Why Do I Always Feel So Tired? 5 Major Reasons for Fatigue and Sleepiness
Are you feeling sleepy all the time and don’t even know the reason? Do you experience fatigue throughout the whole day? If yes, then you need to check your sleeping pattern first and then start working towards making it normal.
Experiencing sleepless nights due to work pressure, social gatherings, medication, or some other temporary reason can be one of the major reasons for remaining sleepy during the day, but if this continues for long then you need to explore more reasons.
Here we have listed 5 main reasons that may cause sleepiness and fatigue during the day. Check out these reasons and if they exist in your life, then time has come to fight them out for a healthy life ahead!
1. You are exercising at wrong time
Exercise is the solution to many problems, but exercising at the wrong time would also create other problems because of heightened endorphin levels and faster blood circulation. Exercise is meant to keep your body fit and mind alert. When you exercise in the morning, it will increase the endorphin levels in your body and keep you happy during the day.
The blood circulation also increases, which helps in keeping your mind alert. When you exercise just before going to bed or sometime before your sleeping time then it will affect your night’s sleep. In some cases, it would result in poor sleep and would reflect in your activity level next day.
Troubleshooter’s Tip – Change the time of your exercise. You can do it in the morning or 3 to 4 hours before going to bed so that your hormone levels are back to normal when you are in bed. This will give you proper sleep during the sleeping hours and will also keep you fresh during the day.
2. You are drinking less water
Water is one thing that is very much important for the body but usually ignored! As per the report published in Nutrition Journal, the women drinking 1.5% less water than their body requirement would experience fatigue, lowered energy levels, and also undergo frequent mood swings.
Lower water intake would affect hypothalamus responsible for controlling the body temperature and water hydration. When the body is not getting its due amount of water, then hypothalamus will start giving signals through the mood swings and fatigue.
Troubleshooter’s Tip – Use the new age smart watches that come with drink reminder as you will get regular reminders and that way you will easily meet your whole day’s water needs. You may have heard of having 8 to 10 glasses of water but that logic won’t work here as the amount of water needed by your body depends on your activity level, climate, and other food habits.
To make things simple, you may track your urine color and it should be very light yellow or even colorless. Urinating every three hours is considered to be ideal and to match all these criteria, you may take enough water as needed by your body.
3.Vitamin B12 deficiency
Check your B12 levels. Vitamin B12 has a vital role to play in forming red blood cells. It also regulates the functioning of neurons in your body. When vitamin B12 levels go down, the oxygen carried by blood also decreases. The reduced oxygen supply would affect the energy levels. Lack of enough oxygen would make you feel sleepy and you will experience heaviness in your eyes.
Troubleshooter’s Tip – Check out for other symptoms like tingling sensation, numbness, and forgetfulness. If other symptoms are there then check with your medical practitioner for the appropriate blood tests that will tell you all about B12 levels in your body. If vitamin B12 is found low then your doctor will prescribe you the necessary supplements to recover the loss.
4. Your heart is giving you signals
There are many reasons for fatigue but one of the reasons could be your heart! Sometimes your heart may give signals beforehand. As reported in Heart and Lung Journal, many people who suffered from a heart attack also experienced fatigue and drowsiness for weeks before an actual attack.
The main reason could be the low blood supply due to poor functioning of the heart. Don’t ignore these warning signals else you will have to pay a big price for it!
Troubleshooter’s Tip – If the said symptoms are accompanied by chest pain, severe fatigue, shoulder pain, jaw pain, or anxiety, then don’t waste time and immediately visit the doctor to get your ECG and stress test done. Based on the reports, follow the prescription. If it does not work, you can try some home or natural remedies that will eliminate the chances of any severe health problem in near future.
5. Too much of stress!
If you don’t learn to say “no” then possibly you will undergo tremendous work pressure at times. The stress resulting from the work pressure would affect the cycle of cortisol hormone. Usually, the cortisol hormone is high in the morning and low at night, but the stress would disrupt this cycle. Your cortisol levels would go high during the night because of stress and hence you will not get deep sleep. The lack of sleep would be the major cause of fatigue during the day.
Troubleshooter’s Tip – Try to combat stress by practicing meditation. No need to be at the top always and learn to say “No” when you really can’t as this will take away a lot of stress from your life.
The above 5 conditions are just the pointers towards possible reasons, but there are many other underlying conditions that can also be the reason for fatigue and drowsiness. So, going for the thorough body checkup would be the right way to tackle this issue as this will protect you against unwanted surprises!
The 9 Surprisingly Common Sleep Mistakes That Hinder Your Mental Health
If you cannot remember when was the last time you slept for proper 7 or 8 hours at night, you are putting more than just your under eye area at risk, because sleep is connected to several essential things, and one of them is our mental health.
Lack of sleep and some seemingly insignificant, small sleep mistakes can make us more prone to depression and anxiety, which are the most common types of mental health disturbances. For example, insomnia is a well-known symptom of depression, but it can also be a sign of the manic phase of bipolar disorder.
Since the sleep mistakes we often make can easily turn into a pattern and become a part of our routine, it is essential to recognize them as wrong ones at the very beginning. We have created a list of some pretty common sleep mistakes which can have a negative impact on our overall wellbeing and mental health, so keep up reading to learn more about them.
Sleeping Too Little
As our first sleep mistake, we have the one that was expected, because sleeping less than those recommended 7 or 8 hours can become a serious problem if it becomes a habit. We all stay up late sometimes, but it should not turn into a regular thing since, in a lot of cases, it can trigger depression, anxiety, and symptoms of insomnia.
Sleeping Too Much
If you are wondering is it even possible to sleep too much, it is, and it can have the same negative effects as poor sleep. A few nights of extra sleep will do no harm, but again, if it becomes a part of your lifestyle, and you start sleeping over your weekends, it leads to disorders of circadian rhythm, daytime fatigue, depression, and cognitive issues.
Taking A Nightcap
You have probably heard about the “a glass of wine per day keeps the doctor away” mantra since in conjunction to that a lot of people prefer to take their daily dose of wine right before bedtime.
In most cases, that is fine, but it should be considered how alcohol impacts sleep. If you are a poor sleeper drinking alcohol late at night can disrupt your sleep and cause symptoms of insomnia, and mood disorders in the long run.
Having Poor Sleep Hygiene
Sleep hygiene implies numerous different things which all have an impact on our sleep; usually, those are the things that we do right before our bedtime. In an ideal situation, you would not use your smartphone in bed, or expose yourself to any source of blue light, or stress, because you need to relax and prepare your mind and body for sleep.
So instead of catching up with emails and work, find a nice sensual sleeping position and try reading a book, or dim the lights and play a sound machine, it would be much more beneficial for your mental health.
Having Caffeine Before Bedtime
On a daily level, we tend to consume a lot of caffeine; we are drinking coffee, soda, tea, or eating chocolate, which all in most cases contain a decent amount of caffeine. Since caffeine is able to stay in our system for up to six hours, it is not recommended taking it during the late afternoon or evening hours, because it can hinder our sleep routine and cause insufficient sleep syndrome.
Staring at Your Smartphone
There are two reasons why we all should stop scrolling through our phone late at night. Firstly, it keeps us awake longer and causes stress, and secondly, the negative effects of blue light from electronic devices are hindering the production of melatonin, which results in disorders of the natural circadian rhythm.
Ignoring Symptoms of Sleep Disorders
As much as we hope that sleep disorders can go away on their own, in most cases that are not going to happen, so it is essential to visit a specialist as soon as you notice the symptoms.
For example, if you are snoring, you probably have sleep apnea, and might need a technology that uses an algorithm that detects airway closure. Some may have any tingling sensations in your legs that are a sign of restless leg syndrome. And all those things that keep you up at night can also lead to emotional difficulties, depression, etc.
Ignoring Symptoms of Sleep Disorders
As much as we hope that sleep disorders can go away on their own, in most cases that are not going to happen, so it is essential to visit a specialist as soon as you notice the symptoms.
For example, if you are snoring, you probably have sleep apnea and might need a technology that uses an algorithm that detects airway closure. Some may have any tingling sensations in your legs that are a sign of restless leg syndrome. And all those things that keep you up at night can also lead to emotional difficulties, depression, etc.
Sleeping Over Your Weekends
Weekends are meant for staying in bed a bit longer, but sleeping should not become the only thing you do during the weekends. Since that is significantly different from your sleep routine during the work days, it can cause a disbalance in your circadian rhythm, mood swings, fatigue, and on the long run symptoms of anxiety and mood disorders.
Staying Up Late
Going out occasionally, or watching a movie late at night once in a while will not leave any consequences, but if staying up too late becomes a part of your routine, it can cause you more issues in the long run. Chronic sleep deprivation, excessive daytime sleepiness, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders, and poor mood are only a few of many drawbacks that go along with staying up late.
Sleep and mental health are important, but somehow we all tend to neglect them from time to time; hence, we hope you find our advice helpful, and that you will start practicing them to save your sleep and mental hygiene from any potential issues.