5. Chronic fatigue
This baffling condition causes a strong fatigue that comes on quickly. People who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) feel too tired to carry on with their normal activities and are easily exhausted with little exertion.
Other signs include headache, muscle and joint pain, weakness, tender lymph nodes, and an inability to concentrate. Chronic fatigue syndrome remains puzzling because it has no known cause.
There are no tests for this. Your doctor must rule out other conditions with similar symptoms, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis, before making the diagnosis.
Unfortunately, there is no approved medicinal cure for chronic fatigue. Self-care, antidepressants, talk therapy, or joining a support group may help.
6. Sleep apnea
You could have this sleep-disrupting problem if you wake up feeling tired no matter how much rest you think you got. Sleep apnea symptoms include brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. In the most common type, obstructive sleep apnea, your upper airway actually closes or collapses for 10 seconds or more, which prevents your brain from going into deeper stages of sleep like the REM stage. Someone with obstructive sleep apnea may stop breathing dozens or even hundreds of times a night, says Roseanne S. Barker, M.D., former medical director of the Baptist Sleep Institute in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Sleep apnea is often signaled by snoring and is generally followed by tiredness the next day. Because sleep apnea can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke, it’s important to be tested.
Your doctor may refer you to a sleep specialist who may want to perform a sleep study either at home or in a lab. This may involve an overnight stay at a sleep clinic, where you’ll undergo a polysomnogram, which is a painless test that will monitor your sleep patterns, breathing changes, and brain activity.
If you’re diagnosed with sleep apnea, you may be prescribed a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) device, a mask that fits over your nose and/or mouth and blows air into your airways while you sleep.