Why am I tired but can't sleep?

It’s important to tackle these issues and try to rectify the problem, so we can get ourselves into a healthy sleep cycle. With over half of young people experiencing trouble sleeping, it is obvious that problems with trying to sleep are something many of us face. Anyone suffering shouldn’t feel isolated and should be reassured that there are simple remedies we can implement into our daily routines to prevent these troubles occurring.

The words tired and sleepy are often used interchangeably, but they have different meanings, and if we break down what they mean individually, we can begin to understand how we can be simultaneously tired and unable to sleep. While a person can be tired, exhausted and in need of rest, they may not be ‘sleepy’, or in a state in which they are able to sleep.

Although we may be naturally tired from our daily activities, be it mentally drained from a taxing day at work or physically tired by exercise, we may not be ready for sleep itself. Being unable to reach this sleep state can be the problem that many of us are facing when we feel tired but can't sleep.

In scientific studies, the term fatigue is preferred to tiredness. Indeed, fatigue is generally defined as a feeling of tension or exhaustion, and is frequent in both medical and psychiatric disorders. It may be physical, physiological, and psychological.

Circadian rhythm

Our circadian rhythm, or body clock, is the 24-hour cycle we all experience where our physical and mental state naturally changes over the course of a day. While our circadian rhythm is affected by lightness and darkness, it not only affects our sleep but also our appetite, temperature and other functions. A functioning circadian rhythm helps us sleep at a regular time, making the body produce melatonin at night, which helps regulate sleep. While we each have our own unique circadian rhythm, it is considered normal to go to sleep between 10pm and 12am.

A person’s circadian rhythm can be knocked off by a variety of things, from short term factors such as sleep habits or long distance travel to longer term issues such as ageing, medical conditions, but also shift working. As there are many factors that could contribute to a circadian rhythm being knocked off, there are also a variety of solutions. Some solutions to reset your circadian rhythm include having a sleep routine and making sure to stick to it, gradually changing your sleep schedule and exercising. While not all of these solutions will work for everyone, depending on your lifestyle, some of these solutions may help you get your sleep cycle back on track.

While sleep issues may come from a variety of factors, it may not be these factors that are affecting your sleep directly. It is their knock-on effect on your circadian rhythm that has caused you to be tired, but unable to sleep. So, getting your circadian rhythm back may be the answer to your problems sleeping. Many of the following factors can knock our circadian rhythm off and impact our sleep schedule.

Insomnia

Insomnia is the most well-known condition that can impact sleep and, along with other sleep disorders, can make those suffering experience tiredness whilst simultaneously being unable to sleep. 

Insomnia can be brought on by many factors such as stress, physical discomfort, medical conditions or substance abuse, among other things. The NHS describes a variety of symptoms defining someone who has insomnia, such as finding it hard to go to sleep, waking up several times during the night or lying awake through the night. Most people can treat insomnia themselves and overcome it by having a consistent bedtime routine, making sure to relax before they go to sleep, making sure the room they are sleeping in is dark, quiet and comfortable, and by exercising regularly.

A very effective treatment for insomnia includes psychotherapy, particularly CBT-I , namely Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia. For anyone with persistent insomnia, a doctor may prescribe sleeping pills such as benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine sedatives, which are designed to help the user get to sleep. While these may be a good short term solution for those that are suffering, they come with severe risks such as dependency and a tolerance build up. These chemical solutions also give the user less REM sleep than usual and can leave after effects such as grogginess and an impact on alertness the following day. Someone suffering from insomnia should also consider if they are impacted by maintenance insomnia, as many medications help a person get to sleep but not stay asleep. It is always important to consult your doctor before taking any medication.

Anxiety or Depression 

Depression and anxiety are frequently linked and strongly associated with sleep disturbances, with up to three quarters of people diagnosed with depression having problems getting to sleep or staying asleep. While having good mental health can be essential for getting a good night's sleep, sleep has also been shown to be beneficial in maintaining our mental health, meaning that those struggling to sleep due to their mental health can be stuck in a catch 22 situation, with both problems compounding the other.

Because when we are sleeping, our brains are busy processing information and maintaining our body, ensuring we are well rested, not getting enough sleep can make mental health conditions worse. Simple practices such as exercise, a regular sleep routine, improving our diet and making sure to take adequate breaks away from screens can help improve our mental health and sleeping patterns.

Irregular sleep patterns

If going to sleep at a regular time and having a set time to wake up every day can help rectify sleep issues; then it makes sense that irregular sleep patterns can be the cause of people being tired but unable to sleep. Those with irregular sleep patterns can often be those that suffer most when it comes to being unable to sleep despite being tired. 

Many people that do shift jobs work long hours throughout the night, typically in physically demanding roles, meaning they are worn out and exhausted once they finish, but are often unable to sleep. People frequently believe this is simply down to environmental factors such as daylight and higher levels of noise, such as outside traffic, that wouldn’t occur through the day. While this is true, and these factors will have an effect on your ability to sleep. It is also the fact that these irregular sleep patterns will have an impact on your circadian rhythm, knocking off the body's natural instinct to sleep during the night and wake during the day. 

University students are another group that can be victims of irregular sleep patterns, with late night revision sessions and pushes to reach deadlines often being the cause of students working unsociable hours and having a lack of routine when they sleep. This can be compounded by the student lifestyle of frequently going out and often working late hours in bars alongside their studies. Although many of these things may seem a quintessential part of being a student or essential to achieving good grades, having an irregular sleeping pattern has actually been linked to negative academic performance.

It is not just students and those with shift work who can suffer from irregular sleep patterns, frequent flyers across time-zones will often find themselves unable to sleep despite being tired, due to jet lag. Students and those suffering from jet lag can rectify their sleeping patterns by gradually changing their sleep schedules back to fit their natural circadian rhythm. Although those with employment commitments preventing them from changing their sleep pattern have fewer options to fix sleep issues they may have, there are still solutions which could help. Making sure you are relaxed before trying to sleep, giving yourself time between work and sleep to unwind as well as making sure you are comfortable, and the room is completely dark should be beneficial for those with shift work that are struggling to sleep.

Overtired

Being overtired may be a reason for being unable to sleep when we are tired. Nerina Ramlakhan, sleep psychologist and author of The Little Book of Sleep, theorises that up until recently, humans had natural downtime as part of their day, but with the rise of modern day technologies such as mobile phones and tablets, these small windows of rest have vanished. As part of automatic, impulse decisions, we often find ourselves picking up our phones up to 150 times a day to check social media or reply to messages, when in the past these fleeting moments of spare time would provide our mind with brief moments of respite. 

This addiction to our devices can be linked to a cultural shift of now being present online at all times, be it connected to work through our smartphone wherever we are, or constantly logging our life on social media. This perpetual state of being “always on” can make it hard for us to switch off when we end our day and try to sleep, no matter how tired we are. 

If you are stressed and triggered by work email, think about having two smartphones. One for work and another one for your private life! On the other hand, if social networks are your main trigger, you can try using the focus mode option, which can discourage you from the compulsory behaviour of constantly checking your social notifications.

Putting our phones down more, being more present in the moment and giving ourselves time to relax throughout the day should work as a solution to this phenomenon. Leaving our phones and giving ourselves time to breathe, be that through yoga, meditation, or other relaxation methods, will not only help us sleep, but improve our general well-being and happiness.

Blue light

While the act of using electronic devices constantly throughout the day has an impact on our sleep, the devices themselves directly affect us too, through the light they emit from their screens. Studies suggest that light emitted from electronic devices, tending to be blue light, can produce ‘alerting effects, suppress melatonin, and phase-shift the biological clock’ which in turn can negatively impact our ability to sleep. Due to the prevalence of mobile phones, TV screens and laptops in our lives, many of us don’t think twice about the fact we may be looking at screens for most of our day, from the minute we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. 

While phones, tablets and other technologies have given us many advantages and conveniences, having a digital detox before we go to sleep could be a simple answer to improving our sleep. Cutting screen time before bed could lead to big improvements with sleep, with most of the negative effects caused by these devices occurring in the hour before trying to sleep. Refraining from using these devices for one hour before bed should help to rectify any issues they might be causing. 

We are reliant on these devices for work, pleasure, and responsibilities such as keeping in touch with, and looking after family remotely, sometimes it isn’t as simple as just putting down the devices. For those of us that can’t leave our screens, filtered glasses that block blue light have been found to significantly improve quality of sleep, when worn up to three hours before trying to sleep. Some devices also have blue light modes in their settings, which gives the user an option to minimise the blue light coming from the screen. These can often be tailored to trigger at a certain time to benefit the user in the hours before they are due to sleep.

Alcohol or Caffeine

Alcohol and caffeine are two of the most common causes of sleep issues and can be a big reason many people struggle to sleep at night.

According to studies, high amounts of alcohol have negative impacts on REM sleep in the first part of a person's sleep, drastically reducing REM sleep on the night overall. While alcohol itself can be the cause of sleep issues, how alcohol changes our behaviour can have the biggest impact on our sleeping pattern. Alcohol often goes hand in hand with going out and late nights which can have a knock on effect for days on our circadian rhythm. 

Because caffeine is a stimulant, it is another obvious cause for many people to have sleep issues. Caffeine is widely reported to have adverse effects on sleep, and one study has confirmed that caffeine as long as six hours before bedtime has a significant impact on sleep.

The solution to those unable to sleep after drinking alcohol or caffeine is a simple one, cut out or cut down on drinking them. While many of us enjoy a social drink with friends and family, regulating our alcohol intake and monitoring how much alcohol we are consuming can be a simple solution to the knock on effects it has on our sleep patterns. An equally simple solution for those who suffer from lack of sleep due to caffeine is by stopping drinking it in the afternoon. Enjoying your morning coffee or two shouldn’t cause problems later on in the evening and making sure to not drink caffeine in the hours leading up to trying to sleep should be a big help in rectifying any sleep issues you may have.

Napping

The simple answer of ‘napping’ might be the answer for those wondering ‘why am I tired but can't get to sleep?’. Napping may not necessarily be bad for you, and has actually been found to have a number of benefits. A study on airline pilots found that naps reduce fatigue and improved performance and alertness, but there can be some drawbacks to naps. 

Downsides to beware of for those who often nap are being unable to sleep that evening, and feeling groggy. The optimum length of a nap should be around 20 minutes, never going on for longer than 30 minutes, and should be taken as early in the day as possible as to avoid feeling awake at night.

If you are someone who is frequently tired and unable to sleep at night but naps frequently, it is worth assessing how long your naps are and when throughout the day you take them. If you think you are napping for too long or your naps are too late in the day, then it is worth addressing this and regulating how and when you take them. 

A tailored solution

People who struggle to sleep despite being tired may be suffering from a combination of any of the above issues. It is worth assessing your lifestyle on an individual basis and tailoring a plan to overcome any obstacles that may be preventing you from achieving a refreshing night’s sleep, every night.

Those suffering from sleeping problems should be reassured that small changes to lifestyle could have a big impact on improving sleep. There are solutions for many of the issues causing the inability to sleep despite being tired, and in the vast majority of cases regaining your normal sleeping pattern happens on its own or through a very simple solution.