fatigue and parkinson's

I’ve written about fatigue before but it’s definitely one of my most annoying and challenging symptoms right now. According to the Parkinson’s Association, about half the people with PD report fatigue as a major problem and a third say it is their most disabling symptom. Aside from wanting to take a nap in the afternoon, some days I just have a low grade tiredness all day. Fatigue is difficult to describe and measure. It can be mental and/or physical fatigue and its source can be from the disease itself, medication side effects, or lack of sleep. Here are some things that I’ve been exploring to help with my fatigue. As always, I’m not a health professional and an expert at nothing :), so please work with your doctor to find out what’s right for your care.

Eat Well – Eating nutritious foods in reasonable amounts gives us the fuel we need throughout the day. Eating processed foods and foods high in sugar and simple carbohydrates can give us sugar crashes that zap our energy. Michael Pollan’s haiku of “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” is amazingly simple and comprehensive.

Exercise – Don’t wait for a ton of studies to show that exercising is beneficial for people with PD. It is. Period. There have been a zillion studies that show exercise is beneficial to people overall, so how could it possibly not be helpful for PwP. Exercising helps with fatigue and so many things like improving your strength, flexibility, endurance, digestion, weight management, & mental outlook, and if we are improving those things, it’s beneficial.

Practice Good Sleeping Habits – Turn off screens an hour before you go to sleep. Take a warm shower, turn on relaxing music, get in comfy bed clothes. Create a ritual that you enjoy that lets your mind know that it’s time to get ready for bed. Read books at night that are relaxing or provide escapism. Stay off of social media, news, or things that will trigger worry or stress.

Take a Nap – I recently read that taking a 10-20 minute is optimal. Anything more than that can leave you feeling groggy and may not give anymore added benefits than a shorter nap. Also try to limit taking multiple naps during the day or taking a nap late in the afternoon, as that can contribute to sleep disturbances during the night. Now this is a tricky one for me. When I’m tired, I try and figure out whether I’m actually tired and need a nap or if I’m fatigued, in which case maybe I just need to slow down. Sometimes I’ll actually try and do something physical, which sort of snaps me out of the fatigue by placing my focus elsewhere. I know this sounds counter intuitive but at the right time, it can re-energize me.

Find Your Daily Rhythm – Are you a morning or afternoon person? See what your natural tendencies are and do the difficult or high energy items like exercising or complicated thinking in that window. For me I’m much more productive before noon. So I exercise, garden, do high thinking work in the mornings. In the early afternoons I do administrative things, run errands, or do creative things.

Medication – As we know, many medications for PD can have side effects that make us sleepy or groggy, or sort of out of it. If this is the case, talk to your doctor about it. Our symptoms change over time and changing the dosage, timing, or type of medications to best benefit our current symptoms is always a balancing act. Keep a journal of how you feel during the day along with when you take your medication and see if there are any patterns that seem to correlate and bring them with you to your next doctors appointment.

Do you have any good tips on helping with fatigue? XO