Why Do We Still Feel Tired after a Full Night’s Sleep?

Getting a full-night sleep is often a struggle for people living at a fast pace. But sometimes the case is, we still feel tired after 8 hours of sleep. The usual explanation may be that we need more rest than the average, but it is also likely that we feel tired because of low-quality sleep. In fact, what we do before sleeping can have a great influence on our sleep quality.

Addiction to electronics: This may be the most common reason why we don’t sleep well. The artificial light emitted by digital devices can restrain the composition and secretion of melatonin, a kind of hormone that helps improve sleep. It makes our brain to wrongly associate it with daylight and therefore keeps us active.

Too much caffeine before bed: caffeinated drinks like coffee, tea or even some sugary drinks (such as cola) will keep us alert during the day, but because caffeine says in our body for hours after we have had the drink, it is recommended to drink at least three hours before bedtime.

Exercising late in the day: Similar to caffeinated drinks, exercise works the best only in a good time. In most cases, proper exercise during the day will surely help improve sleep quality, but our sleep will be affected if we exercise too late. Intense physical activity before sleep can raise our adrenaline levels, increase our heart rate and our core body temperature, which altogether makes it hard to enter the phase of restorative sleep.

Wrong or frequent waking up: When we sleep, we go through five 90-minute sleep cycles alternating between non-REM and REM – the former is also known as quiescent sleep and the latter refers to the time when we have dreams. Waking during non-REM will make us feel attentive during the daytime. However, waking in the middle of REM will lead to sleepiness.

Of course, the reasons listed above cannot cover all. If none of these reasons is the culprit of your sleepiness, you may have to consider if you have health issues such as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, which causes you to wake up multiple times during the night, and Narcolepsy, which causes you to feel extremely sleepy throughout the day and wakeful during the night. It is highly recommended to contact the physician immediately if you find yourself suffering from one of these sleep disorders.