Living with Parkinson’s disease means adjusting to changes in your life. Although everyone’s disease journey is different, many people find that managing daily tasks and routines can become more challenging as symptoms advance.

Making small changes, with support from your care team, can improve your day-to-day quality of life. Try some of the following tips to manage your symptoms and bring greater ease to your daily life.

Seek Support

Working with physical, occupational, and speech therapists can help you tailor strategies to your situation and lifestyle and choose supportive equipment. This can also help educate your partner, family members, or care team to support your daily tasks while still respecting your independence and preferences.

Making changes that help you move and exercise safely, prevent falls, make home and self-care tasks easier, sleep better, and communicate can all improve your life. These changes can also empower you to exert some control over how Parkinson’s affects you.

Talking to a team of health experts is the first step and the best way to make a plan for how you can meet your goals while managing your Parkinson’s disease. If you haven’t yet been paired with a PT, OT, or speech therapist, consider asking your neurologist or primary care doctor to give you some referrals.

Manage Sleep Issues

If you have Parkinson’s disease and you’re having sleep problems, you’re not alone. Around 75 percent of people with Parkinson’s experience sleep challenges.

People with Parkinson’s often feel tired during the day, have trouble sleeping at night, or have jerky movements or vivid dreams that disrupt their sleep. It’s a good idea to discuss sleep issues with your doctor to see if you need any medical treatment.

Sleep Hygiene Tips

Your doctor may give you some sleep hygiene tips to help you sleep better. These may include:

• Going to sleep at the same time every night
• Using the bed only for sleeping, not for daytime activities such as working or talking on the phone
• Trying to minimize blue light (such as from screens) before bed

One idea that may be particularly helpful for people with Parkinson’s is to change your fitted sheet and pajamas to a fabric that makes moving in bed easier, like satin. This, along with using a light quilt instead of a top sheet, can save you muscle energy and help you avoid getting tangled up in the sheets.

If you have mobility problems, check with your care team before trying home aids such as weighted blankets, to make sure they won’t make moving or turning in bed more difficult.

MyParkinsonsTeam members often share tips to address sleep problems. One member said, “Sleep with a pillow in your arms and hug it. It keeps the hand muscles active and gives you peace.” Another wrote, “I’ve been sleeping under a weighted blanket. Boy, does it help with the tremors and to fall asleep.”

Up to 40 percent of people with Parkinson’s disease also have sleep apnea. The best treatment for sleep apnea is often a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine.

Some of the key signs of sleep apnea are loud snoring and daytime sleepiness. If you think you have sleep apnea, your doctor may order a sleep study to determine if CPAP or another treatment can help you.

Exercise To Manage Stiffness and Other Symptoms

Rigidity, or stiffness, is one of the most common motor symptoms in Parkinson’s. Regular stretching and exercise can help loosen up tight muscles, improve your flexibility, and improve your balance and strength.

Research has shown that getting at least 2.5 hours of exercise per week can slow the progression of Parkinson’s, as well as improve physical and emotional well-being.

To start a physical activity routine, first speak with a physical therapist who specializes in working with people who have Parkinson’s disease. A personalized program for you may include:

• Stretching
• Aerobic activity
• Strength training
• Balance and agility work
• Flexibility training
• Treadmill training

Start With Steps

Finding an exercise routine you genuinely enjoy makes it easier to stay consistent, which is the key to keeping your muscles adaptable and your movement fluid. It’s important to consider your current level of fitness before trying a new exercise. If you don’t exercise very often, simply getting more steps in can be a great way to start ramping up. Be aware of how your body feels when exercising and listen to it.

When asked how much exercise is too much exercise, one MyParkinsonsTeam member said, “Pace yourself … the key is consistency.” Another member talked about finding the right balance this way: “If you do too much and are exhausted or in pain, the next day, rest. If you are consistently too tired, then cut back. Usually exercise should give energy, not destroy it.”

Members have shared a range of activities they find enjoyable and helpful, including cycling, boxing, dance, yoga, and tai chi.

Manage Speech and Communication Issues

Parkinson’s disease can make your voice quieter and make it hard to communicate. You might have a soft, breathy, and strained voice, or you may speak more quietly than you think you’re speaking. If people have a hard time understanding you, this can be very frustrating.

Meeting with a speech therapist or speech pathologist is a great first step. Some health experts recommend beginning work with a speech therapist as soon as you’re diagnosed. In addition to working with an expert, there are other ways to improve your ability to communicate, too:

• Take a deep breath before beginning to speak, and in between each sentence.
• Try to relax before you speak, and to sit or stand (rather than move or walk) while you speak.
• Choose a quiet location for conversation.
• Each time you speak, imagine you are speaking to someone at the back of a big room.

It can also help to speak in short phrases so you aren’t trying to say a lot in one breath. And, as strange as it may be to schedule vocal rest, doing so before you know you’ll speak with someone — such as on the phone — can make your side of the conversation flow more easily.

Staying social and continuing to practice speech can also help. Some people recommend vocal exercises, talking to their pets, or singing at home to improve confidence and abilities. “I have been doing music therapy and vocal exercises,” one MyParkinsonsTeam member said. “Even doing just a few — even just singing karaoke — can help keep the muscles going!”

If you’re listening to someone with Parkinson’s disease speak, be patient. “I lose words and lose my train of thought,” another member said. “When I talk with a person who waits on me, it always stuns me. I love anyone who does that.”