6 reasons you keep waking up tired

Waking up tired despite getting a full 8 hours of sleep is truly disheartening. The truth is, sleep quality matters far more than duration; this isn’t to say we should aim for less than 8 hours, but we need to maximise sleep quality to truly feel the benefits of those hours spent unconscious. 

Waking up tired often depends on what we did before we went to sleep. As you'll learn in this article, if we set ourselves up for failure from the start, no matter how long we sleep, we will still wake up tired. So how exactly do you regain energy upon waking? Read on to find out. 

1. Sleep cycle mistiming 

In a perfect world, no one would need an alarm clock, but unfortunately most of us rely on them to wake up on time for work. However, when we set our alarm, we should consider when we are expected to be asleep. Since our sleep cycles last between 90 and 120 minutes, if our alarm goes off during the deepest part of this cycle, we’ll wake feeling tired no matter how healthy we are. Aiming for 7 to 9 hours of sleep can help mitigate this, especially when we go to bed and wake at the same time every day so our body settles into the pattern.

The same goes if you naturally wake in the morning; don’t be tempted to go back to sleep until your alarm goes off, since you are likely to be in that stage of sleep just as it goes off. So the best thing to do is work back or forward in 90-minute increments to determine your best bedtime and alarm time. Better still, if you consistently wake at the same time thanks to the sun or your usual sleep schedule, ditch the alarm clock altogether! 

2. Blue light and circadian rhythm

As we head into days with shorter daylight, avoiding blue light is crucial for getting a good night’s sleep. The more time we spend under and staring at blue light, the worse our circadian rhythm disruption becomes. Our circadian rhythm controls our sleep-wake cycles. It regulates when cortisol is released to wake us up and when melatonin levels rise to help us fall asleep. 

Blue light in nature, such as morning light, stimulates us to wake up; artificial blue light does exactly that and is most likely the main driver of insomnia and sleep issues that have become so common in the modern day. 

Avoiding blue light after sunset is crucial if you want to fall asleep within 20 minutes, stay asleep, and wake up with energy. Wearing blue light-blocking glasses, using device filters, and stepping away from technology at least an hour before bed can help preserve your circadian rhythm and prevent disruption. 

Those who spend large parts of the night awake and rarely get natural light in their eyes have the most disrupted circadian rhythm. Do the opposite: give yourself plenty of time to sleep, have a wind-down routine, and get lots of natural light, especially at sunrise and sunset.

3. Disrupted sleep 

A stuffy room, the urge to urinate, and a room that's too hot or too cold can all disrupt your sleep. Of course, some things are outside your control, but doing all you can to ensure an uninterrupted night's sleep is key to waking up with plenty of energy. 

First, ensure fresh air; second, make your room as dark as possible; third, use bedding suited to the time of year; and last, don’t drink too much water before bed. 

Fresh airflow is one key factor that so many people get wrong; they shut the window and starve their brain of a steady flow of oxygen, leading to waking during the night when it didn’t need to happen. An open window provides fresh airflow to keep your brain properly oxygenated and your sleep uninterrupted.

4. EMF 

We have become obsessed with tracking data and analysing our numbers, yet wearable tech bombards you with EMF while you sleep. This can place the body in a stressed state and potentially cause oxidative stress. With Wi-Fi left on overnight and devices charging in your room, the bedroom becomes an EMF hive that stresses the body and disrupts sleep.

Ditch the wearable tech, turn off the Wi-Fi before you go to bed, remove all devices from your bedroom if possible, and invest in a grounding bed sheet to help you stay grounded all night.

We often forget that we spend a third of our lives in bed. If you’re constantly around Wi-Fi and devices all day, don’t carry that into the bedroom, too; give your body the rest it needs. 

5. Heavy metal toxicity 

Now switching from what you do to what you eat. If our bodies are burdened with heavy metals, meaning we have heavy metal toxicity from consuming foods or drinking tap water that is contaminated with harmful heavy metals, we will feel a weight on us that feels like tiredness, and it is tiredness as our bodies are being dragged down having to deal with this burden. 

Improving energy levels is often about removing what’s weighing you down rather than adding more things. Check the foods you consume to see if they have been tested for heavy metals, support your body in detoxifying them, and reduce foods known to be high in heavy metals, such as tuna, cacao/chocolate, brown rice, coffee, etc. If they are low, keep using them, but if you cannot find low-version options, reduce them. The improvement to your energy levels will be significant. 

6. Under fuelled  

Finally, we need to focus on giving our body what it needs to rest deeply. In hunter-gatherer times, we couldn't sleep well until we had eaten well; our bodies stayed on edge, ready to take the next opportunity to kill and, therefore, get a proper meal.

The problem these days isn’t a lack of food but a lack of nutrients; most people don’t get what they need, and even if they do, they don’t absorb them efficiently. 

We need adequate carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and good-quality fats for our bodies to move out of the fight-or-flight state and into the rest-and-digest state. If we eat too little during the day, sleep won’t come easily or be deep. When we sleep, we are effectively asking our bodies to fast for 8 hours or more. If your last meal was 3 hours before bed, blood sugar can drop and cause you to wake during the night. Small snacks before bed can help fuel sleep. 

Summary

Everyone should wake feeling energised and ready to tackle the day; if you don’t, the tactics above should help. Your sleep is sacred and a core pillar of your health. Most people’s health spirals downward from the moment they neglect sleep. 

Do not let that be you. Instead, prioritise sleep and get to the root cause of your issues. Fuel your sleep, and don’t be tempted to neglect it on a consistent basis. A couple of bad nights won’t kill you, but weeks of bad sleep start to seriously impact health. Do what you can to maximise your cosiness and, therefore, your sleep quality.