7 Reasons Why You re Always Tired and How to Fight It
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Beyond that, “all of us feel tired some of the time,” says Suzanne Salamon, M.D., assistant professor of geriatric medicine and primary care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Usually, it goes away, either with sleep or time.”
But if unexplained fatigue continues for more than a few weeks, it’s time to figure out what’s causing it. Here are some of the likely suspects (keep in mind, though, that more than one culprit may be responsible).
“Not all drugs cause the same effects in all people,” Salamon says. “If a person has started a new medicine and they notice fatigue, they should report this to the doctor. Sometimes just moving the drug to the evening or lowering the dose can help, but sometimes you need to change to a different medicine.” She recommends always bringing all your medicines — prescription and over the counter — to your office visits so your doctor can check doses and duplicates.
AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. are often to blame. If you’re lying in bed and can’t fall asleep, Resnick advises, get up and do something until you feel tired, and then go back and try again. “The other really big mistake people make is that they expect to lie around all day and then be able to sleep at night,” she observes. “You only want to spend time in bed when it’s sleep time. Some people like to control the world from their bed.”
Health & Wellness Access AARP health Smart Guides, articles and special content See more Health & Wellness offers > Other advice: Maintain a regular sleep pattern, and avoid alcohol at night. Consider keeping a sleep diary to help you identify factors — foods, drinks, medicines — that may be keeping you from solid slumber. Keep in mind that as you get older you may not require the seven to nine hours you used to, Windemuth says.
is another culprit. Patients experience as many as 30 awakenings an hour when the soft tissues of the throat relax and obstruct the airway during sleep; as a result, they feel exhausted the next day.
Loud snoring is a clue. Spending the night in a sleep lab can confirm the diagnosis. The standard treatment, a continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) machine, involves wearing a mask over the nose to force air into the throat and keep the airways open.
AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. can make a huge difference. “The best thing for fatigue is physical activity — no matter what the underlying problem,” Resnick says. “The goal should be 30 minutes daily of moderate-level activity.”
Playing tennis has been a lifesaver for Levine, helping him to keep up his energy level. “If I exercise in the afternoon, I feel better,” he says.
7 Reasons You re Always Tired
What could be causing your fatigue — and how to fight it
Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/GETTY IMAGES David Levine feels tired — a lot — and laments how he rarely makes it to the end of a movie. The 68-year-old Manhattan journalist has a pretty good idea why: A night in the sleep lab showed he had borderline sleep apnea. “But certain medications I take, especially Lipitor, make me even more tired,” he says. “I went off it for two months, and I felt a lot better.” Levine is in good company. Research suggests that fatigue (or anergia, in medical lingo) runs as high as 50 percent in people 65 and older, compared with rates in the general population, which range from 10 to 25 percent. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Yet “fatigue is not a natural consequence of aging,” says Barbara Resnick, codirector of the Biology and Behavior Across the Lifespan Organized Research Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. “It’s more related to the changes that occur due to age and commonly associated diseases.” Fatigue is common when you’re fighting any kind of illness, from infections to autoimmune disorders. Some treatments, such as chemotherapy, are notoriously exhausting. And, of course, fatigue is also a symptom of COVID-19, although it’s usually accompanied by more telling signs like fever and chills, even in minor cases of the disease caused by the coronavirus.Beyond that, “all of us feel tired some of the time,” says Suzanne Salamon, M.D., assistant professor of geriatric medicine and primary care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Usually, it goes away, either with sleep or time.”
But if unexplained fatigue continues for more than a few weeks, it’s time to figure out what’s causing it. Here are some of the likely suspects (keep in mind, though, that more than one culprit may be responsible).
1 Your medications are sapping your energy br
“Older adults take a lot of medications, and a lot of those medications tend to make people feel tired,” explains Brenda Windemuth, director of the Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Chief among these: certain antidepressants, antianxiety drugs, sedatives, antihistamines, steroids, and blood pressure and cholesterol medications. Antipsychotics, pain meds, seizure drugs and chemotherapy also stir up trouble. Others, like diuretics, contribute to exhaustion by disturbing your sleep.“Not all drugs cause the same effects in all people,” Salamon says. “If a person has started a new medicine and they notice fatigue, they should report this to the doctor. Sometimes just moving the drug to the evening or lowering the dose can help, but sometimes you need to change to a different medicine.” She recommends always bringing all your medicines — prescription and over the counter — to your office visits so your doctor can check doses and duplicates.
AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. are often to blame. If you’re lying in bed and can’t fall asleep, Resnick advises, get up and do something until you feel tired, and then go back and try again. “The other really big mistake people make is that they expect to lie around all day and then be able to sleep at night,” she observes. “You only want to spend time in bed when it’s sleep time. Some people like to control the world from their bed.”
Health & Wellness Access AARP health Smart Guides, articles and special content See more Health & Wellness offers > Other advice: Maintain a regular sleep pattern, and avoid alcohol at night. Consider keeping a sleep diary to help you identify factors — foods, drinks, medicines — that may be keeping you from solid slumber. Keep in mind that as you get older you may not require the seven to nine hours you used to, Windemuth says.
is another culprit. Patients experience as many as 30 awakenings an hour when the soft tissues of the throat relax and obstruct the airway during sleep; as a result, they feel exhausted the next day.
Loud snoring is a clue. Spending the night in a sleep lab can confirm the diagnosis. The standard treatment, a continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) machine, involves wearing a mask over the nose to force air into the throat and keep the airways open.
3 You re missing key nutrients br
People over 50 are more likely to experience nutrient deficiencies — especially vitamins B12 and D, iron and folic acid — that cause fatigue. If your doctor suspects a deficiency, she’ll send you for a blood test, and you may need a supplement.4 You re anemic br
This means that your blood has too few red cells or those cells have too little hemoglobin, which transports oxygen through the bloodstream. The result: fatigue.AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. can make a huge difference. “The best thing for fatigue is physical activity — no matter what the underlying problem,” Resnick says. “The goal should be 30 minutes daily of moderate-level activity.”
Playing tennis has been a lifesaver for Levine, helping him to keep up his energy level. “If I exercise in the afternoon, I feel better,” he says.