Fatigue is usually caused by stress, anxiety, depression, viruses — such as the flu or COVID-19 — or sleep problems. Some medications may also cause you to feel fatigued. Sometimes fatigue is a symptom of a physical condition such as: anaemia — not having enough iron in your blood.
You may be too exhausted even to manage your daily affairs. In most cases, there's a reason for the fatigue. It might be allergic rhinitis, anemia, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, lung disease (COPD), a bacterial or viral infection, or some other health condition.
But tiredness or exhaustion that goes on for a long time is not normal. It can affect your ability to get on and enjoy your life. Unexplained tiredness is one of the most common reasons for people to see their GP.
Fatigue can have a variety of causes. Some conditions that cause fatigue include thyroid disorders, iron deficiency anemia, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, and COVID-19. Some other causes of fatigue may involve your diet, sleep, and levels of stress.
There are three types of fatigue: transient, cumulative, and circadian: Transient fatigue is acute fatigue brought on by extreme sleep restriction or extended hours awake within 1 or 2 days.
Call for an appointment with your doctor if your fatigue has persisted for two or more weeks despite making an effort to rest, reduce stress, choose a healthy diet and drink plenty of fluids.
For most people, feeling tired when you wake up is the result of sleep inertia, which is a natural feeling you experience as you transition between being asleep and awake. This feeling generally dissipates between 15 and 60 minutes after waking, but for some it can last longer.
The two most likely reasons you're always so tired no matter how much sleep you get are you've got high sleep debt or you're not living in sync with your circadian rhythm. You may also feel sleepy if you're ill, pregnant, or you've got a medical condition like anemia or diabetes.
Most likely, you're still tired after eight hours of sleep because of these three factors: (1) you don't know your sleep need, (2) you're not taking into account your sleep efficiency, and (3) you carry sleep debt.
Things like sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, grinding your teeth, acid reflux, parasomnia (sleepwalking or doing other things during the night that you don't remember doing), rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, or orthopaedic injuries or neuropathies can all create sleep problems that can leave you feeling exhausted the ...
Lack of physical or mental energy. Inability to stay awake or alert. Accidentally falling asleep, such as when driving or operating heavy machinery. Inability to maintain or complete an activity.
This sleep inertia, or transition from sleep to wake that comes with temporary grogginess, is part of the natural sleep-wake cycle. Sleep inertia typically lasts for 60-90 minutes. Natural light, exercise, coffee, and low sleep debt can help reduce its length and severity.
One possible reason for feeling tired, anxious, and weak is having low levels of iron, vitamin D, or B12. Many experts believe that a significant percentage of the U.S. population is deficient in vitamin D.
Get moving. Exercise is a natural energy booster, because whenever you do it, oxygen-rich blood surges through your body to your heart, muscles, and brain. Regularly squeezing a workout into your day -- even if you can spare only 10 minutes at a time -- will help keep your energy levels at their peak.
Chances are, your morning grogginess is just sleep inertia, which is a normal part of the waking process. Your brain typically doesn't instantly wake up after sleeping. It transitions gradually to a wakeful state. During this transition period, you may feel groggy or disoriented.
And while the occasional long sleep is generally nothing to worry about, oversleeping several days a week could be a sign that something more serious is going on.
Not getting adequate sleep over a series of days causes sleep debt to progressively build day by day. For example: a person needing 8 hours of sleep but getting only 6 would build a sleep debt of 2 hours that day. A person with an 8-hour sleep need who gets 6 hours each day for 5 days builds a sleep debt of 10 hours.
If you nap in the morning, the sleep consists primarily of light NREM (and possibly REM) sleep. In contrast, napping later in the evening, as your sleep drive increases, will comprise more deep sleep. This, in turn, may disrupt your ability to fall asleep at night. Therefore, napping late in the day is discouraged.