If you are feeling constantly tired, the first thing you should do is see a healthcare provider for a checkup. They can take a careful history, perform a physical exam, and do any needed testing to determine the cause of your fatigue. This article discusses some of the possible causes of fatigue. If you are experiencing symptoms of fatigue, discuss them with a healthcare provider. While a lack of sleep isn’t a medical condition per se, a healthcare provider may be able to help you learn about ways to reduce your stress or prescribe medications to help you with occasional sleeplessness. It’s helpful to begin by determining your sleep needs. The “average” adult needs around eight hours per night, but few people are average. You may also have a sleep debt you have accumulated, and this requires extra sleep to catch up. People with depression tend to have problems with sleep and energy levels. They may have trouble falling asleep or wake up during the night. Some people with depression may also have trouble waking up in the morning and sleep too long. Depression often makes people feel sluggish and unmotivated. Some of the other symptoms of depression include feeling sad or empty, losing interest in activities that you once enjoyed, changes in appetite or weight, feeling worthless or guilty, and having recurring thoughts of death or suicide. If you feel like you may be depressed, talk to a healthcare provider. They may recommend that you also see a therapist who can help you work through your feelings. Untreated depression not only leads to tiredness but can affect every aspect of your life. For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database. When you have too little hemoglobin or not enough red blood cells, your body doesn’t get enough oxygen. As a result, you will feel tired or weak. You may also have symptoms such as shortness of breath, dizziness, or headaches. A healthcare provider can order a blood test that can tell you whether or not you have anemia. Keep in mind that anemia is not just an iron deficiency, and there are a great many possible causes. Thyroid hormones control your metabolism so that when levels are low, you may have symptoms of tiredness, weight gain, and feeling cold. Making the condition even more confusing, hypothyroidism can also contribute to symptoms of depression. Thankfully, a blood test can determine if your thyroid gland is functioning within acceptable guidelines. If not, a healthcare provider can prescribe medications to help treat your underactive thyroid. Other possible symptoms of heart disease include chest pain, palpitations, dizziness, fainting, and shortness of breath. It’s been noted that the symptoms of heart disease in women often differ from those in men and can be more subtle, for example, presenting as fatigue rather than chest pain. Some research also suggests that women face a greater risk of heart disease due to stress and job strain. It’s important to talk to a healthcare provider about all of your symptoms as well as your family history of medical conditions. Based on these findings, you and your healthcare provider may decide that further tests to evaluate your heart are needed. Each time breathing returns to normal—often with a snort or a choking sound—it can be very disruptive to a person’s sleep. This disrupted and poor quality sleep can be a common cause of daytime sleepiness. Other symptoms associated with sleep apnea include morning headaches, memory problems, poor concentration, irritability, depression, and a sore throat upon waking. A healthcare provider will likely ask you if others have noticed problems with your sleep such as irregular breathing or snoring, and may also be concerned if you have risk factors for sleep apnea or experience daytime tiredness. A sleep study is often recommended to document sleep apnea, and if present, treatments such as CPAP may be recommended. The liver serves many important functions in the body from breaking down toxins to manufacturing proteins that control blood clotting to metabolizing and storing carbohydrates and much more. When the liver is inflamed, these important processes can come to a halt. In addition to being tired, some of the symptoms that you might experience with hepatitis include jaundice (a yellowish discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes), abdominal pain, nausea, dark yellow urine, and light-colored stools. Liver function tests are easily done in most clinics, and if abnormal, can lead you and a healthcare provider to look for the possible causes. There are several reasons that diabetes can cause you to feel tired all the time. Changes in blood sugar levels play a part in fatigue caused by diabetes. When your blood cells don’t get enough glucose, you may experience tiredness as a result. A blood sugar test can be done in most clinics, and a test called hemoglobin A1C can help determine what your average blood sugar has been over the past three months. In addition to debilitating fatigue, some of the other symptoms which define chronic fatigue syndrome include impairment in short-term memory or concentration, muscle and joint pain, headaches, tender lymph nodes, and frequent sore throat.
Antibiotics (used to treat bacterial infections) Antidepressants (used to treat depression) Antihistamines (used to treat allergies) Antipsychotics (used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other serious psychiatric conditions) Benzodiazepines (used to treat anxiety, muscle spasms, seizures) Blood pressure medications Diuretics (used to treat high blood pressure, glaucoma, and edema) Narcotic pain medications Proton pump inhibitors (used to treat stomach conditions such as acid reflux) Statins and fibrates (used to treat high cholesterol)
It can be frustrating, at times, as you wait for answers to your tiredness, but don’t give up. Finding a reason for your fatigue can not only result in improvement with treatment but may detect conditions that should be diagnosed for other reasons as well.
