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For the past few years I have often been feeling tired all the time. Thus I have decided to take a friend advice and start exercising everyday in the morning and ensuring that I have about 7 hours of sleep everyday too for the past 3 years.

However, things doesn't seem to change, I still feel really tired. Have gone for a medical checkup and doctor say my body is fine.

What am I doing wrong?

Worker
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    Do you wake up on your own, or with an alarm? If it's not on your own, then 7 hours might not be enough for you. – michael Jul 18 '11 at 01:42
  • Don't forget diet in the "big three" principles to good health: Diet + Exercise + Sleep. Is there ANY time you feel rested? i.e. A 3-day weekend, sleeping until 11am or 12pm? Or do you feel tired 7 days a week? Without knowing these answers I'd guess - stress (job?), mental disorder (depression?), or physical disorder. – Tony R Jul 18 '11 at 21:00
  • This probably isn't it -- but as a last resort, have you had your ferritin (iron) levels checked? My sister was constantly getting tired and finally found out she was anemic. Once she started taking iron, she got her energy back. – Nick Jul 23 '11 at 18:48
  • sorry for the late reply, was really busy with work these days to prepare for a conference event, well I wake up with an alarm, my exercises wise well were mainly static exercises (doing sets of pushup, squats, situps.etc) rather than running (which is once in a while). Hope that helps. – Worker Aug 04 '11 at 13:06
  • @Worker, I am experiencing what you describe. How have you been getting on lately? – Bee Jul 09 '12 at 11:35

5 Answers5

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Sleeping the same amount every night is important, but it's just as important to go to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time every night. For example, if you sleep 10pm-5am one night, then midnight-7am the next, and 3-10am on weekends, you'll probably still feel tired even though you're getting about 7 hours of sleep every night. Our bodies work better on a regular schedule; figure out what time of night you typically get sleepy as well as the number of hours you need to feel rested, then develop a schedule from that.

Without any other information, that is the best advice I can give...make sure you have talked to your doctor about diet, depression, thyroid conditions, or sleep disorders. Sleep apnea, for instance, will leave you feeling tired even if you get "a good night's sleep" because your body isn't getting enough oxygen.

Laura
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Exercising everyday?

What kind of exercises are you currently doing? Are these weight training sessions? and how long do you take in each session?

How about your diet? do you eat sufficiently to sustain these activities (including other activities you might be doing outside of your workouts?)

Andrés N. Robalino
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  • +1 Insufficient recover (overtraining) after exercise could definitely be the cause. Be sure to check out http://fitness.stackexchange.com/q/96/501 for a more detailed synopsis on recovery. – Evan Plaice Jul 21 '11 at 02:33
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I had a similar issue (with fatigue so severe my muscles were restless and achy by 8pm in the evening) and it turned out to be caused by my thyroid being underactive. You can get blood tests done to make sure it's working properly - your doctor may have done them already (they measure TSH [Thyroid Stimulating Hormone] and I think T-4 [the stuff produced by your thyroid] in your blood) but it might pay to find out.

I spent probably at least a year trying to improve my diet, get more exercise and get enough sleep (all to no avail) before I finally got it figured out...

Highly Irregular
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I have a couple questions for you:

  • When you first wake up, do you feel rested? In other words do you wake up tired?
  • How restful is your sleep?
  • Have you ever waken yourself up snoring?
  • If you sleep with a spouse/partner, ask if they have ever heard a pause in your breathing or if you snore really loud.

In short you may have a sleep disorder, and if you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep (straight) at night but you are waking up just as tired as when you went to bed this points to another problem entirely.

Now it can be a number of things:

  • Insomnia
  • Sleep apnea (still happens even if you are well exercised and have normal or better body fat)
  • Restless leg syndrome
  • Etc.

In order to find out if any of these are the problems you will need to get a sleep study done. When you talk to your doctor tell them what you are experiencing in your sleep patterns. Most doctors will try to treat you with pills first, tell them that's not an option. If your spouse/partner has heard a pause in your breathing tell your doctor that. It's an indication of sleep apnea. The sleep study will be able to tell what's going on with you when you should be sleeping, and they will have a much better answer as to why you aren't rested when you wake up.

Berin Loritsch
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I had similar symptoms, and my doctor ordered a blood test. Specifically to test my thyroid, iron levels, and vitamin D levels. Turns out I had extremely low vitamin D levels, and slight hypothyroidism. It pays to have this checked out, if only just to be able to cross it off the list of possible culprits.

Miriam
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