The Top 11 Reasons You Wake Up Tired

At times, we all experience a light tiredness of sorts that can be relieved through sleep and rest. Fatigue, on the other hand, is when the tiredness is so overwhelming that rest just won’t cut it.

It can be so frustrating to get a full night’s sleep and still wake up tired.

If you’re the type of person who wakes up feeling groggy and exhausted, there is an explanation. Actually, there are several reasons why you might feel so tired even after getting a solid amount of sleep.

While you may be waking up tired because you are sleep deprived, there may be another less obvious reason for your grogginess.  Here are a few reasons you may be waking up tired, no matter how many hours you sleep.

1. You spend extra minutes in bed on your phone

For once, it’s not your phone that’s to blame – it’s spending the extra time in bed that’s the problem.

Your bed is meant for one main thing: sleeping. If you stay in bed, then it gives your mind the feeling that it’s time to sleep and not start your day.

Even worse, is if you fall back asleep, if your “just 10 more minutes” turns into an hour, then you’re waking up from REM sleep instead of the lighter stages of sleep that you would’ve woken up from had you gotten out of bed the first time.

Waking up from that deeper sleep can actually make you even more tired throughout the day than someone who got less shut-eye but woke up from a lighter stage of sleep.

Many people also hit the snooze 4-10 times while trying to get up in the morning. This is a terrible idea and here is why: the average snooze button is about 7-9 minutes long, this does not give your brain the time it needs to get back into a deeper, more refreshing, stage of sleep. So, during the last 30-60 min, you are actually getting broken, fragmented sleep.

2. Your bedroom environment is disturbing your sleep

There are many different things that can impact your sleep in your bedroom. Take a look around your room after reading this and see if you can spot any culprits.

For example, you may love sleeping in utter darkness, but your beloved blackout curtains could be the cause of your tiredness. If no daylight can seep through your windows, your internal clock won’t know day from night. Exposure to sunshine in the morning will signal your brain that it’s time to wake up and help you feel more refreshed.

3. Your mattress might make you tired

A worn-out mattress can make it hard for a person to find sleep even though they feel like they slept all night. A bad mattress will make you toss and turn all night long. This tossing and turning can make you feel like you’ve been up all night instead of catching some quality sack time.

Health and sleep experts have discovered that we spend about a third of our lives in bed, and that means if we’re sleeping on a worn-out mattress, it’s pretty much guaranteed that we’re being robbed of the relaxing, healing sleep that we need to function at our peak each and every day.

The best way to not feel tired after waking up is to get a new mattress. Your mattress is an essential part of keeping you happy and healthy, which means that you most likely put a lot of thought and effort into choosing the perfect mattress for you.

Here are some signs that a new mattress is needed:

• A mattress is over 7 years old.
• Your mattress is starting to sag.
• You wake up tired and in pain.
• The mattress is falling apart.
• You have a hard time falling asleep.
• Allergies can also make you feel tired after you wake up. Things like dust mites can infest a bed and if you’re allergic it can really put a strain on you.

If you wake up with allergy-like symptoms then our hypoallergenic mattress is your choice.

When considering the firmness of the mattress, a too-hard mattress may only succeed in putting your shoulders and hips to sleep. You’ll sleep best when your bed helps you feel cradled in comfort, cozy and secure.

In this case, memory foam or even better, the open-cell Quantum foam, has the potential to improve sleep, by reducing pain that causes you to toss and turn while sleeping. Our WHISPER mattress is composed of Quantum foam that distributes your weight evenly and eases the pressure on specific points, ensuring you do not wake up with localized pain or fatigue.

4. Too much sleep can be just as bad as too little sleep

It’s important to dial in your personal body clock so that you feel refreshed and ready to tackle the day, every day. To do this, figure out what time you need to get up in the morning. Count back 7.5 hours as a good time to start getting to bed.

7.5 hours is a good benchmark because that’s the average time it takes a person to go through five 90-minute sleep cycles, alternating between sleep (non-REM) and deep sleep (REM).

5. You drank something that is reducing your sleep quality

The two biggest issues are alcohol and caffeine. While alcohol may make you feel sleepy, it actually keeps you out of the deep stages of sleep, which makes you feel awful in the morning.

Caffeine does that same thing, this stimulant keeps your brain out of the deeper stages of sleep, which also makes sleep unrefreshing.

It is recommended to stop drinking caffeinated beverages by mid-afternoon or earlier.

Besides keeping you awake, caffeine can also cause heartburn, which can make sleep awfully uncomfortable.

6. The food you ate

A healthy lifestyle leads to healthier sleep, specifically your diet. Foods high in sugar, fat, and processed carbs have been associated with daytime sleepiness. You should also avoid foods that cause indigestion, acid reflux, or heartburn such as spicy foods, tomato sauce, or citrus fruits. Heartburn is exacerbated when you lie down as it allows the acid to creep up into the esophagus and burn the sensitive lining.

7. Late-night technology

We know it’s hard to disconnect from the world, but all that harsh blue light from your TV, laptop, and phone stimulates the brain and makes it difficult to settle down before bed.

Try to shut off your technology about an hour before going to sleep. If you really can’t do that, at least power down your phone.

8. Too many distractions

If you live in a busy city, it may be difficult to tune out the honking cars and barking dogs at night. Being woken up in the middle of the night will cause you to feel extra tired the next day.

In order to eliminate some of those distractions, invest in a white noise machine or keep a fan on low to down out any of the sounds that may wake you. Outdoor noises can only be silenced so much, but you do have total control over what’s inside your house.

Make sure to fix that running toilet of yours and put your phone on silent, as a text notification could definitely interrupt your slumber.

9. Did you go to bed late last night?

People who prefer to stay out late tend to get up at a later time and perform best, both mentally and physically, in the late afternoon or evening. Evening-type individuals were significantly more likely to suffer from poor sleep quality, daytime dysfunction, and sleep-related anxiety as compared with morning-type individuals. Even more disconcerting is that late bedtime is associated with decreased hippocampal volume in young people.

10. You’re spending too much time inside

Blue light helps you wake up because it decreases your levels of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin. And the best place to get it from is the sun.

That’s because the sun also emits vitamin D, which is crucial for keeping up your energy levels. Research shows that people who have a vitamin D deficiency are more likely to have chronic fatigue syndrome and correcting the deficiency boosts their energy levels back to normal.

Going out in the sun is better for a quick energy boost, taking a vitamin D supplement will also help you feel more awake if you’re low on the nutrient.

It won’t give you an instant boost, but it will help regulate your energy levels over time.

11. Poor sleep could be a sign of a sleep disorder

If you practice the above guidelines of a healthier lifestyle and better sleeping habits but still find yourself suffering from daytime drowsiness, it may be a sign of a more severe medical condition such as sleep apnea, anemia, thyroid problems, restless leg syndrome, or any undiagnosed heart disease. If you think that you may be suffering from one of these medical conditions you should contact your physician or local clinic immediately.

We guarantee that our WHISPER mattress will help you sleep like a baby and have you wake up happier and more rested than ever before. We back this up with a 100 night risk-free trial. Click the link below to check it out: