My Secret to Reducing Narcolepsy Symptoms

June 2020 is my 1 year anniversary of sharing my narcolepsy story on social media. When I started, I had finally overcome a large portion of my symptoms of narcolepsy, naturally.

Part of me wanted to leave every bit of those symptoms behind, in every way possible. I never again wanted to discuss the terror I experienced in sleep paralysis or the fear of losing control of my body in a cataplexy attack.

Or the dark places I went to emotionally, as my symptoms stripped away more and more of the life I knew before I got narcolepsy. But then something happened.

Connecting with others in the narcolepsy community

Fellow narcoleptics started reaching out to me for help. Desperate to hear what I had done to sleep better and have more energy while also staying off meds. Starting an Instagram account was my first step. But what was the main message I wanted to share? It came down to one idea.

I wanted to offer hope and that no matter if you are ON meds or NOT on meds, there are practical actions we can take to gain more energy and sleep better. We can reduce a ton of symptoms.

With this in mind, I started sharing how I exercise, eat, and everything else. But people weren’t connecting with me. They would share how exercise didn’t help much, or they wouldn’t see a lot of success from reducing sugar.

The key to my success

I realized that I wasn’t telling people about one really important concept. The concept that took me from having a little success to massive success. It’s called synergy. Synergy is “the combined power of a group of things when they are working together that is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately."¹

So how does this help us reduce symptoms of narcolepsy?

Nutrition alone isn’t enough to overcome narcolepsy symptoms.

Supplements and essential oils alone aren’t enough to overcome narcolepsy symptoms.

Sleep schedules alone aren’t enough to overcome narcolepsy symptoms.

Stress relief and exercise alone aren’t enough to overcome narcolepsy symptoms.

What happens when we put them all together?  We can start to see some serious results in our symptom relief.

Trying new things to reduce my symptoms

Deciding to work on reducing my symptoms came out of a place of necessity. I had decided that I wanted to try and stay off meds, but I needed to get some symptoms under control to do so.

The very first thing I did to help my symptoms was I started taking frankincense essential oil. I was shocked by how quickly I could get my brain fog cleared and cataplexy attacks under control with a few drops under my tongue. Having this success fueled my drive to find more options.

Next, I started exploring nutrition. Did certain foods make my excessive daytime sleepiness better or worse? As I started listening to my body, I realized that sugar put me in bed so quickly. Not just for an hour, but all the next day. I kept trying new things!

My biggest secret to success

Unfortunately, as I implemented something, I stopped doing something else. I would start exercising but then I found myself eating more sugar. Or I would be on top of taking my supplements, but I would stop using frankincense essential oil. This led to a place where I would get 3 steps ahead, and then go 3 steps backward.

But I wanted to be staying 3 steps ahead. I wanted to ditch as many symptoms as possible. So I focused on creating sustainable habits and implementing different solutions. Habits and solutions that allowed me to link as many powerful things together.

This allowed me to create synergy and stay 3 steps ahead, and this is my biggest secret to success.

What have you already implemented that is helping you reduce symptoms of narcolepsy? What are you considering adding in next?