15 Sneaky Reasons You’re Always Tired

15 Sneaky Reasons You’re Always Tired
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
Thinkstock

Constant fatigue is a very uncomfortable, but very common, physical state. YouGov’s latest research shows that a significant number of Americans don’t feel fully rested for most of the week.

Only 15 percent report not waking up feeling tired even one day a week, while 40 percent say that they wake up once, twice or three times a week feeling sluggish, and 38 percent say that they’re poorly rested four or more days a week.

But lack of sleep is just one – and the most obvious – reason why you feel lethargic as soon as you open your eyes. Other sneaky factors sapping your energy can be as simple as clutter in your office or keeping the temperature in your home too high.

Exhaustion is different from drowsiness, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The latter is feeling the need to sleep, but fatigue is a lack of energy and motivation. It can be a normal and important response to chronic shortage of sleep, but also to emotional stress, hormonal changes and diseases.

Don’t be quick to blame exhaustion on chaotic daily lives. It is a generic and vague symptom that the body is using to signal that you need to take better care of it. Make small changes in your schedule to observe any difference in how you feel – this is one of the best ways to identify the culprit if medical tests have ruled out an illness.

 You need more water
Shutterstock

You need more water

Dehydration is making you sick in more than one way. Lack of water slows everything in the body down, including cell function, leaving you feeling sleepy and tired. Blood volume drops, which makes the heart work harder. Adequate hydration is dependent on many different factors, such as your size, activity levels and sweat rate. The best indicatorof your hydration is your urine. Someone who is well-hydrated will produce clear or light-colored urine. Dark-colored urine is a sign of dehydration.

 You need to clean your home
Thinkstock

You need to clean your home

Remove as many little messes from your life as possible. By cleaning your life up, you will clear your cluttered mind, according to research. These will be things such as clearing out your closets of all the clothes you haven’t worn for two years, shredding all the statements and paperwork you don’t need anymore, and removing the clutter from your kitchen and bathroom cabinets. eliminating these distractions and messes from your life is like untangling a knot inside of you.

“By cleaning your life up, you will clear your cluttered mind, according to research.”

 You may have a thyroid problem
Shutterstock

You may have a thyroid problem

Fatigue is a very important sign of low thyroid. Since hyperthyroidism increases your metabolism, many individuals initially have a lot of energy, according to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. However, as the hyperthyroidism continues, the body tends to break down, so being tired is very common. If you are constantly tired after sleeping enough hours and not doing a strenuous activity, check your thyroid gland.

 Lower the heat
Thinkstock

Lower the heat

This is one surprising way to add years to your life. The heater dries out the air indoors, which can lead to inflamed skin. An acceptable wintertime temperature indoors is 70 degrees for the living room and at least 64 degrees for other rooms, according to the West Midlands Public Health Observatory. Feeling too hot will prevent you from falling asleep or you’ll be tossing and turning trying to feel comfortable, resulting in you feeling lethargic in the morning.

 You wake up late
Pixabay

You wake up late

Try to stick to the same sleep-wake schedule even when you don’t have to get up early for work. Getting up at 6 a.m. every day, and then suddenly sleeping until 1 p.m. on weekends, disrupts the body’s internal clock. “The time you wake up determines the ability to fall asleep at night,” Dr. Karl Doghramji, Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, says. If you wake up late, falling asleep may be a problem. The bigger the difference in shut-eye time, the more jet lag symptoms you’ll experience.

Before You Go

John Steinbeck

Quotes To Inspire You To Fall Asleep

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE