What’s The Difference Between Fatigue and Tiredness?

If you often find yourself waking up tired, groggy, and irritable, you may be looking for tips to stay energised.

In fact, the phrase ‘tired all the time’ (or ‘TATT’) went viral recently as people turned to social media to find out how to stop feeling so sluggish throughout their day.

However, if you’re still feeling tired all the time and energy-boosting tips aren’t helping to keep you awake, then you might be dealing with fatigue. While the words are often used interchangeably, they’re actually different conditions.  

To help you wake up feeling refreshed, this article explores the difference between fatigue and tiredness, as well as how to help boost your energy levels.

What’s the difference between fatigue and tiredness?

Tiredness and fatigue are characterised by their own individual symptoms, side effects, causes, and treatments. As such, understanding the difference between each feeling can help you better treat the potential cause.  

As a general rule of thumb, lacking energy once or twice after a bad night’s sleep is likely a symptom of tiredness. However, if you’re feeling tired all the time, even with the right amount of sleep, then this may be fatigue.

But what are the other differences between fatigue and tiredness? Our table, below, highlights how the two differ:

What is tiredness?

Tiredness is a natural response to lack of sleep, feeling stressed, or not getting enough energy through your diet.

• Not getting enough sleep: Your body uses sleep to process information, helping to aid both mental and physical performance once you wake up. Not getting enough sleep can hinder this process, causing you to lack energy, experience low mood, and struggle to concentrate.

• Elevated stress levels: When you feel stressed, your body releases the stress hormone cortisol to help activate the ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ response. Once you’re no longer stressed, the cortisol levels decrease, which can also cause you to feel tired.

• Following an unbalanced diet: Lastly, the body uses the nutrients in foods we eat – carbohydrates, protein, and fats – as energy. When we eat, the body breaks down these essential nutrients, before absorbing them for use as energy. Not eating a healthy and balanced diet can result in feelings of tiredness.

What is fatigue?

If you’re wondering why you’re sleeping so much but are still tired, you may be experiencing fatigue – or chronic fatigue.

While taking a nap, eating a nutritious meal, or alleviating stress may soothe tiredness, this might not help fatigue in every instance, leaving you feeling constantly tired. Alongside extreme and persistent tiredness, you may notice additional symptoms with fatigue, such as:

• Headaches or migraines.

• Dizzy spells.

• Blurry vision.

• Brain fog.

• Increased irritability.

• Loss of appetite. 

• Aching joints or muscles.

• Difficulty memorising information.

Fatigue like this may be caused by physical conditions such as an iron deficiency, diabetes or thyroid disorders, while you may also experience feelings of fatigue with depression or grief.

How can I treat and manage tiredness at home?

1. Eat a healthy and balanced diet

If you’re feeling always tired and have no energy, then following a healthy and balanced diet can help boost your energy levels.

Essentially, you want to provide your body with enough fuel to help alleviate the feeling of being fatigued. In order to do that, try following these steps:

• Balance your nutrients: Ensure your diet has the right mix of protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins. Typically, it’s best to follow a 25-25-50 diet: 25% of your diet going to protein such as meats, fish, and nuts, as well as slow-release carbs like dairy or oat products. Leave the remaining 50% for fruit and vegetables.

• Eat regularly: Instead of lightly snacking throughout the day, it’s important to get three full meals to keep your energy levels sustained. If you do notice your energy dipping, a quick snack is an easy way to boost your energy until your next meal.

• Be realistic: Try not to deprive your body of cravings too much – as long as it’s in moderation. The 80/20 rule can be helpful here, where you make 80% of your diet as healthy as you can, but still allow 20% for sweet treats. This will help you sustain your healthy eating plan for longer periods of time.

2. Follow an exercise plan 

While it may seem counterintuitive to drain your energy levels with a workout, exercising regularly can actually help you avoid always feeling tired.

When you exercise, your blood flow increases, boosting the oxygen levels circulating around the body and to the brain. Increased oxygen to the brain supports energy production, helping to reduce that feeling.

In general, 30 minutes of exercise a day is enough to increase your energy levels. Even a short half an hour walk will help, but you can also try aerobic activities like hiking, running, playing a sport, or dancing.

3. Establish a sleep routine

It might be easier said than done but getting a proper night’s sleep is one of the best ways to avoid always feeling tired.

Both the brain and body slow down when you sleep, allowing them to restore themselves from the day – this is called restorative sleep. In general, adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep to complete this process properly, while children may need slightly more between 8 and 14 hours depending on age.

To give yourself the best chance at a good night’s sleep, it’s important to improve your sleep hygiene with the following tips:

• Stick to a regular bedtime: Habits bring efficiency to our day and help conserve a bit of our energy as well. So, by establishing a regular bedtime, your brain and body get used to sleeping and waking up at the same times.

• Avoid electronic devices before bed: Devices such as TVs, phones, and laptops emit blue light which tricks the brain into thinking it’s daytime. As a result, the brain stops releasing melatonin, otherwise known as the sleep hormone. It’s best to avoid such devices at least 30 minutes before bed to avoid them disrupting your sleep cycle.

• Don’t drink caffeine too late: A coffee may be great for giving you an energy boost in the morning, but it’s best to avoid drinking caffeine at least 6 hours before bed. In fact, caffeine can take between 6 and 10 hours to leave the system, so try to limit your coffee intake to just the mornings. As alcohol can also disrupt your sleep cycle, It’s a good idea to limit your consumption of this too, as part of a healthy diet for sleep.

• Eat the right foods: The foods you eat, especially those consumed before bed, can help make drifting off a bit easier. For example, chocolate and cheese should be avoided too close to bedtime as they can keep you awake, whereas cherries and raw honey can promote longer, deeper sleep. For more advice, read our article on the best and worst foods for sleep.

When to see a GP about fatigue

In many cases, you can avoid feeling tired all the time with a few healthy lifestyle changes. However, if the feeling persists regardless, you may need to see a GP.

For example, if you’re experiencing any of the following symptoms, then see your GP:

• A tired feeling that has lasted for several weeks.
• Feeling tired all the time is impacting your day-to-day.
• You have other symptoms such as weight loss or mood swings.
• Someone has made you aware you’re making choking or snorting noises while sleeping.

A medical professional will be able to better assess what the cause of your persistent tiredness or fatigue is, as well as how to best treat it.

How can Benenden Health help with fatigue?

Always feeling tired can leave you feeling drained and stressed, especially when your best efforts to alleviate the feeling at home aren’t working.

Here at Benenden Health, we believe private healthcare should be accessible to all. With our healthcare you get day one access to a 24/7 GP Helpline and 24/7 Mental Health Helpline.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for more advice on lowering stress levels or reducing tiredness, or you’d like tips on how to eat a healthy diet, then head over to our Be Healthy hub.