Have you taken anything to help with tiredness?

[WhyAmITired]

I am feeling extremely tired, fatigued, exhausted. I don't know why - I have 3 young children but they sleep well so I'm not having broken nights. I'm not overly stressed, eat plenty get a bit of exercise/activity.

I just can't stay awake or motivate myself. I'm lying in bed just now because from about 11.30am I couldn't cope with being upright. I got up just before 7 with the kids, took one to a dance class, came home and made brunch. Not exactly taxing?!

If you take any supplements or changed your diet/lifestyle and it's boosted your energy let me know what you did, I'm interested!

Magnesium supplements. Life changing for me

hi OP I think one thing is to check that you are getting enough iron in your diet. Also magnesium might be a good supplement to help with sleeping well at night.

Iron tablets and levothyroxine. It's definitely worth seeing your GP and getting a set of blood tests: iron/vitamin D deficiency and hypothyroidism are extremely common in women your age. Don't just try supplements at random.

It might be an idea to get your blood tested to see if it's due to a deficiency of some kind or a hormonal issue.

Did you have covid at some point?

Are you depressed? When my depression is bad, I'm just shattered and want to sleep the whole time.

Oh great - thanks. I've been really hit and miss taking any supplements but determined to take something regularly to help. I'll look for some magnesium.

Currently summoning the energy to tidy the house from top to bottom... Maybe that's the issue

I tried magnesium, co-q10 and collagen at the same time (I was feeling so run down).

I'm not sure which made the difference, but I felt so much better. I have a feeling that it was the co-q10 (they were labelled 'energy', after all…) and Zak have run out of all but the magnesium and don’t feel as energetic as I did.

I’m trying the magnesium for back pain, the cp-q10 for energy and (vegan) collagen for skin. All from Boots (own brand). Wish I'd bought more q10.

Levothyroxine for thyroid, magnesium, iron, vit D. I rattle.

Exercise and cutting out refined sugar helped too, but I didn't have the energy to do that until my thyroid was sorted.

I've had COVID unfortunately 4 times, including during pregnancy and when I gave birth - that truly was awful. I had appalling perinatal and postnatal mental health but that was 18m ago and I've had loads of help, feeling great mentally now.

I feel a similar level of exhaustion to that first trimester fatigue, it's really familiar, but it's definitely not another pregnancy!

Thanks for all the thoughts.

High strength vitamin D supplements made a massive difference to my energy levels (even when I came back with 'normal' range on blood tests)

I’d go with a blood test from your GP to see if there’s anything in particular that you’re low on. I’ve had bad fatigue in the past when I’ve been low on iron and Vitamin D but there are loads of things that could contribute.