Fatigue on Waking: Causes and Remedies

Definition of Fatigue: Fatigue refers to the tiredness or weakness which has been felt in a continuous manner physically or mentally and can be seen in most adults in today’s time. When you feel dizzy, sleepy, and lack energy in your body all the time, you are suffering from fatigue resulting from your lifestyle choices, etc.

Types of fatigue:

There are three types of fatigue:

Transient fatigue

It is an acute type of fatigue that happens by extreme sleep restrictions or staying awake from 1-2 days or extended hours of awake within 1-2 days.  

Cumulative fatigue

This type of fatigue occurs by repeated sleep restrictions or awakening hours across sequential days.

Circadian fatigue

Disruption of 24 hours of sleep-wake cycle/ biological clock/ circadian rhythm causes fatigue.

Causes of Fatigue

There are some serious causes that cause fatigue issues:

1. Lifestyle

Our lifestyle choices affect our bodies in a serious way. Lifestyle choices include not having good nutritious food, not doing physical exercises or can also occur by doing too much physical work, yoga, meditation, body acquiring total weight by lying all the time in bed or by having fatty food, drinks, etc., lack of sleep can cause sleep deprivation or sleep disorders which also leads to fatigue, overthinking, emotional or physical stress over the time, by taking medicines or sedatives, by consuming alcohol, beers, cigarettes or drugs on daily basis.

Caffeine or coffee consumption can also lead to fatigue because if you are having caffeine at night, it is a diuretic product for this you need to go to pee various times which leads to fluid loss, which wakes you up throughout the night then you might feel tired the next day. So you should not consume too much caffeine, especially at night.

Having fatty foods like junk food, fast food, and cold drinks which contain a high amount of acids and sugar or fat leads to weight gain that can cause fatigue or serious stomach pain due to food poisoning.    

2. Physical and mental health

•  Lack of sleep can cause insomnia and various sleep disorders cause fatigue.
• Depression and anxiety are severe mental health conditions that cause fatigue.
• Taking medicines can make you feel tired all the time.
•  Fatigue causes some serious physical health disorders such as:
•  Imbalance or affects the hormonal level causes Addison’s disease.
•  Cancer, tumours, etc. cause fatigue.
•  A deficiency of iron enables the red blood cells to carry oxygen (hemoglobin) which causes anaemia that leads to fatigue.
•  Cold happens with sneezing, runny nose, tiredness or coughing, etc. that also causes fatigue.
• Kidney disorders like End Stage Renal Disease cause severe fatigue.
• Some autoimmune disorders like Systemic lupus erythematosus (in this immune system attacks its own tissue that causes inflammation and tissue damage), multiple sclerosis (nerve cells and the spinal cord’s insulating covers get damaged that causes physical and mental health issue as the signs or symptoms), type 1 diabetes, celiac disease (immune reaction after eating gluten), chronic fatigue syndrome (long term syndrome in which person has sleeping abnormalities, cannot do physical activities much, etc.), rheumatoid arthritis (immune system attacks healthy cells mistakenly that causes inflammation in joints especially), etc. causes fatigue.    
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a lung disease that obstructs the airflow from the lungs.
• Thyroid disorders also cause fatigue.

3. Hormones that cause fatigue like low levels of Thyroid hormone or excess amount of Progesterone.

Symptoms of fatigue involve:

1.       Depression
2.       Anxiety
3.       Tiredness
4.       Sleepiness
5.       Dizziness
6.       Muscle pain
7.       Inflammation in joints
8.       Mood swings
9.       Weight gain or weight loss
10.   Slow response to actions
11.   Slow memory process etc.

Remedies of fatigue/ Preventions of Fatigue

There are several ways to fight tiredness that are as follows:

1.       Avoid fatty foods
2.       Do some physical activities or exercise to lose some weight or to gain energy.
3.       Get enough amount of sleep
4.       Avoid long naps or long sleep during the day.
5.       Avoid caffeine
6.       Eat healthy food
7.       Drink plenty of water
8.       You should go to the doctor for the proper treatment.
9.       Avoid cigarettes, alcohol, beer, etc. 

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