When Sleep Isn’t Restful – It’s a Sign

There are two kinds of sleep, and the question you need to ask yourself is which kind are you getting? One kind of sleep involves falling asleep, sleeping deeply, and waking up feeling mostly or completely refreshed. Another kind of sleep involves closing your eyes at night, waking up in the morning, and feeling like you could have slept another 3 hours. Which kind of sleep are you getting, the first or the second one?

If you wake up feeling like you hardly slept, even if you slept all night, it’s going to inhibit your ability to enjoy life. When you are tired all the time:

• You are moodier
• You perform worse in nearly every task
• You lose motivation to do things for yourself
• Your social life might dry up with others
• You will have reduced sex drive

Any of that sound familiar? It can also be especially frustrating if you are 'sleeping' for at least 7 hours and feel like you should be rested and happy. This phenomenon is generally a strong symptom of either of the following:

• Bad habits and/or cognitive conditions
• Sleep disorders
• Bad sleeping environment
• Medical problem

Let’s look at these in more detail.

Medical Causes of Chronic Tiredness

There are some relatively common medical conditions that can make you tired all the time, even though you are getting 8 or more hours of sleep. These include:

• Hypothyroidism
• Hormone problems
• Diabetes
• Anemia
• Heart Disease
• Chronic illness

These medical conditions can leave you feeling drained of energy, enthusiasm, and make you feel like you could “sleep a year.” With such conditions, you might range from feeling chronically fatigued, to feeling like you happily put your head down and sleep at any time, to being so disruptive you can hardly function normally.

Sleep Disorders That Cause Chronic Fatigue

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder and medical condition that causes you to repeatedly stop breathing constantly throughout the night, anywhere for 40 to over 100 times per night, and wake up to resume breathing (though you won’t remember waking).

Therefore, you might sleep 8 hours and still feel like you barely slept – because you really didn’t sleep! It causes severe sleep deprivation and the following symptoms:

• Bed partner hears you repeatedly stop breathing throughout night
• Loud, chronic snoring
• Wake up exhausted in the morning
• Wake up with headaches
• Waking up choking/gasping
• Mood disruptions, such as constant irritability, brain fog, etc.

Another set of sleep disorders that will leave you feeling tired after a full night’s sleep are parasomnias. Parasomnias are disruptive sleep disorders that interfere with your circadian rhythm, and may impact sleep quality without your awareness of it. They include the following disorders:

• Restless leg syndrome
• Sleep walking
• Night terrors
• Chronic nightmares

Lifestyle Causes of Chronic Fatigue

Finally, there are numerous lifestyle and emotional related causes of being sleep deprived from lack of sleep quality. Some of the more obvious ones are

• Dinking too much alcohol, which greatly impacts REM sleep
• Poor diet/malnutrition, such as allergies or intolerances that can make you feel lethargic and sluggish all of the time
• Clinical depression/anxiety
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Shift Work

Bad Sleeping Environment Affecting Sleep Quality

Sleep deprivation despite sleeping for the recommended amount of time isn’t always the product of a sleeping disorder. Your sleep quality might also be impacted by:

• Not having an ideal sleeping environment: quiet, dark, peaceful, and comfortable room
• Adjust to doing shift work
• Stress/anxiety from work, marriage/divorce, moving, etc.
• Working hours that do not align with your natural circadian rhythm
• Too much “screen time” with laptops/TV/cell phones before bed, as the blue light can delay the onset of restorative stages of sleep

Any of the above can cause you to get less quality sleep even though you are getting the right amount of sleep time.

If you are living in Anchorage and struggle with chronic fatigue or tiredness during the daytime, contact us by clicking the orange button below and taking a free online sleep test. We can help.