Why Am I So Tired All The Time: 10 Possible Reasons And The Solution
Feeling fatigued or exhausted is common in teens and adults. However, there’s a clear difference between fatigue from sleep deprivation or another underlying issue associated with your overall health.
Sometimes, it’s normal to be tired, but feeling exhaustion regularly while working, going grocery shopping, or even just watching a TV can hint at another problem.
We wrote this article to crack down the reasons behind why are you so tired all the time, and we hope it’ll help you discover the reasons.
Why Am I So Tired All The Time (10 Possible Reasons And The Solution)
1. Lack of sleep
Let’s start with common problems, those easiest to be solved. It’s no secret that adult life can be fast-paced and different reasons can affect your night’s sleep and why you’re tired all the time.
Perhaps, it’s an overly stressful lifestyle, lack of rest due to nightmares or you just live with a demanding child who won’t sleep or loud neighbors. Whatever the reason, there are a lot of ways to fix your sleeping schedule.
Tips: Eliminate the surrounding noise using sturdy, yet soft and comfy earplugs like Mack’s, install a white noise machine that can mimic the sounds of nature, a cozy fireplace or breezing winds that will sail you to the dreamland.
We recommend Dohm Classic due to its flexibility and versatility. Alternatively, your lifestyle could use more exercise and sports, as well as healthier nutrition. But, more about that below.
2. Vitamin Deficiency
Vitamins are essential for the correct function of our metabolism and immune system. That’s why vitamin deficiency can lead to extended fatigue and make you lose the will to do anything.
Research from Harvard showed that the lack of some essential vitamins and minerals like B12, D as well as important metals that make essential minerals in the body like Zinc, Iron and others.
The lack of these can lead to conditions that manifest as fatigue as one of the symptoms.
Tips: Vitamin deficiency can usually be overcome by eating more fruit and green vegetables, spending more time outside and eating more iron and zinc-rich meat.
If the vitamin deficiency is part of more serious conditions, medication may be required whereas the fatigue symptoms would wash off in the meantime.
3. Diet and Poor Nutrition
Eating a lot of refined carbs and saturated fats can lead to hormonal disbalances which ultimately affect sleep. Moreover, you may feel more tired if you eat refined sugars and carbs in the evening. That can include too many fried foods, salts, sugars, carbonated drinks, and snacks.
Alternatively, if you’ve abruptly changed your nutrition, started working with a health professional or you’re eating less than usual, it may manifest like being tired.
Tips: Reducing and then slowly minimalizing the input of unhealthy meals should result in a positive change for your sleep cycle.
You will likely not feel the effects immediately, as your body has been cleansing. Still restoring balance to your metabolism should ultimately lead to feeling more rested.
4. Weight
Another thing associated with feeling tired all the time, as well as vitamin deficiency and poor diet, can be weight.
Losing weight abruptly, gaining it or simply having a disorder that contributes to low or excessively high weight can lead to feeling tired all the time, feeling sloppy, lazy and exhausted. One research found that losing sleep and feeling more tired in general is associated with obesity.
Tips: As we mentioned in the previous sections, a gradual change of nutrition can lead to refreshment in how you feel and how rested you are throughout the day.
The changes aren’t noticeable the same moment you take action to change your nutrition but as the body cleans the toxins and as you balance your weight you’ll wake up more refreshed and feel more energetic throughout the day.
5. Lack of Physical Activity
Physical activity, sports or some outdoor activity can be a remedy for an exhausted brain that has problems channeling and focusing their ideas, obligations, and plans.
If you feel that you’ve been falling out of routine, you may feel mentally exhausted which can easily be improved with exercising and other forms of physical activity.
Tips: Tiredness caused by a lack of exercise can simply be changed with physical activity.
At the beginning try practicing aerobic, pilates, yoga and other forms of home exercises.
Take walks early in the morning or before work. If you’re more ambitious, you can also go to the gym, to football, to pool or a swimming club and get the best out of physical activity.
6. Sedentary Workflow
If you’re stuck at an office or a home office the entire day with little to no moving, you’re likely mentally exhausted from constantly sitting and placing your spine and neck in an unnatural position.
This relation is backed by science, where a group of researchers found a relationship between sedentary style and work and feeling exhausted.
Tips: Unfortunately, you can’t and shouldn’t change your job just because sitting at an office affects whether you feel tired or rested.
However, you can practice mild stretching and take frequent breaks which include walking through the house, office or facility where you work. Indulge in exercise and physical activity.
If you use a recliner chair, our article about the best pillows for the recliner chair will help you choose the right cushion to promote healthy posture, which should ultimately result in rested sensation.
7. Stress
Adults live a fast-paced life which can often result in feeling overly exhausted, to the point you can’t perform your day-to-day activities.
Additionally, it can lead to psychosomatic reactions which can be devastating for health. If you feel that a draining lifestyle constantly leaves you feeling tired, you’re likely over exhausted from stress.
Tips: If this is the case, sit down with yourself and make a checklist of what practical activities could help you feel less stressed.
Find new activities, go out and see your friends. Don’t shy away from using the tips we provided above because they can have productive results.
8. Depression
Have you ever felt so empty that it made you feel exhausted? You may be suffering from depression. It’s important to distinguish between feeling depressed and being depressed. If it’s the latter, it can likely make you tired in the long run. You may also feel tired all the time if you’re anxious.
Tips: There are no universal tips for these emotions. If you feel that you’re losing control it’d be the best to visit a therapist.
They may also recommend visiting an endocrinologist to confirm there is no hormonal disbalance that makes you feel tired.
9. Chronic Sleep Disorder
It’s no secret that our sleep can affect how we feel. If you suffer from insomnia and you keep yourself up at night, it’s normal that you’ll wake up tired and feel tired throughout the day.
If you suffer from regular sleep apnea, chronic snoring or wake up from sleep-paralysis, one of the consequences can be going into the day exhausted.
Tips: Practice a healthy pre-bed routine that will lead towards a healthier sleep cycle. That also means taking a warm bath before bed, reducing screen time due to blue light, not eating heavy meals.
10. Medication
If you’re taking medication, your body is in the process of adjusting on it or has some internal reaction that in result makes you feel fatigued. There are different types of medicines that in turn leave you feeling drowsy.
Tips: Only take medication that has previously been prescribed to you by your doctor or therapist. Don’t take anything on your own because you may not know how your body reacts. Always consult with an expert.
What to Do Next?
We included a set of tips to follow in case of each problem, but that isn’t enough at all times. The starting thing you can do is to start tracking your sleep activity because the root of all fatigue problems may originate from there. While sleep-tracking smart beds are too expensive for the working-class budget, there are other devices to track sleep, like bands and watches.
One of the great choices is Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 with in-depth sleep analysis.
Nevertheless, we also found the Fitbit Inspire series to be effective at tracking your sleep activity.
If none of the tips work, it’d be best to consult with your therapist or doctor who may do additional analysis like blood tests or appoint you to screening tests to determine the brain activity that leads to feeling active.
Lastly, we’d like to point out that feeling tired can be a product of different sleeping stages. Aside from being awake, there are also REM phases, light sleep, and deep sleep.
Usually, at least 20% of sleep should go to deep sleep, while the light sleep and REM sleep shouldn’t contribute to more than 50% and 30% respectively. REM phase means your brain is more active, as it’s generating dreams which can lead to feeling tired after waking up.
Other Things to Consider
Most fatigue information should be revealed through tracking sleep, as well as the tips we provided above. However, other conditions like underactive thyroid, drug abuse, menopause, and anemia can all be the causes of feeling exhausted.
Also, we believe that working a lot of frequent night shifts can lead to you feeling tired. While the ultimate remedy for feeling tired all the time doesn’t exist, it’s important to keep our body healthy, be productive, and sleep at normal times.
