Chronic fatigue will ruin your quality of life. If you are currently dealing with chronic fatigue, you may be wondering why and what are some things you can do to help?
There are many reasons why you might be chronically tired: life factors, stress, disease, and sleep disorders, which are the most common. Life factors are often short-term causes that may be fairly obvious to you. Underlying sleep disorders are common causes of chronic fatigue of which you may not be aware.
Sleep deprivation, broadly speaking:
deprivation.
Insomnia is a condition where you never feel you get enough sleep – usually because you can’t get enough sleep. People with insomnia don’t get enough sleep for the following reasons:
The result is that you feel chronically tired during the day. Insomnia can have many causes:
Primary symptoms of sleep apnea include:
For individuals who are overweight or have diabetes, sleep apnea can be a significant risk. If you are chronically tired during the day, assessing whether or not you are snoring and having trouble breathing during the night can be the first step in improving and getting better.
Restless leg syndrome is a sleeping disorder where you struggle with the following while sleeping:
In all cases, the result is that the feeling/movement in your legs causes you to wake up many times during the night, effectively disrupting your ability to get restful sleep. In such cases, you may be in bed all night long, but not getting the rest you need.
You may feel tired all day simply because of poor sleep habits – and poor sleep habits may not even be what you think. Some insidious but common bad sleep habits are:
We are all individuals with different needs, and are affected differently by certain lifestyles. If you are feeling tired all day long, you can try adjusting your pre-sleep habits to see if that helps.
As you age, your sleep patterns change, many, but not all of us experience the following changes to sleep as we age:
In short, as we get older many of us need to be more conscious and intentional about our sleep habits in order to get the requisite amount of sleep. If you are feeling chronically tired and are also transitioning into older adulthood, it may be age related. Consult with your doctor or a sleep specialist to see what may be normal or abnormal.
Finally, chronic tiredness may have nothing to do with sleep disorders or habits, and may be the result of a different underlying condition such as:
Once again, the best place to begin your road to feeling rested and energetic is either changes in habits or by consulting with your doctor or a sleep specialist.