If you’re often asking yourself ‘why am I always tired and have no energy?’ then this article is for you. 

No matter whether you’re a busy mum, young professional or mid-life gentleman, feeling tired all the time is a problem that affects most of us at some point in our lives, or even numerous times.

Providing you don’t have a medical condition that is causing your tiredness, there are a lot of lifestyle changes and self-care tips that you can follow to combat the fatigue you feel and get energised once again.

If you do feel you have fatigue or exhaustion that cannot be helped yourself, then seek the advice of your GP.  Otherwise read on.

Let’s banish those ZZZs and look at the ways in which you can help yourself to be less tired and get your life back on track once again.

How to fix fatigue and get your energy back

1.     Are you sleeping enough?

The most obvious thing to address if you are feeling tired all the time is whether you are getting enough sleep?

And, not only whether you’re getting enough, but is your sleep of a high quality?

Humans are creatures of habit and routine and the same goes for our sleep.  A sleep schedule is a great way to ensure you are getting enough sleep and that your body gets into a routine.

Simply make sure you go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a day off or the weekend – make sure you stick to your sleep schedule.

Your body will get used to the sleep routine and you’ll begin to feel tired and drift off easily when it’s your bedtime. 

The same in the morning – you may not even need to rely on your alarm to wake up once your body is in a sleep routine.  But set it just in case!

It’s also vital to make sure your sleep is high quality.  If you are tossing and turning all night or constantly waking up and struggling to drift off again, then of course, you are not going to feel well rested in the morning.  In fact, you’ll probably feel tired all day!

Make sure you have a good bedroom setup to promote a healthy sleep.  Make sure you can shut out daylight and noise for a peaceful sleep.  Ensure your bedframe, mattress, pillows and duvet are comfortable and of a high standard.  They don’t last forever, so check out the manufacturer’s guidelines to see when each should be replaced.

For lots of advice on how to sleep better without resorting to pills from the doctor, read my article 10 natural sleeping remedies and tips.

2.     Assess your diet

A good diet is vital for all aspects of our health, including feeling energised and motivated each day.  Without the correct nutrition, we can feel sluggish and lack energy.

One saying I always remember is ‘if you eat crap, you feel crap’!!

It’s so true.

If you have been eating a lot of junk food lately then don’t be surprised if you feel like junk!

Your body needs an abundance of plant based food to thrive and it needs it every day to nourish your body with the vitamins and minerals required to function properly.

If you don’t fuel your body with the right food, then it won’t work it’s best and this includes feeling awake and energised.

Assess your diet and work out what’s lacking.  Do you need to up your fresh fruit each day or eat more veggies?  Are you lacking in iron and vitamin B12?

A deficiency in iron or vitamin B12 can cause tiredness and fatigue, so consider taking vitamin B12 tablets to see if your energy increases.  If you are vegan then you should already be taking a vitamin B12 supplement to ensure your plant based diet is healthy.

It’s such an important vitamin and must be supplemented on a vegan diet.  It’s a bacteria that covers the Earth and whilst we used to get enough from the fruits and vegetables we ate from the Earth, we now sanitise our food so much that we can’t get it this way anymore.

“Vitamin B12 contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism and to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. It’s necessary to the normal function of the immune system, red blood cell formation and homocysteine metabolism. This vitamin contributes to normal functioning of the nervous system and normal psychological function.”

Learn more about your needs as a vegan in my article understanding your basic nutritional needs when vegan.

3.     Exercise

If you’re not one for exercise then you might be sick to death of people recommending exercise as a fix all solution for your problems, but there’s good reason – exercise is so important and it works!

Not only will exercise boost your energy levels and make you feel alive again, but it will help you to sleep better too, so it’s a win-win solution when it comes to helping you with your tiredness issues.

The trick is to find an exercise you love.  Whether it’s by yourself, one-on-one or a group class – try a few different styles of exercise until you find the one you love and you’ll stick with.

But also be mindful that if you haven’t exercised for a long time, it may take some getting used to.  So don’t rule something out if you’ve only tried it once and hated it, or felt exhausted after.  It will be hard at first, but once you’ve built up some stamina you may start to enjoy it!

If you feel sluggish in the day, then a quick 15 minute walk outdoors could be all you need to feel re-energised.  Try it!

Eating the right diet and correct portion sizes, along with exercise, will help you maintain a healthy weight.  If you are overweight then this might be causing your tiredness as your body is under extra pressure to carry the extra weight.

Learn more about why you must make exercise a part of your lifestyle in my article why exercise is so important.

4.     Reduce stress

As the NHS points out, “many cases of tiredness are due to stress”.  Stress doesn’t only affect your mental wellbeing, but your physical wellbeing too.

Extended periods of stress can leave you feeling fatigued and even result in exhaustion if it is not addressed.

It’s important to act upon stress and find methods that work to destress your body to prevent it from having an effect on your physical health, such as causing tiredness. 

Our lives are pretty crazy nowadays and we are surrounded by things that are out of our control causing stress everyday such as economic worries and pandemics.

We were already feeling stressed due to our increasingly busy lives, social media, always on culture, and now things have become even crazier and more stressful!

It’s really important to take time for yourself and switch off in order to feel less stressed about life in general and things you have to cope with as an individual that cause stress.  Learning to practice self-care every week and even daily is vital.

Stress can interrupt our sleep making it harder to drift off and therefore making us more tired.

One way to bust stress is to exercise and another is to talk to others about what’s bothering you.  Sharing your worries can make you feel like a weight is lifted off your shoulders as well as help to put things in perspective with another person’s point of view.

If you feel stressed out then don’t suffer in silence.  Reach out to your trusted family and friends for a good chinwag or eve go for a walk and talk it through.

Check out my article stress management in a world gone mad for some coping techniques.

5.     Have a glass of water

We all know we should be drinking enough water each day, but many admit they don’t ever drink enough.

As WebMD explains, “if you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated”.

But did you know that being dehydrated can also cause you to feel tired?

Yep, fatigue can be a sign of dehydration.  So grab a refreshing glass of water next time you start to feel tired or sluggish in the afternoon and see if some good old H2O helps to revive your energy.

Being dehydrated can make your blood pressure drop, resulting in poor circulation and reduced blood to the brain.  This makes you feel tired.

Who’d have thought?  A glass of water or two each day could be all you need to stop feeling tired all the time!

Not sure if you’re dehydrated?  Here are the symptoms of dehydration in adults and children from the NHS:

• feeling thirsty.
• dark yellow and strong-smelling pee.
• feeling dizzy or lightheaded.
• feeling tired.
• a dry mouth, lips and eyes.
• peeing little, and fewer than 4 times a day.

If you’ve no idea how much water you need to drink each day then my article how much water do we need to drink may help.

If you can’t stand the taste of tap water then check out these seven ideas to improve the taste of your water and see why I prefer to drink distilled water.

Final thoughts

Feeling tired all the time is never a good feeling.  It can leave us feeling miserable and unmotivated to work or to do the things we usually enjoy.  If your tiredness is a result of your current lifestyle or happenings, then you can take charge to combat the fatigue with the tips above and feel great again.

As always it’s the things we need for a healthy lifestyle that can stop us feeling so tired all the time: healthy diet, good quality sleep, stress reduction, enough water and exercise.

And, of course, if you’re already living the optimum healthy lifestyle and feel there’s something more to your tiredness then you should make an appointment with your GP to see if there’s a medical reason you are tired constantly.