Please help me- I’m ALWAYS tired

[CatchingZzzzzs]

Im always knackered. No matter what.

I’m in my fourth and last year of my undergraduate degree- I get 8 hours sleep most nights but get 9+hour sleeps when I have a later start at Uni- usually twice a week. No matter how much or little sleep I get it doesn’t make a difference and I’m always exhausted. Last night I had 7.5 hours sleep (9.5 the night before) and slept on the way to Uni too (30 minutes). I had breakfast but I was still struggling to stay awake in my lectures. I then fell asleep on the commute home for another 30 minutes. When I got home I managed to stay awake for a few hours then I fell asleep for 4 hours. I’m not long up and I’m going to go back to bed again soon because I still feel tired

I know some people need more than 8 hours but I definitely feel like I’m more tired than I should be after that much sleep. On the days I get more than 9 hours sleep I feel slightly better but still not great.

I have a healthy lifestyle, I’m not overweight and I exercise regularly. I don’t live off sugar and caffeine and I eat regular home cooked meals. I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and slow release foods. I’m not really stressed or over studying and Uni has only really just started back

I had blood tests taken for other unrelated problems I was having, but everything in my blood has been checked several times. It’s all fine. I’m not deficient in anything at the moment, I don’t have anaemia and my vitamin d is fine. My blood pressure was normal too.

What do I do?! I’m really struggling with this. I permanently feel like I’ve been hit by a bus I’m so tired. Everything in my body just feels exhausted and achey- my jaw even feels achey just hanging from my mouth. I’ve sometimes got a hazy feeling in my head where I feel so tired it’s like everything in my head foggy, I don’t really know how to explain it. I’m irritable a lot and my parents probably think I’m moody sometimes but I’m not, I just feel so tired and achey. It’s affecting my life because I’m struggling to stay awake at Uni and at work and I’m getting headaches from it too

Since it’s not my health, does anyone know what I could do to improve this?

Thanks in advance x

Try a weighted duvet. Changed my life.

Have you had covid? Could it be post viral fatigue?

I know you've had blood tests, but it's worth getting a copy of your results with the reference ranges so you can see where you sit. You need to be in the top third for vit D and B12.

Have you had covid? Could it be long covid/post viral fatigue? The hit by a bus feeling is how I felt when I developed a post viral illness. The foggy feeling is called brain fog.

Are you perimenopausal?

After you taking any supplements? Magnesium (topical in a spray plus oral) should help with the aching.

is it a post viral thing? Glandular fever? My son sounds like he is in a similar situation at the moment. He had a horrible respiratory infection last year that led to him being hospitalised for five days, he then developed anaemia and has not long finished iron supplements. Other than a slightly off blood count (they think he is still fighting an infection) his bloods are now apparently ok but we would still say he is very much in recovery and our paediatrician has mentioned post viral fatigue as a potential diagnosis.

Oh and has anyone checked your lymph nodes? Again my son has slightly raised nodes which are being monitored and again back up the theory that he is still fighting some king of infection.

Do you snore? Any witnessed episodes of stopping breathing at night? Possibly sleep apnoea?

Is it possible you have sleep apnea?

I haven’t been unwell recently and haven’t had any colds or bugs. I had covid once but it was after the tiredness started so it wasn’t as a result of that (I test myself regularly for my part time job so I know I haven’t had it apart from the one time) i actually wasn’t affected badly by covid and wouldn’t have known I had it if it weren’t for my positive test x

Early morning outside light. Drink coffee outside on porch as soon as you wake up. Even in winter or when cloudy. Makes a massive difference after just a day or two. Life changing! I no longer feel permanently jet lagged.

You may have sleep apnoea. Do you wake up with headaches or dry mouth? Do you have to pee often during the night?

Take chelated iron supplements. Plus a vitamin B complex.

See how you feel after a month.
It is possible to be low in iron and not actually anaemic

Have you had your thyroid thoroughly investigated? Also folate and B12 levels.

Aside from your tiredness, so you have any other health / mental health symptoms?

Have you suffered any life traumas in the past 12-24 months?

Could be a few things like ME or sleep apnea but could also just be plain stress from your course if you're in your fourth year. I had a similar experience in my final year of my first degree and now that I look back it was definitely stress related but at the time I wasn't acknowledging that I was stressed. If you still aren't feeling right you need to keep pushing with your doctor to rule out other causes. In the meantime I'd say try to build in some meditation or look at things that could be stressing you out and how you can avoid/reduce/manage them.

I need 10 - 12 hours of sleep a night! I'd be knackered on 7.5 hours of sleep to !

I have M.E/C.F.s on top of other things, and you describe how I feel on my better days. Once upon a time my current better days were my worst days. So if everything else is ruled out, you may have M.E

I need a solid 9 hours, and I'm pretty useless when I don't get it. A couple of things make a big difference to me - a high dose vitamin B complex, and daylight/sad lamp.

Sorry to hear this, I know they've done bloods and said normal but it's worth getting a copy of the actual numbers. Also I had similar, and although iron was fine and haemoglobin on full blood count was fine I eventually read stuff about ferritin and asked for that to be tested. That was very low and as soon as i started iron tablets and my haemoglobin got higher up in th7ie range I felt much better. Took a while to get to feeling normal.