Your doctor 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.
It's important to note that untreated sleep apnea not only results in tiredness, but can lead to heart disease, stroke, or even sudden death. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver with several possible causes ranging from infections to obesity.
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 your doctor to look for the possible causes.
Diabetes is a condition in which either the body doesn't make enough insulin or it doesn't use it as well as it should. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps glucose get into the body's cells to be used for energy production. There are several reasons that diabetes may be causing you to feel tired all the time.
Other symptoms of diabetes include frequent urination, extreme thirst, unexplained weight loss, extreme hunger, sudden vision changes, tingling or numbness in the hands or feet, dry skin, slow-healing wounds or more infections than usual.
A simple 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. Chronic fatigue syndrome is a disorder characterized by intense fatigue that does not improve with rest and which may be made worse by physical or mental exertion.
It is unknown what causes this condition. 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. Fatigue can be a side effect of several different medications. Some of the most common medications which may cause fatigue include:.
Your doctor or pharmacist can tell you if fatigue is a possible side effect of any medications that you are taking, both prescription and over-the-counter. The causes of fatigue listed above are fairly common, but there is a multitude of medical conditions which can result in fatigue.
If you feel your tiredness is out of the ordinary, and you aren't simply missing out on the sleep you need to feel rested, make an appointment to see your doctor.
She can take a careful history including your family history of medical conditions, perform a physical exam, and order any blood work needed to begin looking for causes. 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 which should be diagnosed for other reasons as well.
Everything feels more challenging when you're dealing with depression. Get our free guide when you sign up for our newsletter. Nutt DJ. Relationship of neurotransmitters to the symptoms of major depressive disorder. J Clin Psychiatry. Research also suggests that getting more physical activity can help you improve your sleep quality and feel less tired and sluggish.
Exercising too much or overexerting yourself in other ways can leave your body too depleted to recover overnight, leaving you feeling tired, unmotivated, and possibly even dealing with insomnia. Other symptoms that can go along with overexertion include:. Cutting back on exercise or giving yourself a week or two off to rest and recover may eliminate your EDS and sleep problems.
Psychological stress can have a big impact on how much and how well you sleep, and, compounding the problem, lack of sleep can make you feel more stressed. According to a survey by the American Psychological Association:.
Research published in found that getting a good night's sleep helped people maintain positive emotions in the face of a stressful event and allowed them to get more joy from positive experiences. Lowering your stress levels or learning how to better manage your stress may help you reduce your daytime sleepiness.
If you're unable to do this on your own, bring it up with your healthcare provider. You may benefit from talking to a therapist.
Sleepiness, fatigue, and feeling weak are among the most common symptoms of many medical conditions. Common causes of excessive daytime sleepiness include:. Some of these illnesses drain your body's resources, while others may impair the cellular processes of energy creation. Some may impair your sleep, either directly or as a consequence of their symptoms—or even treatments. In anemia , you have low levels of red blood cells, which are responsible for carrying oxygen to all of the organs in your body.
Common symptoms include:. The most common type of anemia comes from iron deficiency, but there are many other causes. It may be caused by an inadequate diet, pregnancy, blood loss, some inherited blood disorders, or chronic illnesses that impact red blood cell creation such as lupus or advanced kidney disease.
Your healthcare provider can diagnose most forms of anemia through blood tests. Let them know if you're on a restrictive diet, pregnant, or have a family history of anemia or conditions that may cause it.
Treatments include nutritional supplements, dietary changes, or in more serious cases, intravenous iron infusion or red blood cell transfusion. In autoimmune diseases , your immune system mistakenly identifies normal parts of your body as dangerous pathogens viruses, bacteria, or fungi and launches an attack against them, causing tissue damage and chronic inflammation. Common autoimmune diseases include:.
Multiple aspects of autoimmunity and inflammation are believed to contribute to fatigue, including problems with oxygen and nutrient supply, metabolism, and central nervous system impairments.
Specific diseases may also contribute to sleepiness because of what systems they disrupt. Researchers also suspect that dysregulation of chemicals involved in inflammation, called cytokines , may contribute to fatigue. Cytokines play a role in regulating sleep, mood, and cognitive processes. If your healthcare provider suspects you have an autoimmune disease, expect to receive blood tests and possibly imaging studies as well. Treatment for most autoimmune diseases includes immunosuppressant medications and other drugs to manage symptoms.
More than 80 types of autoimmune diseases have been identified. The cause of autoimmunity isn't yet understood and these illnesses can be managed but not cured. Extreme fatigue that isn't relieved by rest is often an early sign of cancer. Many factors can contribute to the fatigue and weakness of cancer, including:. Cancer treatments can also cause fatigue, including:.
Your medical team should be able to help you combat fatigue, so be sure to bring it up. It's characterized by worsened fatigue and other symptoms in response to even small amounts of exertion called post-exertional malaise.
It can lead to significant impairment and disruption of your life. Some subgroups of people with this disease may have developed it in response to infection, a physical response to chronic stress, or autoimmunity. Even then, this condition is difficult to diagnose, so expect a long process. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD causes wheezing, shortness of breath, and excess mucus in the airways, all of which make it hard to breathe. The disease gets worse over time and is especially common in current or past smokers.
The assumption has long been that difficulty breathing led to fatigue, but some research indicates it's more complicated than that and calls for more investigation into other possible causes. Once those are understood, it should become easier to manage COPD-related fatigue. For now, the primary focus is on breathing exercises and establishing healthy habits.
Depression , also called clinical depression or major depressive disorder, is more than just feeling sad: It's a mood disorder that makes you have ongoing feelings of sadness and loss of interest in activities.
Beyond that, it causes physical symptoms, including EDS and fatigue. In some people, depression-related fatigue may be due to insomnia or other sleep disturbances. Some researchers have even suggested that fatigue, insomnia, and concentration problems should be considered warning signs of depression. If you believe you may be depressed, it's important to talk to your healthcare provider and get proper treatment.
Fatigue is extremely common in people with diabetes , enough so that in some researchers made a case for a newly defined condition called "diabetes fatigue syndrome. Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition involving a dysregulated central nervous system that amplifies negative sensations hyperalgesia and turns harmless sensations into pain allodynia. Fatigue and EDS are also major symptoms of fibromyalgia.
The suspected causes of fatigue in fibromyalgia include:. If you have fatigue that's new and constant, it may be an early warning sign of heart failure or, less often, coronary artery disease. These conditions limit the amount of oxygen-rich blood that gets to your muscles or to the heart itself. To keep the heart and brain functioning, your body sends less blood to less important areas, such as your limbs.
That leaves them with oxygen deprivation, saps your energy, and leaves you feeling fatigued and weak. Other symptoms of heart failure, which involves a weak heart muscle, include:. Treatments for heart failure typically include medications such beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, diuretics, implanted devices such as a defibrillator, valve replacement, or heart transplant surgery. Coronary artery disease involves plaques in your arteries. Common symptoms are the same as those for heart failure but accompanied by chest pain or discomfort.
Common treatments include statin and beta-blocker drugs, angioplasty, and sometimes coronary artery bypass surgery. In case of a heart attack , it's important to get emergency medical help right away.
You should call if you or someone else has a sudden onset of any of these symptoms:. Fatigue frequently accompanies infectious illnesses such as:. Your fatigue may be due to an illness like this if you also have:. Typically fatigue from infections clears up with the illness, which, depending on the source and severity, may be treated by antibiotics, antiviral medications, symptom management, or simply time and rest.
In some cases, though, fatigue lingers well after the illness itself is gone. More than half of people who've been hospitalized with COVID still have fatigue several weeks after being discharged. The Epstein-Barr virus EBV , which causes mono, is known to linger or reactivate later and cause fatigue, among other symptoms. Treatment for post-viral fatigue depends on the virus involved, the full range of symptoms, and what damage may have been left behind by the original illness.
Common treatments are anti-viral medications and immunotherapy. The transition to menopause , starting with perimenopause and continuing into the early post-menopausal stage, is associated with fatigue along with:. The fatigue of menopause may be related to sleep disruptions caused by hot flashes and night sweats. Other causes could be related to hormonal fluctuations, aging, and stresses associated with that time of life.
Some research points to a complex relationship between menopausal fatigue and stress. While menopause isn't a disease that needs to be treated, you do have options for managing symptoms and making yourself more comfortable, including:. When you're pregnant, a lot of extra demands are placed on your body, and that can lead to fatigue. It's most common and typically most severe in the first and third trimesters, but some people are exhausted throughout their pregnancies.
Causes of pregnancy-related fatigue include:. Some research indicates that resistance-training exercise may help alleviate pregnancy fatigue. Other ways to cope with it include:. If your fatigue suddenly increases at any point during your pregnancy, it could be a sign that something is wrong, such as depression, iron-deficiency anemia, or gestational diabetes. Call your healthcare provider right away if your fatigue is accompanied by:. An imbalance of your thyroid hormones can cause EDS, and that's true whether your levels are high hyperthyroidism or low hypothyroidism.
Your thyroid gland, which sits at the front of your neck, produces several hormones that regulate your metabolism and have a major effect on your health.
In hyperthyroidism , all the processes in your body are sped up. This causes anxiety, a racing heart, shaking hands, unintended weight loss, and sleep problems. It can also lead to excessive sweating, which can disrupt your sleep. These sleep issues can leave you tired during the day. Early in hyperthyroidism, you may have a lot of energy.
It's not sustainable, though, and as the disease goes on, your body can become depleted and leave you fatigued. Treatments for hyperthyroidism include:. Expecting to jump out of bed each morning full of energy may cause you to feel more stress and anxiety. Instead of expecting perfection, understand that some days may be easier than others.
If you can bring your expectations down just a bit, you may experience more success. To do this, choose one small thing you can do today that can help boost your energy.
For example, walk up and down the driveway, do 10 minutes of restorative yoga, listen to a minute guided meditation, or go outside and breathe in fresh air. Make sure to write down your goal and check it off once you accomplish it.
If you are having difficulties waking up and getting out of bed, in addition to having a plan, you can start your day with a few minutes of breathing exercises to help set the tone of the day, especially if you are waking up feeling stressed or anxious.
Sleep hygiene is the term used to describe healthy sleep habits or behaviors you can practice that may help improve your ability to fall asleep and remain sleeping through the night. Following good sleep hygiene can improve the quality and quantity of sleep you get each night.
It also plays a significant role in your physical and mental health. To help improve your sleep hygiene, make sure to follow a nightly routine that allows time for relaxing activities. Finding ways to unwind before bed may allow you to quiet your mind, relax your body, and get a better night of sleep. Also, aim to get up and go to bed around the same time each day.
Limit or eliminate electronics in the evening hours and shut down all screens at least 60 minutes before bed. Feeling tired all the time can be a sign of a mental health issue like depression. If your sleepiness becomes excessive and difficult to manage, ask your doctor for a referral to a mental health professional.
Talking with a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist who can treat the underlying issue may help you feel better. They can also work with you to develop strategies to boost your energy.
Dealing with fatigue and excessive sleepiness can interfere with your daily routine. Making changes to your sleep hygiene, moving your body more, practicing mindfulness, and getting outdoors can all help with energy levels. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. National Institute of Mental Health.
Seasonal Affective Disorder. American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Healthy sleep habits. Updated February 9, The symptoms: Hyperthyroidism causes muscle fatigue and weakness, which you may notice first in the thighs.
Exercises such as riding a bike or climbing stairs become more difficult. Other thyroid symptoms include unexplained weight loss, feeling warm all the time, increased heart rate, shorter and less frequent menstrual flows, and increased thirst. Hyperthyroidism is most commonly diagnosed in women in their 20s and 30s, but it can occur in older women and men too, says Robert J. Hypothyroidism causes fatigue, an inability to concentrate, and muscle soreness, even with minor activity. Other symptoms include weight gain due to water retention, feeling cold all the time even in warmer weather , heavier and more frequent menstrual flows, and constipation.
Hypothyroidism is most common in women over age 50; in fact, as many as 10 percent of women past 50 will have at least mild hypothyroidism, says Dr. The tests: Thyroid disease can be detected with a blood test. The treatments: Thyroid disease treatments vary, but may include medications, surgery, or radioactive iodine.
More than 23 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes , but an additional 7. Sugar, also called glucose, is the fuel that keeps your body going.
And that means trouble for people with type 2 diabetes who can't use glucose properly, causing it to build up in the blood. Without enough energy to keep the body running smoothly, people with diabetes often notice fatigue as one of the first warning signs, according to the American Diabetes Association. The symptoms: Aside from feeling tired all the time, other signs of diabetes include excessive thirst, frequent urination, hunger, weight loss, irritability, yeast infections, and blurred vision.
The tests: There are two major tests for diabetes. The A1C test, which is most common, shows your average blood sugar level over the course of a few months. The fasting plasma glucose test measures your blood glucose level after fasting for 8 hours. More than "the blues," depression is a major illness that affects the way we sleep, eat, and feel about ourselves and others. Without treatment, the symptoms of depression may last for weeks, months, or even years.
The symptoms: We don't all experience depression in the same way. But commonly, depression can cause decreased energy, changes in sleeping and eating patterns, problems with memory and concentration, and feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, and negativity.
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