5 Reasons You Get Sleep But Still Feel Fatigued

You just can’t figure it out. Sleeping through the night is not a problem but you still experience fatigue. It turns out that now it’s not just the amount of hours of sleep you get but the kind of sleep you are experiencing as well.

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, on average, an adult should get approximately 7-8 hours sleep per night. However, in 2015, Dr. Michael Decker, a sleep specialist and associate professor at Case Western School of Nursing, first suggested something called sleep inertia.

Dr. Decker describes the three levels of sleep,

“As we sleep, our brain rotates through several stages known as non-rapid eye movement (NREM), slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.”

In the morning, awakening from NREM sleep is normal and leaves you feeling like you’ve slept, however when you wake out of SWS, the transition to consciousness is more difficult and could linger in the form of fatigue throughout the day. This is the theory for sleep inertia.

These 5 reasons you get sleep but still feel fatigued may correlate with waking you during SWS rather than a more normal transition from NREM.

Melatonin Melter

Your electronic viewing before bed could be reducing the melatonin your body would normally produce when experiencing change of natural light to darkness.

According to a December 2014 study by researchers at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, Michael Breus, Ph.D., diplomat of the American Board of Sleep Medicine and fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine comments,

“When blue light hits the optic nerve, it tells the brain to stop producing melatonin, [which is] the key that starts the engine for sleep…This is especially problematic, since as you get older, the ability to produce melatonin becomes even more compromised.”

Read a real book or use barriers (glasses, screen covers, etc.) to reduce melatonin melting blue light.

Your Spare Tire

So here’s another reason to look into attaining a manageable weight. It turns out that being overweight not only comes with systemic health risks but it may also be robbing you of your precious shuteye.

When you are overweight there is a high probability that due to fatty deposits, airways could be temporarily blocked or obstructed. This could cause a series of waking up and falling back asleep over and over without ever consciously knowing it. In turn, REM sleep is continually disrupted causing daytime fatigue.

Sleeping with a CPAP machine while adhering to a healthy diet and exercise program could get you back into a normal sleep pattern.

Pharma Fix Side Effect

A common sleep disruptor are the side effects associated with certain medications. You could be experiencing daytime fatigue if you are taking:

• Allergy medication
• Diuretics aka water pills for heart disease
• ADD (attention deficit disorder) meds
• Steroids
• Depression medication
• Asthma medication
• Caffeinated pain meds like Excedrin

Talk to your doctor if you are feeling fatigued while on medication to see if there may be a better choice.

Nighttime Eats

Sometimes a recipe that goes down feeling like comfort food may be most uncomfortable for adequate sleep. Macaroni and cheese, a butter dripping baked potato or a dish of ice cream are some examples of what not to eat before bed if you don’t want to feel fatigued the next day.

According to the National Sleep Foundation,

“Loading up on foods that contain excessive salt or fat can stimulate brain waves, bringing on nightmares instead of sweet dreams.”

Try a banana, handful of almonds, whole grain crackers, peanut butter or foods that contain the amino acid tryptophan, like turkey, which has been linked to inducing sleepiness

Dehydrated Dreams

You may not drink before bed due to not wanting to be disturbed in the middle of the night to got to the bathroom. However, you could be experiencing day fatigue if you don’t hydrate with plenty of clean water enough during the day.

A study published in PLoS One by researchers at Forenap, Rouffach, France; Biotrial Neuroscience concluded that,

“Increasing water intake has beneficial effects in LOW, especially sleep/wake feelings, whereas decreasing water intake has detrimental effects on HIGH’s mood. These deleterious effects in HIGH were observed in some sleep/wake moods as well as calmness, satisfaction and positive emotions.”

Look into these 5 reasons you get sleep but still feel fatigued to see if you can’t make some adjustments that finally results in getting you past those 3pm doldrums.