Are you asking the question: “why am I always tired and have no energy?” Maybe you are wondering: “why am I so tired after eight hours of sleep?”
These questions are more common than you think. People suffer from fatigue for a variety of reasons and there is a range of different causes.
It can be frustrating waking up after a full night’s sleep still feeling lethargic, particularly when you often sleep for the recommended seven or eight hours a night. After all, sleep is supposed to be the cure for tiredness, so you should feel rested after a good night sleep. What happens when sleep stops being effective, leaving you always tired and with low levels of energy?
Sometimes an underlying health condition is the source of an issue with ongoing tiredness, which you should see a doctor or trusted medical professional about.
The answer is to find out the cause of your tiredness. Below are some of the most common causes that people find. If you think you might be suffering from a disease or medical condition listed below, such as diabetes, depression, or chronic fatigue syndrome, come and talk to our team of specialists at Beat Fatigue.
Your adrenal glands are located just above your kidneys. They are responsible for a range of functions in the body, regulating many through the production of hormones. They influence blood pressure, metabolic activity, mood, energy levels, glucose production, sexual libido, and more.
If your adrenal glands don't function properly, the tiredness you are experiencing could be the result of adrenal fatigue. Other symptoms of this condition often include craving snack foods, having energy after 6 pm but not during the day, and getting overwhelmed by things you would normally be able to cope with well.
Chronic fatigue can be debilitating. As well as always feeling tired even after a good night's sleep, you may also be experiencing memory problems, pain, night sweats, a sore throat, or sensitivity to things like odours, noise, or foods.
There is usually no single cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. Instead, this disease is brought on by a range of factors including stress, having a compromised immune system, nutrition, environmental factors, and more.
The foods you eat can affect your energy levels and feelings of fatigue. This particularly applies if you eat too many processed carbohydratess. What you eat closely ties in with what you do with your body. If you are not taking the time to exercise but are eating a lot of processed foods, your body will just be sitting with those unhealthy components getting into your blood and not processing properly.
Levels of blood sugar in your body rise quickly when you eat processed carbohydrates, causing your pancreas to produce insulin. This brings your blood sugar levels back down, but it also makes you feel tired and fatigued.
So, what do you do? Often, the solution is to consume more processed carbohydrates to make yourself have an energy boost. However, this just starts the rapid rise and fall of blood sugar to occur again. Doing exercise and eating better will boost your energy levels.
People with diabetes are particularly sensitive to too much sugar in the blood. Type 1 diabetes occurs when your pancreas does not produce enough insulin and type 2 diabetes occurs due to the way your body processes glucose. Diabetes is a disease that requires daily management. If you think you might have it, talk to your doctor.
You should instead work out what foods are best for your body. Proteins such as tofu, beans, eggs or meat, and produce like fruit and vegetables, will generate more sustainable energy in your body. Try to replace processed carbs with healthy carbs like potatoes, kumara or rice. There are lots of great recipes out there to make healthy food tasty!
Anaemia is a disease that occurs when your red blood cells are low, which can make people experience fatigue and weakness. If you have anemia, you might also feel less alert and have difficulty concentrating.
This is especially common among vegetarians and vegans who do not eat enough food with iron. Try to integrate more leafy greens into your diet (they are good for your health anyway!) and if that doesn't work, see a professional.
Most people need at least seven hours of sleep a night, but the length of time you sleep is only one part of feeling fresh and energetic when you wake up – you also need to get good quality sleep.
There are lots of different causes of poor-quality sleep, from medical conditions to using your phone in bed to being stressed.
How do you know if you are always getting poor-quality sleep? Common indicators include it taking you a long time to fall asleep when you go to bed (more than half an hour) and waking up more than once during the night. Another indicator is if it takes you a while to fall asleep again when you wake up during the night.
Food sensitivities present themselves in people in a range of different ways. They can cause rashes, headaches, stomach problems, and itchiness, for example. However, one often overlooked impact of food sensitivity is fatigue.
It's important to say fatigue doesn't occur in everyone who has a food sensitivity. But reactions to food can take a lot of your body's energy, which can make you feel sleepy a lot of the time. If you have any ideas about what foods are the cause, you will need to alter your diet to avoid the problem
Stress can impact your feelings of fatigue in a range of different ways, not least by reducing the quality of sleep you get each night.
How you deal with excessive stress also has an impact on how tired you feel. Studies have found that if you avoid doing anything about it, you are at greater risk of feeling exhaustion. Therefore, it's important to manage stress.
Some people have to sleep during the day because they work shifts. If this applies to your situation, you will need to get advice on strategies you can use to reduce your levels of fatigue.
If you can sleep during nighttime hours but don't, this could be the cause of your fatigue. Your body is designed to follow a sleep pattern where you sleep at night. So, changing the time you go to bed can help.
Sufferers of depression and anxiety conditions commonly experience symptoms of tiredness. Depression is a psychological health condition that causes ongoing sadness, loss of interest, and feeling like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. It can occur among people at any age and from any background.
The symptoms of depression can be exhausting to deal with on a day-to-day basis. The mind is a powerful thing, and can, unfortunately, cause severe tiredness as a by-product of other symptoms from mental health disease. If you are suffering from depression, it is worth putting in the time to see your doctor about ways to make it better.
Some things you can do to alleviate mental health conditions include self-care and physical exercise. Improving your physical health will, over time, boost your energy and make a difference to your mental health.
It is unlikely that your fatigue is caused by a serious disease, but it is important to be aware of all possibilities. Some serious conditions that cause tiredness that you should get in touch with a professional about include cancer and heart disease.
Do not immediately jump to the conclusion that these worst-case scenarios are the root of your tiredness. It only makes sense that serious conditions will trial the sufferer's immune system, resulting in fatigue symptoms.
Exhaustion is never fun and if you find yourself suffering from fatigue on a chronic level, it is time to start investigating interventions.
There are some things you can do on your own to beat tiredness. Cut down on alcohol and caffeine to regulate sleep better. Start doing more exercise, like going to the gym or walking. These tips might seem like they won't help in the short term, but long term you will see a massive difference.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle will not only improve fatigue symptoms but will also protect you from disease and help you maintain a healthy weight. Study up on what exercise routine might work for you.
While the above will give you a better understanding of the things that can make you feel tired even when you are getting enough sleep, it’s important to remember that everyone is different.
It can also be difficult to diagnose yourself as the causes of tiredness, fatigue, and low levels of energy can be challenging to pin down. The best approach is to get professional advice, assessment, and diagnosis as well as guidance on what you can do to restore your energy.
Your doctor may go over some of the points raised in this article and conduct a simple blood test to determine whether a physical health condition or disease is contributing to your fatigue.
At Beat Fatigue, our on-site specialists are here to help you get to the bottom of your fatigue symptoms. Get in touch with us today!
