Why Am I Always So Tired?
I was reading an article on the causes of tiredness the other day and the top reason was “Lack of sleep”. Urrr, well, tell us something we don’t know. I’m not going to talk about Sleep Hygiene either - we have heard all about that.
But it got me thinking about the not-so-obvious reasons for exhaustion...
I’m not talking about the illness, pregnancy, new baby, going out-out, exams, too much screen time, sport and exercise kind of tiredness.
I’m talking about that feeling of brain fog, flat, low mood, numbing you to the joys in life, collapsing into afternoon naps, can’t get out of bed, sugar or caffeine fixing, motivation sapping, running out of steam half way through your exercise (… day, life) kind of tiredness.
The sort of tiredness that leaves you feeling like a shadow of your former self for no obvious reason. Sound familiar?
It might surprise you but the answer is usually with your brain health.
It sounds like you might have low acetylcholine (ACh) levels.
Find out if you have low acetylcholine levels here
2 areas to consider:
- Is it nutrition?
- Which vitamins are you deficient in?
- Is it emotional?
- Are you feeling stressed or emotionally overwhelmed?
- Could my symptoms of tiredness and lack of energy be due to low levels of nutrients and neurotransmitters?
- And if so, what can I do about it?
If it’s nutrition…
How well do you eat when you’re tired?A great place to start: Hydrate + NourishFuel your brain right by drinking plenty of water and boosting your brain’s nutrients - especially with methylated B vitamins and amino acids (such as Tryptohphan, Tyrosine, Glutamine, Carnitine, DLPA). This can be a complete game changer. It’s so hard to keep ourselves well nourished when you are tired, wired or stressed. We tend to reach for a quick sugar or carb fix which only makes the crash and burn worse. It’s amazing how quickly our energy and mood can be lifted when the right nutrients are available for the brain.
If it’s the one thing you can manage to change, change your nutrition.
First - is getting to sleep or staying asleep the problem? Or do you get enough sleep and still wake up feeling tired? There’s plenty you can do to help your sleep and boost your energy the natural way.
Read about What vitamins are you lacking if you are tired all the time? |
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Tryptophan
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It’s one of the essential amino acids (essential because we need to get it from our diets or through supplements) and helps with boosting mood and keeping you asleep. |
Glutamine
| Sleep, a good mood and performance are all directly related. Anyone who starts their day after a restful night is better able to concentrate on work and feels more balanced. Conversely, constant fatigue leads to a drop in performance which can lead to unhappiness over an extended period of time. The potential outcome is worry and sleeplessness which is certainly a vicious circle. L-Glutamine has a calming effect and counteracts symptoms of stress and can be the key ingredient missing if you are feeling wired and can’t relax or get off to sleep. The amino acid glutamine is involved in many metabolic processes. It stabilises the immune system, strengthens the intestinal cells and helps against stress, depression and anxiety. Several studies show that concentrations of glutamine in the body are diminished during times of physical or psychological stress. Glutamine increases the production of GABA, gamma-amino-butyric acid. GABA is the most important inhibitory neurotransmitter of the brain. It is like a natural sedative in the brain. If the body has enough glutamine available it can manufacture GABA. This has a positive impact: peace of mind, balance in stressful situations, improved concentration and restorative sleep. |
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Methylated B Vitamins
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The body is a very complex machine, with various gears and switches that need to be all functioning properly to operate optimally. Think of methylation as the mechanism that turns biological switches on and off for a host of systems in the body.
The system is reliant on one switch being turned on by a critical B vitamin, 5-MTHF (also known as active folate or methylfolate). Simply put, if enough 5-MTHF is present, the methylation cycle will work efficiently. Folic acid from the diet or supplements must be converted to this active form, 5-MTHF, before it can be used in the body in the methylation cycle. Unfortunately, many people have a genetic mutation that makes it challenging for their bodies to create enough 5-MTHF so look for a supplement the has the methylated form and avoid folic acid. These are the nutrients that help to optimise energy even if an individual has the genetic mutation that slows down the methylation cycle:
Read more here: Top vitamins for tiredness and lack of energy |
CoQ10
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CoQ10 is a compound in charge of producing energy in the cells of your body. CoQ10 helps to charge up the batteries of each cell (mitochondria) so it’s boosting your body with this nutrient can be the missing link to explaining your tiredness and exhaustion. CoQ10 production decreases as you age, with fighting disease, overcoming stress and with nutritional deficiencies (in particular Vitamin B6) so taking a supplement can make an enormous difference in keeping your energy levels up. |
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M+E Stories
Full of beans
Although I was still taking calm me and they were helping alot more than if I wasn't taking them, taking both together work so much better for me.
Because of suffering with insomnia and having alot of broken sleep, I was really missing that burst of energy I get from taking energy me. When I received my order a couple of days ago I started to become skeptical, because I was feeling low and tired. I was thinking are they really going to work like last time and get me out of this state that I'm in.
Seriously within an hour of taking 1 energy capsule I was feeling so much better. The heaviness and brain fog had gone and I was back to myself again. I was totally amazed yet again with your products and I can't thank you enough.
I've also started taking happy me and I feel there giving me a extra boost also, I'm up early in the morning and full of beans for the whole day 😊.
Once again Evelyn from both myself and my partner, thank you for your products and your support."
Scott
A massive addition in a cumulative positive impact
I have now been taking Mood ME for around 2 weeks, and honestly I feel
like a different person.
I have a high pressured job where I make decisions impacting on people's lives, in my role historically this has led to overthinking and lack of sleep. I had an incident two days ago which would have typically kept me up, but I was able to leave it at the door and sleep well.
These changes have come at a conjunction with increased daylight and a massive reducing in caseload in my role and Covid pressures in safeguarding reducing; I feel that along with these changes, Mood ME has massively contributed to my mood, energy and wellbeing.
I'm so convinced I've shared my experience with everyone I know! Thanks you Evelyn!"
Enya
Mood Me
These capsules have really helped to regulate my mood. I am no longer overwhelmed by the frequent changes in my mood that I used to experience. After going through a tough time recently I was often anxious and would feel down and like I could never relax and enjoy any down time. These capsules have helped to stabilise these feelings and provide clarity, allowing me to feel like I’m able to start enjoying life again. When I do still have a down or anxious moment, which is completely normal and part of life, it doesn’t feel so overwhelming and I’m able to identify it and respond in a healthy and practical way. Thank you M + E for your help and support.
Lauren
Energy Me has got you covered with these ingredients in just 2 easy to take capsules.
Calm Mehas got the glutamine and a unique blend of 3 types of magnesium.
And Happy Me has got all the ingredients to give your serotonin a super boost.
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But what if it’s not nutrition?
Is it emotional?
If you are busy juggling work, home, family and social commitments with a packed diary and always feeling exhausted then maybe it’s also worth having a think about your relationship and social boundaries and patterns of behaviour.
A couple of quick questions:
Are you a people pleaser?
Are you good at spotting the warning signs of stress?
Becoming emotionally exhausted can come from a people pleasing pattern that you may not even be aware that you have. The deeper issue beneath this is a lack of self-worth.
Hoping to be accepted and liked by everyone can leave us with the feeling that we need to change or hide parts of ourselves to be liked resulting, as time goes on, in the feeling that we don’t even know ourselves.
Our identity has moulded and changed so much we have lost touch with how we feel, what we like, how we want to be treated, what is right for us. It means we accept however people treat us as normal and something that we have to put up with and quietly get over.
We have spent so much of our lives agreeing, keeping quiet, avoiding confrontation and saying yes to everything, that we think that this is the normal way of being. We code other people’s behaviour to make sure we fit in. We keep our opinions to ourselves. We do whatever we need to to be accepted and be included. Anything but rejection.
We fear that if people knew our *real selves they wouldn’t like us, let alone love us.
Does this mean your life is cluttered with the wrong people (who leave you feeling low in energy), too many roles (you always take on whatever people ask you to) and too many things (with no clear space)?
Signs of people pleasing:
- You pretend to agree with everyone
- You take responsibility for how other people feel
- You are always apologising
- You take on too much
- You can’t say no
- You always try to act like the people around you
- You avoid conflict
- You need praise from others to feel good
- You keep you hurt feelings private
Over time this simply becomes our way of being. Our identity. We often confuse it with being kind, rejecting selfishness, the desire to be a good person, the need for busy-ness.
Being busy, having a full diary (but no time to breathe) has become a status with kudos. Something to show how popular and needed we are. But is it also a way of avoiding having *space* where difficult emotions surface? Avoiding thinking too much? Is that no time to think or don’t want time to think?
Holding down emotions is an enormous emotional energy drain. Difficult feelings don’t disappear just because you deny thinking about them. They need to be “put in a box” and “kept down”. Imagine living your life with one arm constantly having to keep a balloon under water. It would get tiring quite quickly.
Do you know what you do with negative feelings? Do you let them out and process them with awareness - letting them go?
So here are 5 ways to boost your emotional energy:
1. Think about your boundaries. The rules you will live by. Work out what you really need to do, how you want people to treat you and give yourself permission to say no (with love and gratitude!) to anything, or anyone, that doesn’t fit with your rules.
2. Give yourself permission to take care of yourself. Be kind to yourself. Talk to yourself like you are your best friend. No cruel words.
3. Give yourself permission to rest. Create the space in your life, in your diary, in your day to slow down and recharge.
4. Consider the underlying emotions that you may be denying, avoiding or suppressing. What are you frightened of? Just processing this awareness will start to release the pressure. Give yourself permission to let go and accept yourself for who you are today.
5. Get to know your warning signs of stress, burn out, low mood. What are the triggers? What are your thoughts? How does it feel in your body? Then put together a toolkit of your go-to actions to take care of yourself.
Evelyn on Jun 13, 2022
Hello Camille
So many thanks for your comment. And yes, me too – I wish more people would leave comments too! I’m hoping that people will come and have a chat on my Substack newsletter – From The Psychologist’s Chair. Come and join in. Take care, Evelyn
Evelyn on Jun 13, 2022
Hello Mary
Happily M+E have no gluten (or any other allergens) and all the B vitamins are methylated which means that they are good for you to take. I also have the MTHFR gene issue – methylated vitamins have been a complete game changer for me. I hope that they can be for you too. Take care, Evelyn
Evelyn on Jun 13, 2022
Hello Luke – thank you for your question. Glutamine helps with stress, anxiety and sleep by calming your mind and helping you to rest so in this way it helps with tiredness. If you would like more help do email me: hello@montgomeryandevelyn.com. Take care, Evelyn
Luke Demarsico on Jun 13, 2022
Can glutamine help with my day fatigue
Mary on Feb 21, 2022
Very helpful information. I have Celiac and the MTHFR gene issue so supplementation is difficult.
Camille on Oct 28, 2021
Wow!🥺😪
This is thorough and loving made. Just wanted to let you know.
I wish more people left comments here. I wanted to contribute to show I’ve read it and appreciate how wholesome this was. It’s very unique even among the articles that suggests supplemental supplement recommendations. Very educational. And holistic perspective on people’s behaviors and lifestyles. Thank you