The reason you're tired in the morning could also just be part of your normal waking up process. The period between opening your eyes and actually feeling energized is called sleep inertia. "It can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour (or even two hours in extreme cases) to feel like a functioning person," says Dr.
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.
So when you're getting eight hours and still feeling tired the next day, it's frustrating. There are four likely culprits behind your low energy: your sleep need is more than eight hours, you're getting less sleep than you think, you've got sleep debt to pay back, or you're out of sync with your circadian rhythm.
Mental laziness and lack of motivation can also be caused by one simple problem: not having enough exercise and nutrients in the body. One should consider eating healthy food high in protein, such as green, leafy vegetables, and fatty fish. Research also suggests eating berries and walnuts and drinking coffee or tea.
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.
Reasons for fatigue in females include high sleep debt, being out of sync with your circadian rhythm, your menstrual cycle and period, pregnancy, menopause, hormonal contraceptives, poor diet, lack of exercise, stress and anxiety, medication side effects, and medical conditions like thyroid issues or anemia.
If the fatigue is associated with chest pain, shortness of breath, irregular heart rate, or sense of imminent passing out, these are urgent conditions that warrant immediate medical attention.
Possible culprit: A vitamin or mineral deficiency
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.
A lot of people get more energy at night than during the day, often to the point where it's difficult to sleep. There are a few reasons you may have unstable energy levels throughout the day, but one of the most common underlying causes is an imbalance in your daily cortisol rhythm.
Menopausal fatigue, or crashing fatigue, is when this feeling suddenly overwhelms a person. While fatigue is often exacerbated after physical or mental exercise, for menopausal women it can come at any time, without good reason, even after a good night's sleep.
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.
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.
Progesterone and your monthly cycle
This can make you feel more tired. But you might notice that you're sleeping better, which can boost your energy levels. In week four of your cycle, your progesterone levels fall. So you might have trouble sleeping, leading to tiredness and low energy.
Another one of our crucial messenger hormones, testosterone is better known for its role in developing male sexual characteristics, such as hair growth, muscle mass and libido. But it is produced (in smaller amounts) by women too; low levels of production have been linked to both fatigue and weight gain.
Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of a hormone imbalance. Excess progesterone can make you sleepy. And if your thyroid -- the butterfly-shaped gland in your neck -- makes too little thyroid hormone, it can sap your energy. A simple blood test called a thyroid panel can tell you if your levels are too low.
While sleeping in for a morning or two may help ease symptoms like fatigue or daytime sleepiness, this is often not enough to adequately recover from sleep debt. Research has shown that it can take up to four days to recover from one hour of lost sleep and up to nine days to completely eliminate sleep debt.
Naps are a temporary help to improve alertness, not a replacement for getting regular, adequate sleep at night.
Napping can both help and hurt sleep debt. If you didn't get enough sleep the night before, a nap can help you feel less sluggish during the day. Keep your naps short. Aim for 10 to 20 minutes.
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. Lifestyle changes can often improve feelings of fatigue in these situations.