Stress leads the list, according to Natelson, a professor of neurosciences at the University of Medicine and Dentistry-New Jersey Medical School. Diabetes, infections, anemia, cancer, low or hypothyroid disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, AIDS, mitral valve prolapse, and multiple sclerosis are among the many specific illnesses that cause fatigue. Depression and anxiety, alone and in combination with other illnesses, also foster feelings of weariness. Lack of sleep produces sleepiness, not quite the same as tiredness, although many people find it hard to distinguish these two states and use the terms interchangeably. Fatigue is among the ten top reasons people visit their physicians, Natelson says.
Women complain of fatigue twice as often as men.
Though sleep would seem the ideal remedy, people who experience fatigue often have trouble sleeping, too. They commonly complain of tossing and turning at night and awakening unrefreshed. To improve sleep, Natelson advises not eating close to bedtime, cutting back on alcohol and caffeine, breaking the habit of taking sedative drugs, and practicing good sleep hygiene, such as avoiding erratic hours. Once behaviors become habitual, he notes, their role in instigating a new symptom is easy to overlook. If you have had a martini before dinner every night for years, for example, you may not consider alcohol as a possible cause of a recent sleep disruption.