Why might I feel tired even though when get 8 hours of sleep and exercise regularly?

Question

Dr. Mitchell Tanner, PT, DPT, CSCS · Answer

Why might I feel tired even though I get eight hours of sleep and exercise regularly? So when we are getting good sleep, we're exercising but we still don't feel well rested, oftentimes that is because of the quality of our sleep. So it's good that you're getting the right quantity but quality of sleep can be impacted by a number of things and ultimately to feel rested we want to spend time in our deep sleep state which is called our REM cycle. And if we are having interruptions throughout the night that wake us up and impact that quality then we won't wake up feeling as rested. So things that might make you feel or that might interrupt your sleep quality are things like having a caffeine serving later in the afternoon can interrupt your sleep, it keeps you up at night because it is a stimulant, as well as having to go to the bathroom throughout the night can interrupt your sleep quality or having a partner moving beside you in bed might wake you up. So when we sleep we want to limit the amount of noise interruptions, we want to have a quiet room and a very dark room as well as a cooler temperature room. So if your room is really hot that can interrupt the quality of your sleep. And additionally things like a sleep apnea where you actually momentarily stop breathing at night can interrupt sleep quality because that stopping of the respiration can startle you awake and that might not be something that you notice but if you are a snorer that is definitely worth exploring with your primary care physician about getting a sleep study done or potentially having blood work done to make sure that all of your hormones are in check so that you know that there is not some sort of systemic hormonal dysregulation that is causing this fatigue.

Lauren O'Connor, RDN · Answer

Why might I feel tired even though I get eight hours of sleep and exercise regularly? So there can be a few reasons why. It could be possibly that you're exercising too close to your bedtime. So you know, exercise elevates the heart rate, it creates heat energy, and it can take some time to wind down and that can disrupt the quality of your sleep. Other reasons why is that perhaps you're overly stressed. Stress does make us tired, it is exhausting. So that stress and anxiety can contribute to your feeling of tiredness. It could be that you're eating or drinking caffeine too close to bedtime. Maybe you had coffee too close to bedtime. That caffeine can basically wake you up intermittently throughout the night and you may not even know that. Other reasons, acid reflux, which affects the breathing, you know, for those with chronic acid reflux that travels up the throat and to the nasal passages, it can affect your breathing. You may be waking up frequently in the middle of the night and not realizing that as well. Or sleep disorders that affect how you breathe as well. So those are some reasons why, even though you have eight hours of sleep and you're exercising, which is healthy, that you're not getting quality sleep or you're overly exhausted.

Vandana Sheth, RDN, CDCES, FAND · Answer

Why might I feel tired even though, even when I get eight hours of sleep and exercise regularly? First of all, congratulations on getting eight hours of sleep and exercising regularly. There are so many factors that can be why you're feeling tired. It doesn't just have to do with sleep, the length of sleep and the physical activity that you're doing. It could be the sleep quality. It could be that maybe you're really wired before you go to bed and so you're processing a lot of thoughts. It might be that you might need to actually shorten your sleep cycle. Maybe you need seven hours and you might wake up more refreshed. It could be the types of foods you're eating that might affect your digestive processes and that might be affecting your sleep and so you wake up feeling tired. Are you having caffeine or alcohol before you go to sleep? That might affect sleep quality and make you tired.

Jen Dieter · Answer

Alright, this question is, why might I feel tired even though when I get 8 hours of sleep and exercise regularly? I think taking a look at your diet would be an important thing to do here. 8 hours is, you know, checks a box. Exercising regularly checks a box, but there's a lot of variables within that exercise. So are you exercising super hard and you're always feeling broken down? Are you exercising not enough or maybe not doing the right things? And then take a look at diet. Supplements are a big deal as well. If you're feeling tired, you could add some, I mean this is what I do, so just so you can take some of that. But I take a B12 every day, a sublingual B12. I also take a curcumin, which is like a turmeric supplement to help with inflammation. I take pretty high doses of fish oil. I take 4500 mg a day of fish oil. That helps with anti-inflammatory, natural anti-inflammatory in the body. So some of those sort of things could help perhaps as well. But fatigue, muscle soreness, all of those things go in together. And you can take a look at your combination of macros as well, your carbs to fats to proteins. And if that's not well balanced, then that could be part of the issue too. Great question.

Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN · Answer

Why might I feel tired even though I get eight hours of sleep and exercise regularly? That's a good question. There are many reasons why you still might feel fatigued, and I would actually talk to your doctor first to rule out any medical reasons that you might be experiencing fatigue. But if you dig a little bit deeper, getting eight hours of sleep doesn't mean that you have eight hours of quality and restful sleep. Sometimes people have sleep apnea that even though they're asleep, they don't actually get into that deep REM sleep, which is the restorative sleep. Maybe you have reasons that you wake up. Maybe a partner wakes you up. Maybe you have to get up to go to the bathroom or a baby or something that keeps you from sleeping through that full eight hours, which could affect how you feel overall. Also, when you're exercising regularly, that's fantastic. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're not going to be fatigued. You have to look at what you're eating. Are you eating balanced meals that are nutrient-rich with quality proteins and fiber that help to balance your blood sugar and to keep you full throughout the day without having energy crashes in between? Are you eating appropriately and refueling around your workouts? Are you skipping meals? Are you intermittent fasting and skipping breakfast? There's so many reasons why a person might feel fatigued. I would rule out anything with your doctor and then talk to a doctor.

Lakshman Swamy · Answer

There can be many particular individual reasons, medical reasons why someone might feel fatigued or tired despite sleeping for eight hours and exercising regularly. But there are some other reasons that are really worth considering. Now some of this has to do with, for example, diet and it's hard to say exactly what's right for any one person but I think experimenting and keeping a food diary goes a very long way in figuring out the impact of food on your body. But honestly I think the elephant in the room is really caffeine. Caffeine and probably alcohol too. I would really consider your consumption of those and figure out if caffeine, which feels like you need it so much, you know I certainly feel that way about coffee in the morning, it often has the, you know, you get the energy at a cost. You always pay that cost. So I'd really consider the impact of caffeine and alcohol as well.

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"Why might I feel tired even though when get 8 hours of sleep and exercise regularly?"