

However, using electronic devices too close to bedtime disrupts this natural biological rhythm. Your internal circadian rhythm is governed by light and darkness signals. This means drinking anything caffeinated past midday means you’ll still have a quarter of that caffeine in your system around bedtime, which means you may feel tired but ‘wired’ and unable to sleep. A widely consumed stimulant, caffeine is known for extending sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep), diminishing sleep efficiency, reducing total sleep time, and worsening sleep quality 4.Ĭaffeine also has a quarter-life of twelve hours. If you need five strong coffees to get you through the day, your caffeine habit may be keeping you up at night. As you enter perimenopause, levels of oestrogen and progesterone – hormones involved in the sleep-wake cycle – start to decline and impact your sleep quality 3.These hormonal fluctuations can also lead to night sweats and increased anxiety, making it harder to sleep, even if you’re tired.

The hormonal fluctuations that happen just before menstruation can reduce REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep, decrease melatonin production, lead to mood changes, cause painful menstrual cramps and migraines, and increase body temperature – all of which can contribute to increased difficulties falling asleep, as well as more night-time arousals 2.Įxperiencing symptoms of perimenopause may also explain why you feel tired but unable to sleep. If you’re a woman, experiencing hormonal changes could be another reason you’re tired but can’t sleep at night. Depression and sleep issues have a similar reciprocal association. This means anxiety and stress can cause sleep deprivation, leading to more anxiety and further sleep problems. Poor sleep and mental health issues are complex since they often have a bidirectional relationship. This physiological change keeps you stimulated and alert and might explain why you feel tired but can’t sleep. Nocturnal anxiety and stress throw this system out of whack, increasing cortisol when it should be declining to make way for melatonin, your sleep hormone. The body naturally secretes the stress hormone cortisol throughout the day: levels spike shortly after waking and gradually dip in the evening. One of the biggest barriers to sleep is stress and anxiety.1 At night, many people – especially those with anxiety conditions, like panic disorder – find themselves in a state of mental hyperarousal, ruminating about the past and catastrophising about the future.Įxperiencing anxiety at night is particularly disruptive because it confuses your 24-hour internal biological clock or circadian rhythm. Increasing cases of anxiety and insomnia, an over-reliance on caffeine, and hormonal fluctuations in the case of women are also to blame for sleep trouble and fatigue.
#I don t sleep at all tv#
Instead of prioritising downtime, we’re catching up on TV shows, scrolling social media, or answering work emails. Many of us have lost the rituals and practices needed to prepare ourselves for high-quality sleep.

Understanding and identifying these factors is an important step in supporting your sleep hygiene and overall health.Īccording to sleep experts, overtiredness often stems from our unhealthy relationship with technology. There are many reasons why you might be tired but can’t sleep. And a night of poor sleep can quickly snowball into fatigue, irritability, and anxiety the next day, which can then perpetuate a vicious cycle of more sleeplessness and stress. There’s nothing more frustrating than feeling tired but struggling to sleep.
