Exhausted ALL THE TIME!

Alright, so I have felt sleepy/ tired all day, every day ever since I was little. I hate waking up in the morning. I love staying up late. But even when I go to bed early, I'm still tired the next day. I also feel more awake at night than I do during the day, but that still doesn't stop me from being tired.

And it doesn't matter where I am at and what I'm doing either. Yes, when I just sit around, I am more tired than I usually am. But even on vacation or at a carnival or at someplace fun, I still feel kinda lethargic. Even when I'm hyper, I yawn.

I'm so tired of being tired. And I don't know if I have depression or what. And honestly, it's nearly impossible for me to fall asleep during the day, because I need everything to be dark in order to do that.

So yeah, does anyone know what might be wrong with me and how I can make myself more energized? I'd appreciate the help!

Hello, DarkAngelGal. Battling illnesses is exhausting. When was the last time you had a physical. Maybe try some vitamin B.

I wish you well.

well darkAngelGal, i suggest you try herb and Chinese medicine maybe. cause i had try and it's working against our tiredness fighting illness or everyday life. that's my experience. hope it's a guide for you. alright. try.

Could be a myriad of many things. I agree with Glok, about a physical. Although, if you've been like this your whole life, then it's hard to imagine this not mentioned to a physician and followed up, on?

Some discuss their circadian rhythm. http://www.aasmnet.org/resources/factsheets/crsd.pdf

Personally, having a sleep study, would be my first line of action. An evaluation. From there, once you have definitive answers, you can make your decision about which direction you'd like to treat whatever is leaving you feeling unrestored through any amount of rest.

to be perfectly honest..i have no idea? never thought i would say that to anyone!

Hey DarkAngelGirl... That's how I felt most of my life. I just turned 40, and the last few years were particularly awful - I work from home, and would often fall asleep around 3 or 4 pm... if I could stay awake past that for work, as soon as I logged off, I'd lay down, turn the tv, and fall asleep. Then I couldn't fall asleep at bedtime. And, I was chronically exhausted, and felt like crap. It was truly awful, and I can empathize with that.

These things might sound crazy, but they've been a HUGE help. I don't think I got relief until I did BOTH of them though, neither one alone seemed to make a big difference in my sleeping.

1. I cleaned up my diet. I'm now eating a mostly paleo-like diet. I got rid of grains, and especially SUGAR. (I do ok with one "cheat day" a week where I can have chocolate or sugary treats, but that's it - my body doesn't seem to process sugar well, and if I have it more than one day in a row, my sleep is NOTICEABLY affected.)

Part of that, I think, is the caffeine in chocolate. I don't drink coffee, but if you do, you might want to consider getting rid of it. From what I read (and I'm NOT an expert), some people have a gene that makes them process caffeine slower - so it affects them longer. Something worth thinking about.

(For my diet, I'm also limiting dairy, as it upsets my stomach, and eggs, as I've found that I have an intolerance to them. I think it makes me look crazy around food, but it makes my body function better. Basically, on non-cheat days, I stick to meals of meat and vegetables, sometimes nuts and berries to snack on, with a tiny bit of the dairy products that don't upset my stomach here and there.)

The biggest part was the chocolate/sugar for me... when I have it, it still screws up my sleep. Like I said, I can get away with one day a week, but even with that, I can feel the difference... I just can't go cold turkey with no sugar ever!

2. No blue light before bed! Note: any normal white lightbulb contains blue light as part of the spectrum. Blue light has been shown to cause your brain to stop melatonin production, so you don't get as sleepy. What I try to do is - 2 hours before bed - I turn OFF ALL SCREENS (computer, tablets, phones, tvs), and all white lights... I put on an orange light (light bulb was $5 at home depot), and do relaxing things (read, some stretching/exercising, listen to music, write by hand). You can also get orange glasses on Amazon that block blue light (good for traveling), but I think avoiding it is more effective (some light seeps in around the edges of the glasses). Candles/firelight is ok - that's not blue. (Note: you don't have to use ORANGE - I find it peaceful. Anything on the red side of the spectrum should work: red and orange are great, yellow might work...)

Those are the two big changes that really made an enormous difference for me. I also try to keep my house cool at night, b/c I can't sleep when I'm hot, and try to turn off any stressful thoughts I'm having (sometimes easier said than done). I have to be careful with what I'm reading - too much triggery-psychology-self-help stuff makes my brain spin.

But, for the most part, the difference has been amazing. I don't fall asleep after work anymore, and when I'm on track with this stuff (sometimes stress gets me off track), I wake up feeling so much more normal and human!

Good luck! And, of course, check with your doctor. My doc did some blood tests, but nothing came up - the next step was going to be a sleep study (yikes) but I tried the diet/light changes first, and they've worked, so no sleep study for me.

[QUOTE=guilloche;3879660]Hey DarkAngelGirl... That's how I felt most of my life. I just turned 40, and the last few years were particularly awful - I work from home, and would often fall asleep around 3 or 4 pm... if I could stay awake past that for work, as soon as I logged off, I'd lay down, turn the tv, and fall asleep. Then I couldn't fall asleep at bedtime. And, I was chronically exhausted, and felt like crap. It was truly awful, and I can empathize with that.

These things might sound crazy, but they've been a HUGE help. I don't think I got relief until I did BOTH of them though, neither one alone seemed to make a big difference in my sleeping.

1. I cleaned up my diet. I'm now eating a mostly paleo-like diet. I got rid of grains, and especially SUGAR. (I do ok with one "cheat day" a week where I can have chocolate or sugary treats, but that's it - my body doesn't seem to process sugar well, and if I have it more than one day in a row, my sleep is NOTICEABLY affected.)

Part of that, I think, is the caffeine in chocolate. I don't drink coffee, but if you do, you might want to consider getting rid of it. From what I read (and I'm NOT an expert), some people have a gene that makes them process caffeine slower - so it affects them longer. Something worth thinking about.

(For my diet, I'm also limiting dairy, as it upsets my stomach, and eggs, as I've found that I have an intolerance to them. I think it makes me look crazy around food, but it makes my body function better. Basically, on non-cheat days, I stick to meals of meat and vegetables, sometimes nuts and berries to snack on, with a tiny bit of the dairy products that don't upset my stomach here and there.)

The biggest part was the chocolate/sugar for me... when I have it, it still screws up my sleep. Like I said, I can get away with one day a week, but even with that, I can feel the difference... I just can't go cold turkey with no sugar ever!

2. No blue light before bed! Note: any normal white lightbulb contains blue light as part of the spectrum. Blue light has been shown to cause your brain to stop melatonin production, so you don't get as sleepy. What I try to do is - 2 hours before bed - I turn OFF ALL SCREENS (computer, tablets, phones, tvs), and all white lights... I put on an orange light (light bulb was $5 at home depot), and do relaxing things (read, some stretching/exercising, listen to music, write by hand). You can also get orange glasses on Amazon that block blue light (good for traveling), but I think avoiding it is more effective (some light seeps in around the edges of the glasses). Candles/firelight is ok - that's not blue. (Note: you don't have to use ORANGE - I find it peaceful. Anything on the red side of the spectrum should work: red and orange are great, yellow might work...)

Those are the two big changes that really made an enormous difference for me. I also try to keep my house cool at night, b/c I can't sleep when I'm hot, and try to turn off any stressful thoughts I'm having (sometimes easier said than done). I have to be careful with what I'm reading - too much triggery-psychology-self-help stuff makes my brain spin.

But, for the most part, the difference has been amazing. I don't fall asleep after work anymore, and when I'm on track with this stuff (sometimes stress gets me off track), I wake up feeling so much more normal and human!

Good luck! And, of course, check with your doctor. My doc did some blood tests, but nothing came up - the next step was going to be a sleep study (yikes) but I tried the diet/light changes first, and they've worked, so no sleep study for me.[/QUOTE

Thanks! I eat chocolate ALOT because I'm a chocoholic. (Haha, it's a joke.) But isn't caffeine supposed to wake you up?

As for the blue light, I don't sleep near any blue lights. Or with any lights on even.

Yup, chocolate/sugar/caffeine will make you more awake. That's the problem. At least for me, these all will either make it impossible for me to fall asleep (if I eat them too late in the evening) - or disturb my sleep (I don't reach a deep level of sleep and am restless in the night) if I have them early in the day.

It's worth trying to eliminate sugar/chocolate/caffeine for some time (maybe a minimum of 2 weeks, more is better) to see if you notice a difference. It's pretty rotten, b/c I love chocolate too - and have just started eating it too many days in a row again to deal with stress - but for me it NOTICEABLY affects my sleep. When I've been eating chocolate... it takes like 3-5 days of NO chocolate to get back to normal sleep! Seriously, it takes that long for my brain to get "back to normal". But the difference is amazing.

re: The light... right, but you need to avoid blue light *before* bed too. So, if I want to go to bed at midnight, I turn out ALL the regular lights, tvs, phones, computer screens, tablets, etc by 10pm or 10:30... so that I get 1.5-2 hours with no blue light before bed. That way your brain can make melatonin. It makes it much easier to fall asleep (as long as I'm avoiding sugar - sugar screws this up for me.) Just use orange lightbulbs instead of regular white ones.

It's been insanely helpful for me... as I said... I was chronically exhausted before, and was pretty convinced that I was going down the road of "chronic fatigue". All pretty cheap solutions too... though giving up chocolate is not easy

good luck!

It was hard to start, but exercise is the only thing that really gave me a long term solution. It was mentioned above, but I also agree with the diet remarks. I only drink coffee in the morning and not a lot. Caffeine, sugar and almost everything processed just spikes your blood sugar and causes a big lethargic crash. I stick to a schedule where I sleep at night and wake up by 7 am almost always. I try to never take naps and if so I set an alarm. It is too easy to sleep for a couple hours then be up late and repeat the whole cycle. Insomnia made me really depressed. I exercise first thing in the morning and eat breakfast. My bed is for sleeping, and I take melatonin. When it is hard to turn off my brain I use self guided meditation apps on my smart phone with ear buds. I have a friend with bipolar who stays up until 2am and sleeps until noon. She is having a very hard time controlling her symptoms and finding stability.

My husband has mild apnea but it wakes him during the night and he doesn't sleep through
I don't drink caffeine after 12pm I flush it out with water
I never had a bedtime because of school and baby, I miss sleeping regularly on schedule
I used to eat junk almost everyday. When I eat healthy with more healthy calories and walk to balance it off, I feel energized but it took a while to realize it
Anxiety and depression definitely effects my sleep
I tried to regulate it with caffeine to wake, Xanax Benadryl or melatonin, but the simplest thing for me that worked was getting to a routine

Look up adrenal exhaustion.