fatigue is a symptom of depression. you might want to explore the possibility that you are medically depressed. it isn't always about feeling sad, there are other symptoms of it. do you have a history of depression or is there a history of depression in your family? when i was reading your post it reminded me so much of myself. there was a time in my life when i could sleep 15 hours at a go, no problem. there were other issues in my life as well, but even now, after two years of therapy, i still feel the fatigue creeping back up sometimes. a regular routine will help, maybe therapy? maybe medication? things to consider.

Quick list:
Getting enough iron (not aenemia levels, but in general)?
Getting enough B-complex vitamins?
Do you wake up tired?
Is your sleep interrupted (do you wake up for no reason)?
Do you remember having more than one dream a night?
Do you eat a good balance of protein and fresh produce?

10 hours of sleep can be too much. It might seem like more is better, but that's not necessarily true. Humans go through several phases of the sleep cycle, and waking up mid-phase can make you feel very tired. Everyone's cycles are different lengths, but this website explains it pretty well: www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm

If you're eating a lot of empty carbohydrates, you might not be getting enough 'real fuel' for your body. Sugar and caffeine crashes will make you feel fatigued, too. Also, taking in caffeine early in the morning can interfere with your body's natural 'waking up' process - mainly the chemical interactions in the pancreas. This makes you 'wake up' again later in the day, causing fatigue. I found I had a lot more stable energy level just from moving my 7:00 AM cup of joe to 10:00 or 11:00.

Last but not least, regular physical activity in the afternoons will help you sleep soundly at night. Don't exercise right before bed... it can keep you up or cause restless sleep.

Oooo, yeah, I can relate. This may sound wierd, but have you tried a detox diet? It's not to loose weight, though there are detox diets for loosing weight, but more for purging your system of built up toxins. You can find out lots about them by googling "detox diet". About.com has lots of useful info as well. Definitely check with your doctor first, but I usually do a one or two day detox diet a few times a year, and I find it really helps with my energy levels and quality of sleep. Basically you give up all the goodies: salt, sugar, processed wheat, processed food, caffeine, and alcohol. What's left? Veggies, lean meat, nuts, fruits, and lots of water and herbal tea. Worth checking into, I was super skeptical at first, but I thought, two days couldn't hurt too much, and I love my detox's now! The only real side effect I've seen is the first day I get a killer headache from the withdrawls. Hope you find something that helps!

Aji

AMy - Have you been tested for sleep apnea? Your symptoms sound like this is a definite possibility.

One thing that I can suggest is keeping a health journal, writing down everything: what you ate that day and at what time, how you felt at different times during the day, how much you slept and how you felt when you woke up, if you dreamt, how much exercise you did and at what time, if you had any headaches, how much time you spent in front of a computer, did you go outside, are you on your menstrual cycle and what it is like etc. This can really help with linking possible things together, and if you do end up going to a doctor or naturopath again a journal really helps in answering the many questions they will ask in detail. I'm going to use my own advice too, because I have the same problem!! It seems like I am always tired, but when I really think about it there are periods that I feel normal. Writing these periods down will help me figure out if they are linked to what I eat etc. I also tend to sleep about 10 hours if the alarm clock doesn't wake me up, and sometimes I do feel tired even then. I am currently struggling to find what the optimal amount of sleep is for me, and this is where the journal comes in. I wish you the best, and hope you find a happy solution :)

Renate

I had a lot of trouble with fatigue a few years ago. I'd wake up tired and by 10:00 am I was ready for bed again. It turned out that, despite the fact that I was eating good food (no junk except for some chocolate), I wasn't getting it in the right proportions. My carb intake was still too high. Typical breakfast foods tend to be high in carbs too, but switching to protein and fat (more slowly metabolised) in the form of cheese helped a lot. Excessive carbs made me feel OK when it was in my system (no sugar rush) but I felt like I had been hit by a truck once it was gone. I did remarkably well with fajitas - chicken, cheese and sour cream for protein; veggies; tortilla for a manageable dose of carb. Otherwise I was eating too much carb in the form of rice or pasta.

Hypoglycemia, which I happen to suffer from, literally means "low blood sugar" but that's a bit misleading. (IM me if you're interested in a technical explanation.) What this means for me is that I have to eat a balanced diet. I treat carbs almost like medicine - eat with a meal to moderate the effect, or eat alone to achieve a specific effect (e.g. temporarily recover from a crash). Excessive carbs can be a problem for anyone - not just hypoglycemics - and the typical North American diet is very high in carbs. Bread, cookies, cake, sweet drinks, rice, pasta, potatoes - it's so easy!

I recommend paying close attention to what you eat (in addition to all the other suggestions). Eat a balanced diet (or decrease the proportion of carbs in your diet) and avoid junk food. Be aware that food can be "healthy" but still cause difficulties - e.g. fruit juice is quite sweet and may cause similar reactions as soft drinks. If at any point you feel like you have energy, look at what your last meal was and see if it's different from the usual at all.

Oh, Amy, you sound like me last year! Last year between November and January I could have swore that I had mono, but I went to the doctor, had oodles of bloodwork (mono, anemia, thyroid, blood sugar) and everything came back normal. But I felt awful, tired at best, physically ill at worst. Then, I went on a work trip that got me out of the monotony of the day-to-day and in a new environment for about a week, and I came back feeling so much better. I think I needed a temporary change of routine. Now, this may not be exactly what you need (and I'm certainly no medical professional), but maybe you could do with a little mini-vacation away from your day-to-day life....? I'm only suggesting it because that is what worked for me. I hope that you are able to shake the fatigue... I know how you feel. Good luck. :)

Go see a gastroenterologist and have him check you for celiac disease. I had all your symptoms and was also told it was IBS; nothing helped, and I kept getting sicker, until I had a biopsy done. Turns out I was having a severe reaction to gluten, a protein in wheat, oats, rye, and barley, and nearly every processed and restaurant food under the sun.

If you have celiac disease, the lining of your small intestine is too damaged to take in nutrients from your food; you will be malnourished, which causes the fatigue.

If you do have celiac disease, you will start to feel better as soon as you cut the gluten out of your diet. In a week I was totally turned around.

Just in case your GI tract symptoms are a separate issue from your tiredness, here are some things that could cause irritable bowel syndrome:

1. Prunes, peaches, pears, apples. These contain an ingredient called sorbitol that "has a laxative effect". There is a high concentration in prunes, which is why people use them as a cure for constipation, but it occurs in other fruits too in lower concentrations. It is the active ingredient in a brand of laxative that's on the market. In most people, the laxative effect isn't too severe, but in a minority of the population (as many as 33% non-whites, a smaller percentage of whites, but I've known whites who have it) it can cause horribly intense diarrhea.

2. Sugar-free sweet foods such as cookies, gummi bears, other candies, etc. Sorbitol or related sweeteners are often used to sweeten these. See #1 above for why this is bad. The package may say in tiny letters "may have a laxative effect".

3. Coffee, tea, soda - anything containing caffeine. Caffeine has a "laxative effect". The more you drink, the more you go.

4. Some herbal teas. Different herbal teas contain different ingredients that could do this to your system. Some ingredients to beware of include senna, rhubarb root, buckthorn, aloe, but there are other things that could do it too. If you drink herbal tea frequently, look at the ingredients list and research them on the Internet to see whether they could be affecting you.

5. Bread, cookies, cake, rolls, vitamins, adhesives on postage stamps, barley, pasta - these all contain gluten which will irritate your GI tract if you have celiac disease, as was mentioned by someone else on this thread. Remedy: avoid foods containing it.

5. Milk, yogurt, cheese, butter, ice cream. Could affect you if you are lactose-intolerant. More likely to affect non-whites than whites, but I've known whites who have it. If you have this, food supplements containing the enzyme lactase should be able to help (Dairy Ease, LactAid, etc.)

6. Beans, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, cabbage, corn, cucumbers, leeks, lettuce, onions, bell peppers, chickpeas (what hummus is made from), lentils, peanuts, soybeans. Some people's bodies fail to make the enzymes needed to digest these. Try using a dietary enzyme such as Beano to see if it helps - but be careful to use as directed. I know someone who put a LOT more of it on her food than the directions said, and her GI tract punished her. (Directions usually say a few drops, she squirted a big stream of it.)

7. Onions, oranges, artichokes, pears, corn, wheat, some soft drinks and processed foods containing high-fructose corn syrup. These foods are rich in a sugar known as fructose. Some people's bodies have trouble digesting it.

8. Diet foods, chewing gum, candies, beverages. Some of the artificial sweeteners and artificial fats are difficult for some people's bodies to digest.

9. Certain drugs. Some drugs prescribed by doctors may cause diarrhea as a side effect. For example, the anti-cholesterol drug Zetia, Vytorin (another anti-cholesterol drug which happens to contain Zetia), most antibiotics (which kill the beneficial flora in the gut, etc. Doctors don't always warn you about the side effects of drugs they prescribe, so be sure to research anything your doctor wants you to take.

10. Bacteria & viruses & parasites. Stuff like e coli, norovirus, salmonella, botulism, amoebas. Drinking a stiff cup of vinegar can rid you of amoebas. Most of the others will run their course in a few days.

11. Too much alcohol. This can also cause acid reflux.

Hi Amy! I suffer from Fibromyalgia, which has many of the same symptoms you are describing. Not that I am trying to diagnose you, only a doctor can do that, but I think there are things that everyone with fatigue issues can do to help themselves out.
First of all, if I get 10 hrs of sleep in a night, I feel like crap for the rest of the day. I have to get no more and no less than 8. I also have to have an extremely precise sleep schedule from which I can't deviate. I go to bed at 1 and get up at 9 every single day. I also don't let myself nap unless I am completely exhausted, because oftentimes that'll mean I can't sleep at night. I seriously think that anything above 9 hrs is probably more than we need. Too much sleep can leave you sluggish and feeling awful.
If I can stand it/ if I have time, the first thing I do when I get up is do some yoga or pilates. If I skip this step in my routine I feel pretty nasty. It always helps to get daily exercise and I've found I feel best when I can do it in the morning.
I used to try to mitigate my fatigue with coffee and sugary food. I still can't say I'm off sugar, but I feel better when I have less of it, and I have stopped drinking coffee habitually too-- both of these things have helped me a lot.
I have to eat little snacks throughout the day or I feel like I'm going to die. I'm not hypoglycemic (I've been tested), but whatever, I have to do what works for me. Nuts are great for this because you can carry them around in a purse and they have a good amount of protein. I also can't eat too much at once or I feel like poo (what I call "food coma" sets in). Small meals and small snacks seem to be a good way to go for the chronically fatigued.
Drink tons of water, and if you feel lightheaded, try having water with a salty snack like pretzels. I like drinking Emergen-C, it's a powdered drink you add to water with tons of Vitamin C and B-vitamin complexes. If you have pain issues you could try the one with glucosamine and chondroitin. (sp?)
Go see a doctor. If they tell you it's just stress, go see a different doctor. There are lots of therapies emerging for CFS and FMS, so if you have one of these syndromes you shouldn't deprive yourself of treatment. It's possible that you're just having a bad year for some reason, or you might have something else that is sapping your resources. My roommate had very similar sounding symptoms, esp. with the GI discomfort, and it was because she had an infection of her GI tract for about a year an a half. She went on antibiotics and now she's doing much better. I guess the point is, there is some reason you feel like shit. Don't let a doctor tell you it's all mental if you know it's not. Find someone that will figure out what you need to do to help yourself and who cares enough about their patients to be thorough with tests.
Good luck. I hope you feel better soon.

Wow. Thanks everyone. I was thinking I'd get a smattering of interest. Please keep them coming! I'm going to make another dr. appointment, but I wanted to get some ideas and support first. It feels like such a waste to go see the dr (again), run the same tests (again) and have everything come back "normal" (again). I'm not getting the "You're just making it up, woman" vibe from my dr at all, but I just feel frustrated. But it sounds like I'm not the only one. So thanks again.

My dad has sleep apena, so I have some experience with that, but I don't think that's it. I sleep soundly through the night and don't snore or fidget or do any of the things he did because he couldn't breathe. I do have a looooooong family history of thyroid, although thus far I seem to be the only one who has escaped it, despite having all the symptoms (dr said if anything my level leans towards hyperactive, though I'm tired and cold all the time). Anyone know more about that? Can you have hypothyroid but not show it in blood tests?

Hyperglycemia and wheat allergy is also in the family, though glucose tolerance tests have always been fine (I used to have them done regularly, b/c of family history--maybe I should try that again). My mom's pushing food allergies, but I live in fear of inheriting her long list and having to give up everything but rice. Dr. thought, if it were food allergies, then my stomach (IB) would flare up after meals, but it's only in the morning. Anyone know otherwise?

One thought regarding your IBS - if your particular symptoms of it include diarrhea, then that could be contributing to your fatigue due to loss of electrolytes. If you have an attack, immediately eat something containing electrolytes such as a banana (or dried banana chips) or some saltine crackers, and see if they make you feel better. Also, AVOID fatty foods such as anything deep-fat fried (breaded shrimp, French fries, etc) for at least 48 hours after a diarrhea attack, because when the gut is sensitive, fatty foods will make it worse. (This is a tip from my mother-in-law, who is a physician, and I have found it to be excellent advice.)

When your IBS acts up, be sure to drink LOTS of fluids, especially ones without caffeine or sweeteners. Dehydration can be caused by IBS, and it can make you feel fatigued. Good items to drink are water, sparkling water, milk (if you're not lactose-intolerant), herbal teas that don't contain anything laxative-y, unsweetened cranberry juice (there's a brand called "Just Cranberry"), etc.

Just want to say thanks for all who posted about this. I have been having exhaustion issues as well.

Among all these other good advices, there is one more.

Is your bed good?
If your bed is too old and it's not even it can realy mess with your sleep. I'm sleeping in a new bed for last two days and I feel much better.
If your spine is not helathy, your body can not be healthy.
There must be some energy blockage.

And yes, take care that you are eathing healthy stuff, not smoking, coffee drinking and bla bla bla...

See a psychiatrist and get checked for depression or bi-polar depression or SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Im always tired too but it runs in my family. So does depression but... im not a depressed person.... at least... i don't THINK i am! I think Im always tired cause i don't enjoy my work, and i find most daily activities (except dancing) tedious. lol

I'm not sure if any one has mentioned this or not but, you might want to try Omega-3 and a B Complex vitamin. Also, you could look into Ayurveda. You see, everyone has a different dosha (body type) and that dosha can get unbalanced if you aren't eating the right foods and such. I suffered from depression and I tried to do both of these things, even though I did NOT want to do them. I am a Vata Kapha, when my Kapha got unbalanced I got sluggish and depressed. You can use this kink to find your dosha: www.balanceayurvedic.com/index.cfm

I hope this helps.

I actually have the exact same problem. have had it for years. it started in highschool. has gotten even worse now that i'm a mother. I haven't seen a doctor yet, though. i'm afraid of what they'll tell me. suppose i should though. everyone's responses are providing a good bit of info though and may push me to see a doctor. glad you made this post. i did recently start taking vitamins and although it's boosted my metabolism (have lost a few lbs.), i still feel really sleepy all day long.

I had a similiar situation working against me years ago and after trying tons of herbs and vitamins on my own I finally saw a practioner and found something that worked. I went to see an Ayurvedic practioner who recommended a modified diet and some digestive herbs. It was so effective, and I highly recommend getting an Ayurvedic consultation. Visit www.bazaarofindia.com or www.ayurvedacollege.com to find a near by practioner.

I thought I'd give an update. After all your help and suggestions, I decided to use Occam's razor and try for something that explains the tired and the GI troubles, so I looked up food allergies (my mom has lots) and intolerances (I can't have lactose), and decided to cut out gluten. After two weeks, I felt noticably better, even staying up way past my bedtime, rather than my usual collapse-in-a-heap by 9 pm. Saturday, I ate a whole lot o' gluten to make sure it wasn't a coincidence, and I felt awful all day Sunday. Now, I've still got some more researching to do--when I cut out gluten, I ended up cutting out all yeast, so maybe yeast was really it (my mom's allergic to yeast). And I still didn't feel 100%, so either I didn't go long enough, or there's some other thing going on. But I feel so much better (well, not today--definately coming down with a cold today ;o) so I thought I would pass the info along.

oh my god . I am EXACTLY like you Amy. im so glad you posted this.

I'd like posting a follow-up to this old topic. Thanks to all of your wonderful support and suggestions. Last February, I cut gluten out of my diet, per some of your suggestions. I can't believe that a difference that made! Within two weeks, my energy was up, I felt healthier, and my stomach felt better. It's now my 1 year anniversary gluten-free (can't believe how time flies...) and I feel like a different person. I don't know how I muddled through before... Thanks to all!

Well, I'm not sure I have much anything helpful to add after all these great, informative posts, but ...

I was dead tired, for months on end, years ago. Couldn't figure it out. Thought it was my diet, sleep problems, too much stress, etc. Finally got some thyroid blood tests. (This was back in '98.) TSH was too high, but the problem was, the regular doctors--M.D.'s--and people at Kaiser thought it was in the "normal range." It wasn't. I had the good sense to mention it to my physician assistant who also works as an acupuncturist. She said they needed to do two more tests and that a 5.0 TSH was too high. The test for anti-thyroid antibodies came back very abnormally high, and the free T3 levels too low. Tah-dah: autoimmune thyroid disease. Horrible fatigue. They put me on Armour thyroid and within three weeks I felt 80% better.

Just a thought. I realize that diet, esp if you have food allergies and/or gluten sensitivity, and adrenal problems (common w/ thyroid disease), fatigue can be exacerbated. Excess sugar and caffeine really do cause problems, too. But fatigue is a complicated symptom and can have more than one cause. Keep searching, and I hope you land upon the answers and feel better soon!

Just a thought, but it could have something to do with energy as well, sometimes bad energies or spirits can enter our feild and cling on, and are associated, if not cause some of the problems people have health-wise. Shamanic healings can help, many massage therapists or acutuncturists have knowledge in that study as well, and might be able to do something for you.

It sounds like you have adrenal fatigue....comes from cumlative stress. ...I have tried taking Nature's Plus DMAE with Phosphotidylsterine complex, Gugglipid, Vit. E and Selenium... and it has been a godsend...it helps you reach deep sleep (which is when your body is actually able to repair itself) instead of shallow sleep, which accomplishes very little (which is why you can sleep for 10 hrs without feeling rested).
Hope this helps!