There are times when you expect to wake up tired: Having an early morning flight and the fear of missing your alarm keeps you up. Staying up late celebrating with friends and knocking back one too many drinks. Being woken up multiple times throughout the night by a child or pet. These are all examples of when you may wake up already feeling tired, but at least you know why.
What’s more frustrating is when you wake up tired and you don’t know why. Maybe you even do your best to follow all the sleep advice you know is important, like avoiding screens before bedtime, making sure your room is cool and dark and not drinking alcohol in the evening.
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“Waking up tired shouldn’t simply be accepted as normal,” says Dr. Pedram Navab, DO, a Stanford-trained sleep medicine specialist and the author of the new book, The Alchemy of Sleep.
Dr. Navab emphasizes that sleep is a vital sign of overall health. If you’re consistently waking up not feeling refreshed, it’s your body’s way of trying to get your attention. Here, he explains exactly how to pinpoint the reason for waking up exhausted so you can get to the root of your sleep issues.
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The First Question a Sleep Doctor Asks Patients Who Wake up Tired
Diet, stress levels, underlying health issues, medications and supplements and one’s environment all impact sleep quality. So where does Dr. Navab even start when a patient complains of waking up tired?
“The first question I ask is, ‘Are you getting enough sleep?’ Many people wake up tired simply because they’re not allowing themselves enough sleep. Before we can even consider sleep disorders or poor sleep quality, it’s important to understand if they are getting enough sleep,” he tells Parade.
This may sound like an obvious question, but for many people it isn’t. According to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three U.S. adults doesn’t get the recommended seven hours of sleep a night. Many people who think they’re getting enough sleep actually aren’t.
To identify the root cause of why someone is waking up tired, Dr. Navab says he would ask them about their sleep schedule, sleep quality, snoring or breathing problems, medications and lifestyle. He also considers any underlying sleep disorders or medical conditions.
As you might imagine, not everyone knows the answers to all these questions. That’s when Dr. Navab says testing may be recommended, such as a home sleep apnea test, sleep study or a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), which is a daytime nap study that measures how quickly someone falls asleep in a quiet environment and is used to evaluate daytime sleepiness.
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The Most Common Reasons Why People Wake up Tired
There are some common culprits when it comes to waking up exhausted. Dr. Navab says one major reason he sees is poor sleep quality. Sleep quality is different from sleep quantity, which describes how long you sleep. Sleep quality measures how well you sleep. There’s a long list of factors that can negatively impact sleep quality, including drinking caffeine too late in the day, alcohol, experiencing anxiety or depression or having an undiagnosed sleep condition.
Sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or insomnia are major reasons why people wake up tired, according to Dr. Navab. Many people don’t even know they have a sleep disorder. According to the American Medical Association, 80% of people with sleep apnea don’t know they have it. This is exactly why Dr. Navab often has patients who wake up exhausted undergo sleep tests.
Having an inconsistent sleep schedule can also impact sleep quality, Dr. Navab says. Waking up late on the weekends can make it harder to fall asleep at night, which can then lead to waking up tired.
Nr. Navab notes that certain medications can also impact sleep. If you suspect that one of your medications is negatively impacting your sleep, it’s important to talk to your doctor about it. They may suggest switching to a new medication or taking it at a different time of day.
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When To See a Sleep Doctor About Waking up Tired
It bears repeating that it isn’t normal to consistently wake up tired. “If you consistently wake up tired, start by prioritizing adequate, regular sleep and good sleep habits,” Dr. Navab says. He emphasizes that it’s important to have a nightly ritual in place that helps you transition from being awake to being asleep.
“One aspect of sleep that we often overlook is that falling asleep is not simply a biological event; it’s also an act of surrender. Throughout the day, we are constantly directing our attention, solving problems, making decisions and trying to control our environment. Sleep asks us to do the opposite: to relinquish control and allow consciousness to change on its own,” Dr. Navab explains.
He explains that darkness, quiet, music, breathing, imagery or even a familiar scent can become cues that tell the brain that the demands of the day are over. “Rather than treating sleep as another task we have to accomplish, we can create the conditions for it and then gently get out of its way,” he says.
If a few weeks go by and you’re still waking up tired, consider making an appointment with a sleep specialist. “Fatigue and sleepiness are different, so make sure to be precise in your symptoms and be clear about whether you are sleepy or simply tired. That distinction is very important,” Dr. Navab says.
What’s the difference? Feeling sleepy means you’re having trouble staying awake. For most people, their head will bob and their eyelids will feel heavy. Feeling fatigued is having low physical or mental energy.
“If you’re consistently waking up tired despite getting enough sleep, which is between 6.5 and 8 hours, particularly if it affects your daytime functioning or is accompanied by snoring, breathing pauses or excessive sleepiness, it’s worth seeing a sleep specialist to interrogate this further,” Dr. Navab says.
No one is at their best when they wake up tired. While it’s bound to happen every once in a while, if you wake up every morning feeling tired, it’s worth it to make finding out why a priority.
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Sources
Dr. Pedram Navab, DO, Stanford-trained sleep medicine specialist and the author of the new book, The Alchemy of Sleep. CDC publishes new estimates of U.S. adult sleep duration. American Academy of Sleep Medicine. What Causes Poor Sleep Quality? Sleep Foundation. What doctors want patients to know about sleep apnea. American Medical Association. Sleepy vs. tired: Knowing the difference matters. The University of Alabama at Birmingham.Hence then, the article about i m a sleep doctor this is the first question i ask when someone always wakes up tired was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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