always tired, but get enough sleep

[Krystal]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I was diagnosed with anxiety a few weeks back and even though I'm feeling a bit better, my health anxiety is getting too me something severe and its driving me a bit crazy. I'm always tired no matter how much sleep I get. I admit that I wake up a lot during the night, but that never use to disturb me during the day. I'm starting to get a lot of headaches and my eyes feel constantly tired. My counceller believes that I might have iron defiency and that can make you tired, but I'm not sure if it's the anxiety or not or that. I have always been tired during the day, but it's been worse over the past month, does anyone else feel like this? I'm sick of being worried.

[Anxious_gal]

definitely get your iron levels checked and your thyroid too. although this is normally done when your diagnosed with anxiety just to rule out any medical causes.

also you use much more energy being anxious, it's quite a common side effect/symptom of anxiety.

but if your getting headaches too that could easily be low iron. I find when my iron level is low I'm much more tired after 1pm, my head hurts and I generally don't feel well.

The thing with sleeping is, you need DEEP sleep, you can get all the sleep you want but if it's not the right type of sleep then you'll end up still feeling tired.
waking up a lot will disturb your sleep as you'll have to reenter stage 1 and stage 2 sleep before stage 3 and 4 deep sleep.

[NattyOne]

Yes, do get your iron levels checked via a blood test. I have been anaemic twice, and I took ages before I went and had a ferritin test - which specifically checks your iron stores. Your FBC (Full Blood Count) may be fine, but if your 'ferritin' (iron) is down, you will experience tiredness and all that you describe.

Anaemia is classed as a score of 10 and under.
Low iron stores are classed as between 11 and 20.
Anything above 20 is classed as 'normal'.

A few months ago my ferritin had dropped down to 11. Not anaemic, but I am back on the iron tablets. (I get heavy periods). I take the ferrous gluconate tablets, instead of the usually prescribed ferrous sulphate ones, which can give you bad constipation. The gluconate is much gentler on your system, although it takes slightly longer to build up your iron stores. A 'gentler' liquid iron supplement is Floradix, and there is also Spatone.

All the best, NattyOne.

[PanchoGoz]

My iron levels dropped to 12. After some iron pills I felt full of pep! I was also diagnosed with chronic fatigue. Anxiety and that tend to go hand in hand. I also had to change to ferrous gluconate Natty because of my tummy. But krystal don't feel worried it won't be anything serious. Make sure you are eating enough as well.

[anthrokid]

Hey Krystal,

I'm constantly exhausted too. Defintiely check for iron deficiency. I'm not classified as iron deficient, but my iron levels are at the lowest before iron deficiency so my doctor has me taking extra iron anyway.

Also, anxiety can cause a lot of exhaustion and tiredness. With anxiety, our body is always over-active. Our nervous system is always on 'high-alert' and on the lookout for anything that may be a threat to us. This means that instead of having the general activity of a nervous system, our nervous system works ten times harder which uses up a LOT of energy! That is why when our anxiety is really severe we get to blagh and sore and tired. Try to eat something every couple of hours to keep your energy up, I find bananas, pears and sultanas really helpful.

Waking up constantly in the sleep caused a lot of tiredness too. I do it a lot as well, it never used to bother me either (I used to sleep 5 hours a night and then get up and work or go to school and party all night). When we wake up often during the ngiht our body is constantly in light sleep, which means we never reach the refreshing deep sleep that stops us from being exhausted. And while usually we could brush this off, with anxiety our body needs as much energy as it can get, so it affects us a lot more!

Try some relaxation techniques before bed, something like meditation or a nice bath with lavender oil.

I hope you're feeling a bit better now!! :)