Audrey Wells, MD
Hello. It’s Dr. Wells again. And I want to talk about something that I get asked all the time. Why am I still so tired? If you’ve done all the things to adjust your sleep hygiene and are still looking for a way to improve your sleep quality or improve your wake quality, let’s talk about what might be going on. First off, be sure that there is not something about your sleep that’s still lingering as a problem. You should know that even just having an irregular sleep schedule can leave you feeling tired during the day and so can disrupt sleep and too much sleep or too much time in bed. Now, I think that too little sleep is a pretty obvious reason for being tired during the day. So if any of these apply to you, you may need to make adjustments so that you can get more healthy sleep and function better. You’ve probably already considered an untreated or undiagnosed sleep problem, and you can seek out a diagnosis or treatment for that but also recognize that an undertreated sleep problem is another reason for feeling tired. It makes sense to check your health as well.
Now anyone with a major organ problem, including a problem with your heart, lungs, thyroid, liver, even gut and reproductive organs that’s going to have more tiredness associated with it. Since your body is dealing with a major issue. In fact, chronic health conditions in general are a source of energy drain. So similarly, metabolic conditions like diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and even a nutrient deficiency can cause sleepiness. Anemia is something you can check out with your primary care doctor. If there is a reason to suspect that you might have a low blood count. Hormone changes can cause daytime tiredness, and people who experience this regularly know what’s in the bounds of normal fluctuation. But if something seems different, it may need to get checked out. Allergies, chronic sinus problems, and even persistent mouth breathing or exposure to smoke or smoking also cause daytime tiredness. Being overweight or having the disease of obesity, even without sleep apnea, is known to cause poor sleep at night and daytime sleepiness. Inflammatory conditions and chronic pain are a constant stress to your body, and this is simply tiring. I want to be sure to validate the burden of these conditions as real and have real effects on your quality of life. If you’re on multiple medications and substances, supplements, etc., the side effects and the interactions tend to get complex and build up as your body has to metabolize all of it. So tiredness and even sleep disruption are common with all of these things.
If you have a history of physical trauma or emotional or mental trauma, it will affect the amount of energy you have to go about your day. If your mental health is not so healthy, you’re going to see the effects of that both day and night. In fact, there is no psychiatric condition in which sleep is not affected. So it makes sense that you would be tired. And I hope that motivates you to get help for those conditions so you can feel better on the inside. If you feel tired during the day, it’s also worthwhile to check the way your lifestyle may be contributing. Unmanaged stress, for example mental, emotional, and everything else will make you tired. And you’ve probably heard that sitting is the new smoking lack of physical activity being sedentary and the physical deconditioning that is associated with that will make you tired. And being inside all day or in low or artificial light is a common culprit to being worn out. And so is a lack of social stimulation and connection with other human beings. Finally, your job or your family obligations may be out of sync with your biological rhythm. That means being an early bird or a night owl or somewhere in between and you might take a look at some creative ways to correct that.
Take a good look at your diet. If you’re eating highly processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugar, then of course, you are not going to feel good. You will feel tired because the quality of your food is poor. It’s like garbage in, garbage out. Some people feel tired with frequent meals because of the associated insulin spikes that are needed to process the food and having insufficient consumption of fiber, vegetables, and fruits causes tiredness to you not only have to look at what you’re eating, you have to look at what you’re drinking as well. Now, alcohol will wreck your sleep. There are many, many detriments to drinking alcohol at night or drinking alcohol regularly. Caffeine can be used to prop you up during the day, but if you’re taking too much or you’ve developed a tolerance so you’re not getting the benefit, only the withdrawal effects. That’s a good sign that you need to cut back. Finally, make sure you’re taking in enough water. You’re going to know you’re hydrated when your pee is a light yellow color. If you’re feeling tired during the day, I’ve given you a bunch of reasons why that might be. Now, you can go systematically through them and figure out what might be contributing to your case, and notice that the vast majority of the possibilities are some things that you have control over, which means you could be feeling a whole lot better during the day. Now, feeling tired all the time puts you in survival mode and you really don’t want to live that way. So I’m encouraging you to take these steps toward leading a healthier and more alert life. It’s worth it. And if you need help, get in touch with me. I can help you.
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