Being a mom is a huge job and an often-thankless task. It brings with it plenty of sleepless nights and a lack of rest, which can be tough to handle no matter how fit and healthy or young you are.
However, sometimes you might find that you’re feeling much more tired than you think you should be, and the tiredness doesn’t go away even when your child is older and sleeping through the night or when you feel like you go to bed at a decent hour and get quality rest.
If you can’t seem to enjoy the energy you’d like to, it helps to learn about some of the health concerns that may be causing your lethargy.
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Insomnia
For starters, consider if you may have insomnia. This is the term for the common sleep disorder that makes it very difficult for sufferers to fall asleep and stay asleep. Some wake up early in the morning and cannot get back to sleep, too. As you can imagine, if you’re simply not getting enough shut-eye on average due to this problem, you’ll soon start noticing significant fatigue as a result.
Sometimes patients can break the negative cycle by having a sleeping pill for one or two nights and getting into a better routine. Others need to talk to a therapist or other specialist about the psychological reasons behind the problem. In other cases, it’s not mentally or emotionally based but rather a physical issue that may need to be addressed. Certain conditions and medications can cause insomnia, for example.
If you can’t sleep, it’s always a good idea to see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment options. They might recommend, for instance, that you take some CBD and melatonin supplements to help you relax and rest easier, or that you try a new diet or exercise regime.
Sleep Apnea
Another unfortunate sleep disorder that may be leading to your tiredness is sleep apnea. This is a condition where your breathing gets interrupted as you sleep and repeatedly stops and starts. Different types of sleep apnea stem from different causes, including an issue with throat muscles and brain signals.
Regardless of which type a person suffers from, this disorder can be severe if they end up stopping breathing for too long. It can lead to heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other complications. If you wake up throughout the night, snore a lot, and feel tired even after you feel like you should have had a whole night’s sleep, this condition may be the cause. There are treatment options such as a specific sleep apnea machine you can use to ease symptoms and start getting better sleep.
Anemia
Having an iron deficiency, especially if it gets bad enough to become anemia, means you’re not producing enough red blood cells. We use these particular cells to help get the right amount of oxygen to all our organs, so they function as needed. If we don’t have enough of the cells, this process gets negatively impacted and we’ll likely feel tired all the time.
Anemia is a common blood condition that affects millions of people. You may need to take iron supplements or have an iron transfusion if your stores are low, but a doctor will also likely want to investigate why you have this deficiency in the first place.
Thyroid Issues
Thyroid issues, particularly an underactive thyroid gland, also have a big impact on how much energy sufferers have. With hypothyroidism (where your gland is underactive and thyroid hormone levels are low) your metabolism starts to slow down. This slowness leads to fatigue. Note that another similar yet set apart condition is Hashimoto’s disease. This is an autoimmune health problem that results in an underactive thyroid but also involves the body’s immune system attacking the thyroid.
Depression
Depression and some other mental health challenges make patients feel tired because the low mood and subsequent disinterest in things involved with the issues take a physical toll on the body. Fatigue is one of the most obvious signs of a mental health concern. Also, since feeling bad can often lead to having less-than-ideal eating and sleeping habits, the tiredness can be compounded by a lack of quality nutrients and enough quality sleep at night.
Diabetes
Another common reason behind people’s tiredness is that they have diabetes and don’t realize it, and thus aren’t managing the condition. Or, alternatively, if you have diabetes and don’t follow the treatment plan given to you by your doctor, you’re not controlling the issue and will see repercussions, including sleep problems.
Feeling tired is one of the main symptoms of this common disorder since it spikes blood sugar levels which in turn leads to dehydration. Being dehydrated can cause noticeable fatigue. Plus, high blood sugar leads to increased urination and can create kidney disease, which also leads to tiredness.
Other reasons why you may be tired include a poor diet, a lack of exercise, excessive stress, and medications that cause fatigue. Always see a physician for diagnosis and treatment rather than guessing at what may be going on in your body.
Read also: The Mental and Physical Benefits of Getting Enough Sleep