Fatigue may result from overwork, poor sleep, worry, boredom, or lack of exercise. It is a symptom that may be caused by illness, medicine, or medical treatment such as chemotherapy. Anxiety or depression can also cause fatigue.
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. If that's the case, then the long-term outlook is good.
Two factors make your muscles feel heavy and tired: a lack of stored muscle sugar, known as glycogen, which fuels muscles during exercise, and damage to microscopic muscle fibers. Muscles fill up with glycogen much faster when they are rested than when they are casually exercised.
Plaque buildup in the arteries can decrease blood flow, making it harder for the body to deliver oxygen to extremities, such as the legs. This leads to the heavy, aching feeling associated with Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD). These symptoms occur typically with increased activity levels such as walking.
Menopausal fatigue, or crashing fatigue, is when the feeling of extreme exhaustion and complete lack of energy suddenly becomes overwhelming. Oftentimes with this symptom it's not about feeling sleepy or wanting to go to bed.
Common physical symptoms of anxiety can include rapid heartbeat, insomnia, increased or heavy sweating, muscle twitching, and lethargy. Another common symptom for people who struggle with anxiety is pressure in your head, or headaches, or what some describe as their head feeling heavy.
One of the simplest explanations is that it could be due to your body requiring more rest than the average person. However, it is also likely that your tiredness is due to the lack of quality sleep at night, rather than the quantity of it.
When you sleep an extra hour or two more than you normally do, chances are you're going to wake up from the REM cycle, or cycles three or four, which means you're going to feel groggier.
10 simple strategies for happier mornings
- Start your day on a positive note with these tips! Every day is a new beginning, so make the most of every new day!
- Just say no to snoozing.
- Smile.
- Start the day with love.
- Release some tension.
- Make your morning work for you.
- Prepare A Healthy Breakfast.
- Plan your day.
Hypnogogic jerks are also known as sleep starts or hypnic jerks. They're strong, sudden, and brief contractions of the body that occur just as you're falling asleep. If you've ever been drifting off to sleep but suddenly wake with a jolt and a jerk of the body, you've experienced a hypnogogic jerk.
However, atypical depression — also called depression with atypical features — means that your depressed mood can brighten in response to positive events. Other key symptoms include increased appetite, sleeping too much, feeling that your arms or legs are heavy, and feeling rejected.
Magic Mornings
- Sleep (Obviously!). The best way to wake up refreshed is to get seven to nine hours of sleep each night, says Singh, who stresses the importance of establishing good sleep habits.
- Work with your sleep cycle.
- Consider a.m. exercise.
- Eat a solid breakfast.
- Do something that brings you joy.
- Don't hit snooze.
Vallat's results show that during the “sleep inertia” period, the brain slowly regains the ability to switch between these two modes, divided by “functional segregation.” He believes that it takes about 30 minutes to fully achieve this.
In short, hypersomnia is a chronic neurological condition that makes you tired no matter how much sleep you get. If you find yourself being tired throughout the day, even after a full night sleep, you may want to look into hypersomnia to learn the best way to improve your sleep.
Morning body aches can be caused by a lack of good quality sleep, which deprives your body's tissues and cells of repair time. An effective way to improve sleep is with exercise, which tires the body and reduces stress, helping to improve both the quality of your sleep, and the amount of sleep that you get each night.
Sleep anxiety is a feeling of stress or fear about going to sleep. Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the U.S. Research suggests that most people with mental health disorders such as anxiety also have some form of sleep disruption.
A small study in 2015 found that crying can help babies sleep better. Whether crying has the same sleep-enhancing effect on adults is yet to be researched. However, it follows that the calming, mood-enhancing, and pain-relieving effects of crying above may help a person fall asleep more easily.
Some of the symptoms commonly associated with anxiety are internally physical in nature, which can range from nausea and headache to rapid heart rate and tight chest. Other symptoms are outwardly physical, such as sweating, shaking or having difficulty breathing.
If you want more energy, look at your diet and make sure you're following these basic guidelines:
- Drink lots of water. A dehydrated body functions less efficiently.
- Be careful with caffeine.
- Eat breakfast.
- Don't skip meals.
- Don't crash diet.
- Eat a healthy diet.
- Don't overeat.
- Eat iron rich foods.
Sound sleepers share a surprising secret: a bustling brain. A new study reports that people who can sleep through anything show more frequent bursts of brain activity called sleep spindles than do their light-sleeping counterparts.
VEDANTAM: At 2:00 in the morning on January 8th, 1964, Randy broke the world record. He had gone 11 days, 264 hours, without drifting off. There was only one way to celebrate. He was whisked off to a naval hospital where researchers attached electrodes to his head to monitor his brain waves, and he went to sleep.
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.
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.
- Cumulative fatigue is fatigue brought on by repeated mild sleep restriction or extended hours awake across a series of days.
15 Ways to Combat Tiredness
- Eat a balanced diet.
- Get regular exercise.
- Drink more water.
- Cut down on caffeine.
- Get good sleep.
- Ditch the alcohol.
- Address allergies.
- Reduce stress.
Here are nine tips:
- Control stress. Stress-induced emotions consume huge amounts of energy.
- Lighten your load. One of the main reasons for fatigue is overwork.
- Exercise. Exercise almost guarantees that you'll sleep more soundly.
- Avoid smoking.
- Restrict your sleep.
- Eat for energy.
- Use caffeine to your advantage.
- Limit alcohol.
8 Ways to Wake Up With More Energy
- A. Spring immediately out of bed, shouting, "It's going to be a great day!"
- Go to sleep the right way.
- Always get up at the same time—even on weekends.
- Don't hit the snooze button.
- Drink water when you first get up.
- Seek out light.
- Try yoga breathing.
- Exercise every morning.
Characteristics of hypersomniaIn extreme cases, a person with hypersomnia might sleep soundly at night for 12 hours or more, but still feel the need to nap during the day. Sleeping and napping may not help, and the mind may remain foggy with drowsiness.
Foods That Beat Fatigue
- Unprocessed foods.
- Fruits and vegetables.
- Non-caffeinated beverages.
- Lean proteins.
- Whole grains and complex carbs.
- Nuts.
- Water.
- Vitamins and supplements.
