You wake up every morning with the same tired sensation sweeping over you. It doesn’t make any sense. You slept for 8 hours, why are you still tired? Sometimes, you escape the morning tiredness, but midway through the day, a wave of fatigue sweeps over you. It gets to around 3 pm and you feel as though you could fall asleep if you let your head rest for the slightest moment.
Something doesn’t add up. You’re sleeping for decent hours, and having coffee throughout the day, yet you can’t shake this feeling of fatigue.
It turns out there are multiple possibilities behind your permanent tiredness. Today, we’re going through some of the most common reasons, so you can figure out the cause and learn how to fix it.
Story Stages
Sleep Issues
So-called ‘experts’ always tell us to aim for 6-9 hours of sleep a night. What they don’t tell us is that our sleep cycle is equally important. We go through multiple stages while we sleep, with some involving lighter sleep, others involving deeper sleep, and then REM sleep – which is when we dream.
REM sleep signifies the end of a sleep cycle, which can typically last around 90 minutes. If we wake up at this point, we’re likely to feel refreshed as our body has gone through the whole cycle. Unfortunately, what typically happens is you wake up midway through a sleep cycle. If you awaken during your deepest sleep, you’re going to feel groggy and tired for the rest of the day.
A good way to figure out your sleep cycle is by wearing a fitness tracker. This can monitor your sleep by looking at your heart rate, telling you when you go through each stage. As a result, you can start predicting when the optimal time to wake is. Try setting alarms for this time and see if it makes a difference. If you start waking up at the end of a sleep cycle and your tiredness miraculously disappears, you’ll know that sleep issues were the main cause of fatigue.
Hormone Imbalances
A lot of the time, hormone imbalances can cause chronic fatigue and a feeling of sleepiness. Your hormones are responsible for regulating so many bodily functions, and when they become imbalanced, all hell breaks loose.
As far as tiredness goes, there are two main hormone-related things to consider:
- Hypothyroidism
- Menopause
Hypothyroidism is a disorder affecting the thyroid gland where it doesn’t release as much thyroid hormone as it should. This hormone controls energy balance and if you don’t make enough of it, your body feels so fatigued and tired. If you keep needing to go for afternoon naps, this might be the source of your problem. Other symptoms of this condition include increased weight gain, constantly feeling cold, and hair loss. If you experience all three, the signs of a thyroid disorder are pretty big.
On the other hand, menopause is a condition that only affects women of a certain age. It is perfectly natural and symbolizes the end of a woman’s reproductive cycle. Here, the body stops making reproductive hormones – estrogen and progesterone – which causes a host of physical changes. Tiredness is a symptom of this, but one of the main signs is frequent bouts of hot flushes and night sweats. Seeing changes in your menstrual cycle is also a big sign. If you’re a woman aged between 45 and 55, it’s always possible this could be what’s making you feel tired.
In both cases, treatments can be found to help restore some hormonal balance. Hypothyroidism is usually treated by taking some replacement hormone medication. Likewise, you can consider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy for menopause. It’s also worth noting that the symptoms of menopause do go away as your body adjusts, so you can wait it out.
Always seek a doctor before you try or take any sort of hormone replacement. They can run tests to categorically say if you have either of these two conditions.
Nutritional Deficiencies
Next, your tiredness might be caused by nutritional deficiencies. This is arguably the most common reason, particularly among people following a vegan diet. Certain nutrients are harder to come by in plant-based meals, and deficiencies in said nutrients have been linked to tiredness and fatigue.
What nutrients should you be worried about? There’s a substantial list, but most of the time it’s down to deficiencies in any of the following:
- Vitamin B12 – This vitamin has many functions, one of which is energy production. A deficiency in B12 is mainly noticed when an individual is chronically tired. Unfortunately, it’s only present in animal products.
- Vitamin D – Vitamin D primarily helps bone health and your immune system. But it also supports cell growth and reduces inflammation. It’s been reported that low vitamin D levels will lead to tiredness and fatigue. The good news is, we produce vitamin D naturally when exposing our body to sunlight.
- Vitamin C – Vitamin C is another great nutrient for the immune system but also helps with iron absorption. A lack of it can mean your body doesn’t get enough iron, leading to fatigue. Most fruits contain lots of vitamin C, so add them to your diet for a boost.
- Iron – As mentioned above, a lack of iron is strongly linked to fatigue. It’s essential for producing hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the bloodstream and helps overall energy production. Iron deficiency anemia is incredibly common, particularly among young women. Red meats contain this nutrient, as do leafy greens.
- Magnesium – Most people don’t realize that magnesium is a core mineral in our bodies. It plays a key role in energy metabolism, meaning if you don’t get enough of it, you won’t have as much energy. It is available in leafy greens – and dark chocolate, yay!
As with hormonal imbalances, the best way to know if you have nutritional deficiencies is through tests. Book an appointment with your doctor – or you can buy self-testing kits at home these days.
If you discover a deficiency, work on boosting the amount of that nutrient you get every day. This can be done by choosing different foods to eat, or you can take a supplement. Supplementation is perhaps the easiest if you have a particular diet you wish to stick to.
A Lack Of Water
It feels like a lack of water is a potential cause of many health-related issues. When it comes to chronic fatigue and tiredness, it’s easy to see how the two are connected.
Water helps carry fluids around our body, which encourages all of the little bodily functions happening inside that we can’t see. A lack of water can slow down these processes and cause fatigue and tiredness. Effectively, you’re drying out your body and it loses energy.
An easy way to know if this is your problem is by thinking about how much water you drink! Are you only having a glass a day without any other drinks? If so, you’re most certainly dehydrated. Also, if you keep getting headaches and your mouth feels really dry, there’s a high chance you’re not drinking enough water.
Get a 500ml bottle and aim to drink it at least three times during the day. Other drinks also contribute to hydration, so keep that in mind too. Upping your water intake may be all it takes to help you get out of the tiredness slump.
Under-Eating
Most people probably don’t realize this, but under-eating is very common and hard to detect. Ironically, it can affect some of the fittest and healthiest people on the planet – those who work out regularly are more at risk of under-eating.
Your body depends on calories to burn and use as energy. We get calories from our diet, so a lack of calories means your body runs on low fumes and you start feeling very tired. Even if you eat three meals a day with some snacks, you might be under-eating.
How? Because it depends on the calories leaving your body too. If you burn 3,000 calories a day, but only eat 2,000, you’re in a massive deficit. This is great for fat loss, but not so great for energy levels. Again, a fitness tracker works wonders here as it tells you how many calories you’re burning. From here, watch your diet and ensure you’re consuming enough to fuel your body.
If you’re trying to lose weight – which is why you’ve been under-eating – only aim to consume 200-300 fewer calories than you need each day. So, if you burn 2500, you can still eat 2300 and end up in a deficit to lose weight. It all adds up – by the end of the week you’ve effectively had a deficit of 1000. This is way easier to maintain and won’t lead to a lack of energy.
Hopefully, this helps you figure out what might be wrong with you. Obviously, if you’re sleeping 3-4 hours a night, that’s why you’re tired! But, if you sleep enough and still feel fatigued, it’s likely down to one of the problems mentioned above. Find out the cause, and then tackle it!
