It’s alright to feel tired once in a while as a woman. Handling your professional job and coming home to cook dinner and do some cleaning can leave you tired out.
However, it becomes a matter of concern when you regularly feel fatigued regardless of whether you have been active.
Feelings of exhaustion can impact your daily function as you wouldn’t even find the zeal to be productive or have some fun. Fatigue may be caused by simple things like stress and lack of sleep or something as severe as an underlying health condition.
Whatever the case, there are always remedies, some of which involve making simple lifestyle choices.
So, if you’ve been feeling tired, here are possible reasons why and what you can do.
1. Insufficient sleep
Sleep is vital to both physical and mental health, and not getting enough of it can lead to fatigue.
During sleep, your body repairs itself; it’s like a maintenance process where regenerating cells are repaired. When you’ve had a sufficient length of quality sleep, you wake up feeling refreshed. If not, you wake up grumpy, less alert, and weak, and you just know you’ve not had a great sleep. This is because your body has not had enough time to repair itself.
Poor quality sleep is one that’s uninterrupted for the amount of time recommended for the individual’s age. For adults, this is typically about 7 hours a night.
If you have insomnia, falling or staying asleep will be a major challenge. Notably, about 40% of American adults will experience insomnia at some point. If that’s where you are right now, using supplements and medications may help. Also, see your doctor to check if there’s an underlying medical condition causing insomnia.
2. Stress
As this article’s introduction described, doing many activities can leave you stressed and tired. That’s normal. But chronic stress – stress that persists over a long period of time – can leave you constantly fatigued.
In short, chronic stress may also result in exhaustion disorder, a condition involving psychological and physical signs of fatigue.
Stress occurs when your stress hormone, known as cortisol, increases. Fortunately, you can address this cause of fatigue by simple stress management techniques like setting aside time to meditate or go for a walk. You may also see a therapist if it feels beyond you.
3. Hormonal imbalance
Some medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism, are associated with fatigue. Hypothyroidism is pretty common, characterized by low production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland.
Hypothyroidism typically comes with symptoms including the inability to gain weight, interactivity, and persistent fatigue or lethargy. If you notice any of these symptoms, it’s an excellent idea to test your hormone levels to ascertain if what you have is an imbalance. It may also be low estrogen and testosterone, leading to tiredness and apathy toward intimacy.
By discovering such an underlying health condition, you can take proper measures to treat the other symptoms and reduce your risk of further complications.
4. Poor nutrition
Your body needs the right amount of calories, protein, vitamins, minerals, fat, and water to maintain its optimal active state. Under-eating or consuming less essential nutrients than is sufficient can lead to a deficiency in calories, and this can cause exhaustion.
Carbs are energy-giving foods, and even though you’re on a weight loss program, you mustn’t completely avoid calories, especially when you are active. When your body lacks enough calories, it breaks down muscle and fat for energy. Losing muscle mass can lead to fatigue.
Additionally, excessive consumption of processed food high in refined sugar can elevate high blood sugar, leading to exhaustion.
Furthermore, deficiency of the following nutrients is usually associated with fatigue:
- Iron
- Vitamin B2
- Vitamin B3
- Vitamin B5
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B9
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin C
- Magnesium
5. Excessive consumption of caffeine
Beverages containing caffeine can give you energy boosts, but such boosts are short-term. Your body can grow overly reliant on the substance, thereby feeling exhausted when there’s a lack of it.
Furthermore, caffeine can impact your sleep, and exhaustion results the longer you go without quality sleep. And the worst thing is that people consume more caffeine when they feel tired, extending the cycle. If this is you, try cutting your caffeine consumption.
6. Obesity
Obesity is linked with many health conditions, of which chronic fatigue is one. If you’re overweight, there’s a high chance that your fatigue results from obstructive sleep apnea, which is associated with obesity. Depression and poor quality sleep may also be at play.
Final words
It’s worthy to note that many things may cause fatigue in women, including hormonal imbalance and lifestyle choices. For example, excessive drugs and alcohol may cause your body to become dependent. A sedentary lifestyle may also cause fatigue.
It’s important to understand the cause of your fatigue so that you can adjust accordingly.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
