What Are the Causes for Fatigue?
1. Lack of sleep
A lack of sleep may seem an obvious reason for feeling tired, yet 1 in 3 U.S. adults are consistently not getting enough of it.
Tiredness increases the risk of accidents, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, and heart disease.
People aged between 18 and 60 years need 7 or more hours of sleep every day to promote optimal health, according to The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.
Getting under the recommended hours of sleep each night is not only associated with fatigue, impaired performance, and a greater risk of accidents, but it also has adverse health outcomes.
2. Poor diet
The easiest way to banish tiredness is to make adjustments to your diet. Eating a healthful and balanced diet can make the world of difference to how you feel.
Eating a healthful and balanced diet can help to combat fatigue.
To improve your health and get all the nutrients you need — as well as eliminate fatigue — it is vital to choose a healthful mix of food from the five food groups, which are: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy.
You can switch up your eating style today by implementing some of these small changes
3. Sedentary lifestyle
When tiredness sets in, sitting on the couch and relaxing could seem to be the only answer. But getting up and moving may be the best thing you can do to re-energize and eradicate fatigue.
Exercising can help to increase energy and reduce tiredness.
Research by the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens discovered that compared with sitting quietly, one single bout of moderate-intensity exercise lasting for at least 20 minutes helped to boost energy.
4. Excessive stress
Many situations can cause stress. Work, financial problems, relationship issues, major life events, and upheavals such as moving house, unemployment, and bereavement — the list of potential stressors is never-ending.
Excessive stress can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion.
A little stress can be healthy and may actually make us more alert and able to perform better in tasks such as interviews, but stress is only a positive thing if it is short-lived.
Excessive, prolonged stress can cause physical and emotional exhaustion and lead to illness.
5. Medical conditions
If you have made lifestyle changes to do with your physical activity, diet, stress levels, and sleep but still feel tired all the time, there could be an underlying medical condition.
Many medical conditions, such as anemia, can make you feel tired.
Some of the most common conditions that report fatigue as a key symptom include:
- anemia
- underactive thyroid
- diabetes
- anxiety
- depression
- chronic fatigue syndrome
- urinary tract infection
- food intolerance
- heart disease
- pregnancy
- vitamin and mineral deficiencies