of quality of sleep and life on which this syndrome impacts and the effects of sociodemographic variables and the severity of the syndrome.

Material and Method: We’ve included 47 patients newly diagnosed with primary restless legs syndrome and a control group of 67 participants. “Sociodemographic Data Form”, “International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group Rating Scale for Severity of Restless Legs Syndrome”, “The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index”, and “The World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument Short Form Turkish Version” were applied to the participants.

Results: Patient and control groups were similar in many fields in terms of sociodemographic variables. Patient group had significantly higher sleep problems and lower quality of life compared to the control group. There was no difference among the genders in the patient group in terms of severity of the symptom. Although the severity of the symptom was similar among the smokers and nonsmokers in the patient group, the smoker group had higher level of sleep problems. Severity of the symptom demonstrated a positive correlation with sleep, and negative correlation with quality of life.

Conclusion: Restless legs syndrome has negative effects on sleep and quality of life. Such effects are impacted by the severity of the symptom.