Why am I constantly tired? Is this normal?
Does the idea of springing out of bed in the mornings and breezing through your day seem like something you outgrew when you hit your teens? Or do you look back and wonder when you stopped feeling that way and started putting constant tiredness and lack of energy down to age?
As we hit our 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, many of us despair at the vague signs of ageing that creep in over time. Whether it’s a few grey hairs, thinner hair or a noticeable difficulty in retaining the same shape we had in our 20s, we generally figure out that it’s a sign of us approaching a new life stage and needing to consider the way we look after our bodies to slow the process down!
Energy is one of those things, that we can easily pass off as something you just have less of as you get a little older. But hang on, isn’t our 40s meant to be the new 30s and our 50s the new 40s? Aren’t we supposed to be glowing with vitality and self confidence as we celebrate more years of wisdom and getting more in tune with what we need in life?
Would it surprise you to know, that being tired all the time, having big energy slumps throughout the day and lacking in energy isn’t something we should consider as normal?
Here’s the thing about energy – it is one of the many signs that your body gives out about how much stress your systems are under. The problem with accepting constant tiredness and low energy as normal, is that we miss the chance to sit up and take notice, potentially avoiding years of misery and ill health later on.
WHAT YOUR TIREDNESS AND LOW ENERGY MAY BE TRYING TO TELL YOU:
Well, this should come as no surprise, but you’re not getting enough rest! (Duh.)
Excessive screen time, going through traumatic life events or trying to please everyone at your own cost may be causing overstimulation and stress
That you could potentially have high amounts of cortisol (the stress hormone) rushing around more often than is good for you, and that this could be also preventing you from sleeping well
That stress and anxiety is taking a toll not only on your mind but your hormones, digestion and essentially everything your body needs energy to do
Your body is struggling to cope with high sugar foods and over time this could increase your risk for insulin resistance, weight gain and diabetes
There might be foods in your diet that are creating inflammation in your body
You might not have the ideal conditions to digest your food properly or get the nutrients from it
You may need some emotional or mental health support
Your diet might be lacking in vital nutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fats, carbohydrates and proteins), or you have an increased requirement for some nutrients compared to the average person
You may be frequently dehydrated
Other toxins and stimulants may be putting your body under stress
That your female hormones may be out of balance and are interacting with high cortisol levels
You might have underlying undiagnosed conditions
A WORD ON ADRENAL HEALTH
What is adrenal health? Your adrenal glands sit just on top of your kidneys. They help along with your kidneys to control your blood pressure, but their main role is to produce cortisol (the stress hormone) and adrenaline. Adrenaline helps to keep you alive – we need it in little sharp bursts to maintain balance in some of our body systems (such as our heart rate) and it is useful for spurring us on to react immediately to danger.
But, in our modern world, where threats can involve the idea of being late to work or school, someone cutting in front of you on the road, the sudden realisation that we’ve forgotten a friend’s birthday, or someone making an unkind comment on a social media post, we experience the state of fight and flight far too often. We are not fleeing tigers every day, but our adrenals think we are! For this we can thank the oldest part of the brain, the amygdala which evolved when we would have been escaping mortal danger quite often (but not on a daily school run).
So every time we get that threat trigger, our brain tells our adrenals to pump out adrenaline and over time we end up with more circulating cortisol too. Cortisol then prevents us from sleeping well because we can only make the sleep hormone melatonin when we are not making cortisol. Over time, our adrenals will get more and more tired and that’s when you notice the tiredness and low energy getting increasingly worse.
If this goes on unchecked for a long time, we eventually might reach a phase of burnout. It might be incredibly hard to get up in the mornings. Little events may trigger strong emotional reactions, even having no control over bursting into tears in public. We might be quite to lose our temper, overreacting and then feeling terribly guilty afterwards multiple times a day.
For some people, when this burnout continues to spiral, they reach a point of not being able to feel joy, to care about their jobs, even to be able to react quickly to genuinely dangerous situations. It might feel like brain fog, or it might just be a sense of not being able to feel anything. This can make life very difficult as we start to lose our ability to function, engage in life and nurture relationships with loved ones.
This last stage happens because our adrenals have lost the ability to respond quickly, or our receptors for cortisol and adrenaline have been overworked. Either way, you can recover from this state and you can start to feel more “normal” again.
So much to figure out! But don’t panic – you don’t need to know everything and fix everything in one go. The last thing you need is more overwhelm!
HERE ARE SOME STEPS TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS CAUSING YOUR LOW ENERGY AND SUPPORT RECOVERY:
SEE YOUR GP – If you have unexplained fatigue or low energy, especially if you also have unexplained weight loss, unexplained bleeding or heavy periods, it is worth a visit to your GP for them to investigate any possible medical causes. It’s always best to get this done soon and put your mind at rest
START A BEDTIME ROUTINE – Taking steps to get your body and mind into a restful state for sleep in the hours before bed can help to improve the quality of your sleep. Think about how you might reduce screen time in the last 1-2 hours, having a comfortable uncluttered space to sleep in that’s not too warm, including some relaxing activities such as a nice bath, drinking a relaxing tea, gentle yoga, meditation, breathing or reading can all help
ASK FOR HELP OR SUPPORT – It can help to talk how you’re feeling through with a supportive relative or friend, and if you need mental or emotional support, you could consider who you might be able to reach out to locally or online too. Feeling supported and cared for can really help, but equally somebody could help you to plot out aspects of your lifestyle that might need some tweaking and to set out a realistic plan of action to start reducing the stress on your mind and body
MAKE SOME GRADUAL IMPROVEMENTS TO YOUR DIET AND WATER INTAKE – You don’t need to attempt to fix everything in one go, but moving towards a diet higher in fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, plenty of water and if you eat it, dairy, meat and fish could be a long term project. You can read more about supporting a healthy body in my blogs about weight gain during COVID and healthy diets for busy mums. You will find that reducing your sugar intake, eating good quality proteins and carbohydrates, along with sufficient water will help to make a big difference. A health coach or nutritional therapist may help you work on this by providing a personalised meal plan that works for you, and potentially identifying some of the other causes of your low energy.
CONSIDER SAFE SUPPLEMENTS – If your diet needs some improvement, or you are already eating well and still don’t feel great, you could try a good quality multivitamin for a few weeks. Speaking to a trusted manufacturer of high quality supplements could help. Some of us can unknowingly have a higher need for iron, vitamin D, vitamin A, B vitamins, magnesium or a variety of other nutrients. But it’s best to speak to your doctor and potentially a qualified nutritionist or nutritional therapist if you are considering having anything more than a typical multivitamin and mineral product.
INCLUDE SOME MOVEMENT EACH DAY – Depending on your fitness level, this could be as simple as gentle or brisk walks, a few stretches throughout the day, some cardio activity such as high intensity interval training (short sharp bursts) or an exercise class. Even housework and gardening can count! Moving helps to support your circulation, can help your immunity, detoxification and digestion. When any of these functions aren’t running optimally, they can affect your energy levels. Moderate activity can also boost your happy brain chemicals so you feel more upbeat afterwards too. The best exercise is one that you can safely enjoy – if it’s so much fun that it doesn’t feel like “hard work”, you’re more likely to want to keep doing it!
ASSESS YOUR STRESS LEVELS – We all know that life can be stressful, but it can start to snowball if we don’t have a few self care measures in place to keep it from getting too much. What we perceive as stress is really our response to situations, circumstances and events that we may not have full control over. Being aware of how stressed and overwhelmed you might feel can be an indicator of the need to take breaks, get help, say no to requests that put too much pressure on you, and start to notice what tends to trigger you. You can use all the strategies covered in the steps above to start to dial down your default ways of responding to stress. This isn’t to say that you will not have emotional responses to upsetting events and even little moments from day to day. The key is to notice those emotions and acknowledge them, without having high expectations of yourself to stuff them down and push on with your day.
EXPECT YOUR RECOVERY TO TAKE A WHILE – Although you may notice quick improvements with better food choices and some of the other steps, it’s difficult to know how quickly you can build your energy back up. You are unique and the causes of your low energy are likely to be different from other people, depending on what’s going on in your life. Giving yourself a high expectation of suddenly having a new spring in your step is another added pressure as we’ve covered above. Making changes will take time too – you can pace yourself and find manageable ways of creating healthier habits, and the more time you give yourself to get used to one or two at a time, the more likely they are to stick. If you have had adrenal fatigue for example, whereby your adrenals have been put under stress by (guess what?) stress, then most people find it takes a few months to start to really clear the fog and feel better.
If you’re a mum with young children or are a carer, you may have interruptions to your sleep and circumstances which provide an added challenge with keeping your energy in balance. The same strategies above can help though, and it’s important that you have support and are able to exercise self care regularly.
As the saying goes, put your oxygen mask on first.
If you need help identifying the causes of your low energy and feeling tired all the time, you can book in for a free consultation here.