How To Not Be Tired & Have More Energy During The Day

We all get tired from time to time during the day. Between daily demands and the occasional restless night, it’s easy to become tired or fatigued. Some days it may seem that you’re so busy that you don’t have any time between activities. At the end of those days, you know exactly why you’re tired.

At other times, you may not know exactly why you’re feeling tired, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re feeling low on energy and wishing you had a little more. 

Suppose your tiredness seems excessive or becoming more frequent. In that case, it may be time to talk to your healthcare provider to rule out any underlying issues that are making you feel so worn down, especially if your tiredness is negatively impacting your daily life. 

Pay attention to your body. Report to your healthcare provider if you have these signs along with your fatigue:

• Fever
• Headaches
• Unexplained pain 

Having more energy during the day may help to look at what’s making you tired. Then, you can decide what you need to do to have more energy during the day.

Why Are You Tired? 

We can get tired during the day for different reasons on different days. Some of the most common reasons for being tired and not having enough energy during the day include:

• Poor diet
• Lack of sleep  
• Daytime sleepiness or drowsiness
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Stress
• Vitamin deficiency
• Dehydration
• Being emotionally unwell
• Medications
• Underlying illness
• Metabolic disruptions
  
  

Examine your life. If you’re tired more often than not, how many reasons do you have to be tired during the day? Is there something you can do about it on your own to help ensure that you’ll have more energy during the day in the future?

How To Have More Energy During The Day 

If you’re tired during the day, you may feel the urge to reach for your trusted caffeine, but here are some ways to have more energy that doesn’t require you to reach for an afternoon coffee.

Eat a Healthy, Balanced Diet 

The foods we eat can boost our energy levels naturally. A diet rich in fresh foods from various food groups that contain essential vitamins, such as fruits and vegetables, can give you the energy you’ve been looking for that you couldn’t find lately. 

Some of the following foods could benefit your overall health:

• Sweet potatoes
• Spinach
• Healthy fats like peanut butter
• Yogurt
• Healthy snacks like celery sticks
  
  

Combining unrefined carbs and proteins can give you sustained energy levels that will last throughout the day. A healthy diet can also help keep blood sugar levels from spiking and bottoming out when you eat at regular intervals.

You don’t need a perfect diet to reap the benefits of a healthy, balanced one. There can still be room for fun, quick, easy, comfort foods. The overall goal is to give you sustained, improved energy throughout the day on most days.

Exercise Regularly

It’s hard to find a reason not to exercise regularly. Exercise helps our bodies in so many ways, and adults-only need about 30 minutes of activity per day to experience benefits from exercise. One of the benefits of exercise is increased energy.

It may seem counterintuitive to do more to have more energy, but one of the reasons you could be tired is because you aren’t exercising. Exercise can also improve your sleep which can, in turn, improve your energy levels.

Sedentary lifestyles can make us feel sad, and we can even start to make it feel difficult to move and cause aches and pains. This creates a loop of inactivity, and we end up feeling more tired.

A heavy workload could have you sitting for most of the day, and in turn, you may feel more tired than you think you should be. 

Try to start with short walks. Set reminders to get up from your desk to move about a little throughout the day. A few short five-minute walks throughout the day would still equal thirty minutes of activity, and you could still start to notice the energy that a little extra movement can give you. 

Stay Hydrated 

Staying properly hydrated by drinking enough water can also help your energy levels at their optimum level. Improving your hydration can lead to higher energy levels and reduce the negative impact that low hydration levels can cause, such as increased cramps and dry mouth.

Staying hydrated can also help keep you more alert throughout the day, and you may experience less brain fog when you’re properly hydrated. Our bodies rely on water, and it is a key component in our composition. It’s important that we sustain our water intake.

It’s recommended that we get about eight cups of water per day, but it doesn’t have to solely come from straight water. There’s water in the beverages we consume like coffee, tea, and sparkling waters, and those count towards your eight cup goal. 

Limit Caffeine 

Caffeine can boost energy, sharpen our focus, and improve productivity in short bursts. However, caffeine has its limits. Lowering the amount of caffeine you consume can eventually give you more energy. 

Caffeine reminds us that what goes up must inevitably come down. Caffeine’s initial boost of energy is great, but the crash afterward can leave you feeling more tired than you were to begin with, and can lead to energy crashes as a side effect.

Additionally, consuming caffeine late in the day can make it difficult to sleep at night, and difficulty sleeping may only make you more tired during the day.

In addition to avoiding coffee and energy drinks, alcohol can also have a negative effect on your sleep health. 

Sleep Away the Tiredness

If you’re tired, maybe you should get some sleep. What a novel concept, right? However, many people think they’re getting enough sleep and don’t realize that the time it takes for them to fall asleep and the times they wake during sleep add up to mean they’re getting less sleep. 

If you have ever hit a midday slump, then you have probably taken a nap to get an energy boost. While naps can help, nothing beats a restful night of sleep at bedtime. 

To avoid being tired during the day, you may need to address the quality of sleep you’re getting at night. Here are some small lifestyle changes on how you can improve your sleep quality:

• Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night
• Establish a sleep schedule (This can help regulate sleep cycles)
• Sleep in a space that’s dark, cool, quiet, and comfortable
• Consider a natural supplement if you struggle to fall asleep
• Turn off or put away your devices a couple of hours before sleep, as blue light can affect your sleep
• Set an alarm clock to avoid oversleeping
  
  

When you prioritize your sleep schedule and the quality of your sleep, your rest will improve, and your energy during the hours you are awake should improve as well.

Manage Your Stress 

Uncontrolled amounts of stress are enough to zap the energy from people with the healthiest lifestyle. Stress causes responses in the body that put our bodies on alert. 

The body releases adrenaline and cortisol to help prepare itself for what is to come, but when the stress never seems to dissipate and allow for calmness to return to the body, our muscles get tired from the tension along with the rest of our bodies.

Learning to manage stress can help calm your body. A calm body can rest, and a calm body feels less tired. If stress is causing you to feel tired during the day and stealing your energy, it may be time for a self-evaluation.

Do you need to say “no” to a few projects? Do you need to take a break? Would time management skills help reduce self-imposed stress in your life?

Stress is a normal part of everyone’s life, but when we are in a constant state of stress or stressed out too frequently, stress can choke our energy. Managing your stress can help you feel less tired. 

Teach Yourself How To Relax 

Just like stress can keep us tense and leave us feeling exhausted, never fully relaxing and letting go can do the same thing. Not setting aside time to get proper rest can lead to poor sleep.

Learning to unwind fully can do wonders for both your mental and physical well-being. 

If relaxing is unfamiliar to you, consider trying some deep breathing techniques to slow your heartbeat, oxygenate your blood while you’re in a calm state, and quiet your mind to help you rest and restore.

Some other techniques to try to help you fully relax are:

• Yoga
• Meditation 
• Journaling 
• Take a brisk walk outside
• Warm relaxing bath
• Drink some peppermint tea
  
  

Not everyone is calmed by the same things, but finding what helps you unwind can really help you feel more rested and have more energy overall. 

Summary

You could be tired and low on energy throughout the day for several reasons, but thankfully, there are things we can do to improve our energy levels naturally to give ourselves a boost. 

Improving diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management are great ways to ensure you have enough energy throughout the day.

Sources:

Carbohydrates and Blood Sugar | The Nutrition Source | Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health 

You could feel tired because you aren't exercising | williamsonmedicalcenter.org 

Stress and Insomnia | sleepfoundation.org