13 reasons why you wake up and feel tired

Kaylee Fisher
Geniani
Published in
8 min readAug 5, 2020

Nowadays, many people wake up tired now and then. Occasionally waking up tired is not usually a cause for concern. But unfortunately, waking up tired frequently can be a dangerous symptom of some disease or health condition. Do you feel tired when waking up? This article put together the most common reasons for waking up tired.

Sleep inertia

The term sleep inertia refers to the normal cognitive and sensory-motor impairments that occur immediately after waking. This problem occurs if a person wakes suddenly from a deep sleep. As a result, some parts of the brain are still sleeping. The brain stem, which controls basic functions, activates immediately after waking. The prefrontal cortex, which is involved in decision making and self-control, can take up to 30 minutes to catch up.

Some symptoms of sleep inertia include:

  • drowsiness or disorientation
  • difficulty concentrating
  • poor decision making
  • difficulty performing fine motor tasks

Sleep inertia can also be worsened by shift work sleep disorder, obstructive sleep apnea, and certain types of circadian rhythm sleep disorder. Therefore, you can be tired after waking up.

Sleep disorders

If nothing seems to be helping your morning grogginess, you may have an undiagnosed sleep disorder. Sleep disorders require diagnosis and treatment by a healthcare professional, who’ll likely have you come in for a sleep study.

Sleep movement disorders

The condition where one moves too much before or during sleep and finds it hard having a good deep sleep is referred to as sleep movement disorder.

Some common sleep movement disorders are:

  • restless leg syndrome, which causes uncomfortable sensations in your legs and a strong urge to move them that intensifies when trying to sleep
  • periodic limb movement disorder, causes your limbs to twitch, jerk or flex, during sleep. These movements may occur every 20 to 40 seconds and may last up to an hour.
  • bruxism, this is when you clench or grind your teeth during sleep.

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea, usually obstructive sleep apnea, is a serious sleep disorder that causes your breathing to stop periodically in your sleep. You may not even realize you have the condition.

Other signs and symptoms of sleep apnea include:

  • snoring
  • gasping for air during sleep
  • feel yourself already exhausted after sleep
  • trouble staying asleep
  • waking with dry mouth
  • morning headaches

Insomnia

Insomnia involves having a hard time falling asleep or waking up too early and not being able to go back to sleep. Short-term insomnia is very common and often caused by stress, a traumatic event, or sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings, such as a hotel room.

Insomnia that lasts a month or more is considered chronic insomnia. This can be a condition itself or a symptom of an underlying issue.

Along with waking up tired, insomnia can also cause:

  • difficulty concentrating
  • irritability
  • depression
  • anxiety over not getting enough sleep

What can you do?

Sleeping problems are the most common reasons for feeling tired. But you can limit its effects by:

  • regularly getting a full night’s sleep
  • limiting naps to less than 30 minutes
  • drinking coffee or another caffeinated beverage when you get up

If your symptoms persist, visit your primary healthcare provider.

Blue light exposure

Blue light isn’t a bad thing. During daylight hours, they can boost alertness and mood. But this isn’t a good choice when you are going to sleep. Energy-efficient lighting and electronic screens have increased our exposure to blue light, especially after sundown. Blue light, more than other types of light, suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate your body’s circadian rhythm, which is your sleep-wake cycle. This makes it harder for you to get good-quality sleep, which can leave you feeling tired the next morning.

What can you do?

To reduce the impact of blue light on your sleep:

  • Avoid screen time for two or three hours before you go to bed.
  • Use dim red lights at night, which don’t have as powerful of a melatonin-suppressing effect on your circadian rhythm.
  • Expose yourself to a lot of bright light during the day.
  • Use blue-blocking glasses at night or an app that filters blue light if you have to use electronics at night.

Wrong mattress

Do you always wake up and always feel exhausted? You should change the mattress. Researches show that a medium-firm mattress is the best. The age of your mattress also matters. Also, we found that participants reported better sleep quality and fewer aches and pains in the morning after sleeping on a new mattress. Mattresses are also home to common allergens — such as dust mites, which can cause nighttime sneezing and coughing, especially in people with allergies and asthma.

What can you do?

Make sure your mattress isn’t hurting your sleep quality by:

  • replacing your mattress every 9 or 10 years, ideally with a medium-firm mattress
  • using a hypoallergenic mattress cover if you have allergies

Too-cold or too-hot bedroom

If it is too cold or hot in your bedroom, you may have serious sleep problems. You should pay attention to your bedroom’s temperature, but keep in mind that a cooler room is better when it comes to comfortable sleep, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Plus, keep an eye on your humidity level. It should be 40–60% for good sleep and well-being. The great humidifier will help you to achieve a perfect humidity level. Plus, you will forget about itchy skin and lips, allergy, or any respiratory problems.

What can you do?

Create the optimal temperature for quality sleep by:

  • keeping your bedroom temperature between 60°F and 67°F (15°C and 19°C)
  • wearing socks to bed or placing a hot water bottle at your feet
  • choosing appropriate sleepwear and bedding for your local climate
  • buy a good humidifier

Loud noises

Forget about sleeping with the TV on. You should get rid of this harmful habit. Noise has a big impact on your sleep quality. Reducing background noise can help to increase the amount of deep sleep you get each night and decrease the number of times you wake up during the night.

What can you do?

Even if you can’t get rid of the source of noise, you can try:

  • sleeping with earplugs
  • using a sound machine
  • try aromatherapy to calm down and sleep tight
  • keeping your windows and bedroom door closed

Note: to get more info about aromatherapy and its benefits read an article ‘What is aromatherapy: facts and uses’

Dehydration

This one may be quite surprising; however, dehydration is one of the most common reasons that you feel tired. Dehydration can contribute significantly to feelings of fatigue. Additionally, if you lead an active lifestyle, are pregnant or nursing you should be drinking more to keep yourself hydrated. It is also a great idea to keep a bottle of water on your bedside table so that you can sip water during the night.

What can you do?

There are great tips for you to stay hydrated:

  • make sure that you are drinking at least eight large glasses of water every day
  • remember to drink water often
  • take a bottle of water with you (whatever you do and wherever you go)

Too much caffeine

Caffeine affects your body for 4–12 hours after ingesting it. What does it mean? If you drink a cup of coffee for lunch, it can impact your sleep. Even if it is a ‘soft coffee’. Having too much caffeine during the day or having it too close to bedtime can:

  • make it harder to fall asleep
  • make it harder to stay asleep
  • increase the number of times you go to the bathroom overnight

Not only coffee contains caffeine. Dark chocolate, tea, and soft drinks also include caffeine. Coffee, chocolate, and certain teas and soft drinks, certain medications all contain caffeine. Therefore, you should be extremely careful with these products.

What can you do?

To keep caffeine from interfering with your sleep:

  • Avoid having caffeine three to seven hours before bed
  • Limit your intake of coffee or other caffeinated beverages to one or two servings a day
  • Check medications for caffeine content.

Drinking alcohol

Alcohol has been shown to have a sedative effect and make you sleepy. But did you know that it is not a good sleep? According to the Cleveland Clinic, alcohol increases the number of times you wake up once the relaxing effect wears off and prevents you from getting deep sleep.

The more alcohol you consume before bed, the more it disrupts your sleep, increasing your likelihood of waking up tired.

What can you do

You can prevent alcohol from affecting your sleep by:

Frequent urination

The intake of much liquid especially when it’s about time for bed will make you wake up more time to urinate throughout the night. Nocturia is the term used when the body keeps excess fluid at night time. Nocturia could also be a sign of an underlying medical condition; however if you notice you wake up over two times to urinate after you have reduced your liquid intake, consult your doctor.

What can you do

You can reduce how often you get up to urinate by:

  • avoiding drinking liquids for at least two hours before bedtime
  • cutting back on caffeine and alcohol-containing beverages
  • wearing compression socks during the day if you have swollen ankles and legs or certain states of water retention.

What to do when you are waking up tired

Waking up tired can often be remedied with a few changes to your sleeping habits and cutting back on caffeine or alcohol. You should definitely follow up with your doctor to check for underlying health conditions if nothing helping.

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