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5 Things That Make You Tired

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Very bad morningIt definitely seems harder to roll out of bed every morning when the temperature drops and sunrise comes later. Whether it’s chronic fatigue or a case of the seasonal blues, many people experience fatigue when the weather cools. However, if you are suffering from extreme fatigue, it could be one of these energy suckers getting you down:

Dehydration

Turns out that even the slightest bit of dehydration can make you feel sluggish and lack concentration. Dehydration means that your body does not have as much water and fluids as it should. It can be mild, moderate, or severe based on how much of the body’s fluid is lost or not replenished. Next time your feeling groggy, try downing a glass or two of water.

Cell Phones

Feeling restless at night? You probably looked your cell phone before sleep. Research shows that checking your phone before bed amps up brain activity, which makes it harder to fall asleep. According to a study by the National Sleep Foundation in 2011, 20 percent of folks between the ages of 19 and 29 are awakened by a call, text or e-mail at least a few nights a week. If you want to get a better night’s sleep, consider powering down before bedtime.

Medication

Are currently on any medications? Some drugs have energy-sapping side effects. Antidepressants and certain beta-blockers used to prevent migraines or treat high blood pressure rank high upon that list. If you’re on one of these medications and start to feel lethargic, consult your doctor for an alternative. Or, consider taking your dose right before you head to bed.

Overtraining

While working out is great for your physical and mental health, especially when it comes to releasing endorphins, adrenaline, serotonin and dopamine. However, overtraining can actually increase cortisol production. Cortisol is the body’s natural stress response hormone. It is typically released during a crisis situation when your adrenals sometimes can’t keep up. But if it’s released too frequently, it can cause you to feel weak or tired.

Low Iron

Iron is a mineral in your body that shuttles oxygen around and removes waste from your cells. If you’re not getting enough iron a day your body will struggle to function properly. People with low iron levels can suffer from anemia. Therefore, to boost iron in your diet consider eating more red meat, egg yolks, dried fruit, beans and scallops. If you’re still feeling sluggish, take a supplement or consult a doctor.

If you’re feeling tired all the time, don’t just shrug it off. Give yourself a couple weeks to make some serious lifestyle changes. Get more sleep, cut back on social gatherings, take some vitamins and eat more wholesome foods. But, if you’re still feeling fatigued after these changes, you should seek professional help.

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Julie Smith is a freelance writer and nutritionist. She believes a healthy diet and active lifestyle is the keep to a better, happier you. When life gets stressful, Julie takes anxiety remedies that are natural from NativeRemedies.com.





Eating Before You Sleep

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Many people are already familiar on which food to avoid before hitting the sheets. Alcohol, sugary desserts and coffee are just some of them. Surprisingly, there are food that you can actually eat to have the best night’s sleep. You just have to learn what nutrients you are to look for when doing your grocery chores.

Some health experts say that a lot of people know what they do not have to do when about to sleep. Eating heavy meal, drinking caffeine, and spicy foods are included in this list. There are people who eat all night or do not eat at all before going to bed—both are factors in which sleep can be disrupted. These people do not know that a having a small snack is okay, especially when eating food that contain tryptophan.

What is Tryptophan?

Tryptophan is known as an amino acid. It is being converted to serotonin and melatonin—they are known as a chemical responsible to the brain’s natural relaxation process. Tryptophan can be found in the food usually highlighted during Thanksgiving Day—turkeys. It can also be found in other food such as:

  • Seeds
  • Nuts
  • Eggs
  • Bananas

Complex Carbohydrates and Serotonin

According to some health experts, tryptophan is not the only nutrition that your body needs when trying to get a good sleep.

Having food with complex carbohydrates are important. This is because they can help in promoting serotonin—a hormone released by the pineal gland, central nervous system, blood platelets and digestive tract. It plays an important role in regulating mood, constriction of blood vessels, learning and sleep.

For most people, eating food rich in carbohydrates can make them feel good when they are stressed out. Although this can mean unhealthy food choices such as donuts and other sugary food, it can help in increasing your serotonin hormone in the body. Too much of these sugars and carbs can cause sugar crash which is responsible in waking us up during the wee hours of the night.

Instead of eating food with high content of sugar and carbs, health experts suggest to opt for healthier carbohydrates for your body’s nutrition. These can help in boosting our relaxation hormones. These food choices include the following:

  • Whole wheat crackers
  • Whole grain pastas
  • Beans

When tryptophan and healthy high-carbohydrate food are mixed, tryptophan will surely stay in your system for a longer period of time. This will help you when you are having trouble in sleeping at night.

Having a simple adjustment on your diet can be very essential in promoting a good night’s sleep. Here are some other snacks that you can eat an hour before you sleep:

A bowl of cereal added with milk can promote a good tandem in promoting a good sleeping pattern. Milk is known to contain tryptophan and whole-grain cereals have complex carbs.

Munch on some cheese sticks. Having low fat cheese stick an hour before you sleep can help in supplying tryptophan. It can leave you calm even during a day full of stressful events.

Check out this article on the insanity workout which keeps your heart rate inside 80 to 90 percent of one’s maximum heart rate, and therefore is an incredibly intense workout all the way through.

Your Body And Daylight Savings

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The autumn equinox has come and gone and, as we turn back the clock for daylight savings time we begin to notice that the days are getting shorter and we often find ourselves driving home in the dark. Its sinking in that the summer is over and it’s time to settle in for the long winter.

For people who live in the Northern Hemisphere, the change in autumn means more hours of darkness and colder weather, which keeps many people indoors. This can contribute to depression and a host of sleep disorders.

Any change in your sleeping pattern can be difficult to deal with and can even encourage the development of sleep disorders, although the change in the fall seems easier because that is when you are actually gaining an hour as opposed to in the spring when your body will feel like an hour has been taken away. Here you can just go to bed early and catch an extra hour of sleep.

Or you could do what most people likely do and use the extra hour to stay up later. Just figure out what is most comfortable for you and do it. If you do choose to stay up though be careful not to overdo it. You may take in stimulus like TV, email, or video games or whatever.

These distractions can easily cause you to stay up way past that extra hour you get when we fall back and you’ll end up coming into work more sleep deprived than ever. Again, the key is to find what works best for you, don’t think that there is some set rule about how to deal with this.

Maybe you don’t want to even set your clock back until the next morning when you wake up. Then you can wake up as normal and set the new time and hang out for an hour before work, or before whatever it is that you will be doing for the day.

People who have existing sleep disorders may be adhering to a frajile sleep schedule that helps to minimize symptoms. In that case you would want to continue to adhere to that schedule as closely as possible.

So waiting until the next morning to reset your clocks may work well for people with an existing sleep disorder. Other than that I would suggest that you take every opportunity to get in sunlight during the fall and winter months if you live in a part of the world that will be getting reduced sunlight. Artificial light can even be used if necessary.

Recognize any depression symptoms that you may be feeling and seek out medical assistance if necessary. Also, try to maintain a consistent exercise and sleep routine once the time has switched over. Be aware of your body and the ways that the changing seasons and the changes to your routine can effect it.

If you can do that you should be in for another cosy winter – break out the eggnog and fruitcake!

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The author of this post Serge Kozak is the founder of Edictive. Edictive is a cloud based film time management application.

Extreme wrist pain and a bad doctor

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I don’t know what I’ve done to myself over the last several months. I’m just a painful tired mess. Other than being extremely sleepy most of the time since November it’s my right wrist that probably ranks next on my list of complaints.

Oddly enough it was my left wrist that started hurting in October or November, but I got a mouse pad with a memory foam cushion (I’m left handed), and I applied heat to my wrist regularly and the pain went away within a week or two of regular care.

Then my right wrist started acting up and nothing I do seems to help. It just aches across the top of it. I take Advil, apply heat, give it a rest, stretch it when it hurts after too much rest (believe me my wrist wakes me up at night with the pain probably from not moving) and nothing works. I wish there was something like an aircast boot for my wrist. It wouldn’t work for me during the day – not with me working on the computer, but maybe at night.

My lousy family doctor won’t even do an X-ray or anything at all. She’s convinced it’s fibromyalgia even though when she’s tested me for it I don’t have any trigger points or any other symptoms … so no, I don’t think so. I see her again in a couple of weeks, if I talk to her about my wrist again and she refuses to do anything I think that will pretty much be the end of my relationship with my doctor. I can’t continue to see a doctor that’s not helping me can I? In the meantime I hope my wrist starts to feel better because it really hurts … I mean, I almost feel like screaming at night with the pain and I’m used to being in all kinds of pain what with my Crohn’s and all – so it’s bad.

I quit smoking – I haven’t had a cigarette in 76 hours

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I’ve had an interesting week.

On Tuesday I finally managed to quit smoking. Yeah! I did it with the help of medication – not cold turkey. No way … I’ve tried that before and uhm … no one likes a raging Trish.

I started taking Zyban on October 1st and after 3 or four days the cigarettes that I was smoking had started to have no really taste … they were just like sucking on hot air. You’d think I would have put them aside at that point, but old habits die hard. I kept reaching for them even though there was zero enjoyment from them.

By this past Tuesday – October 12th, I’d only had two cigarettes by about 2:30 in the afternoon. At the point I decided to try not having any more that day – and well if I could make it through the rest of Tuesday then that would be my official Quit Day.

It was. I haven’t had a cigarette in about 76 hours and for the most part I think I’m doing pretty good.

I’ve been having cravings here and there, but when I do I just try to distract myself and within five to ten minutes the craving goes away.

Thanks to the Zyban it’s definitely a lot easier to quit smoking than going cold turkey. I’m not as agitated, anxious or angry as I was when I tried quitting cold turkey in the past.

The only major problem is that I’m not sleeping very well at all. I think the medication gives you a bit of an energy boost and it’s known for giving people insomnia. Maybe I should put on the ol’ Nike Dunks and burn off some of that extra energy in the early evening so I can get some sleep?

Now that it seems that I’ve successfully quit I’ll see if I can lower the medication dose in a few days. I think that might help with my sleeping issues as well.

I’m determined to stay quit this time around. My husband, who smoked much less than I did, also quit, so our house is smoke free now.

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