Why am I always tired?

OP
Lil-Rokslider
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Not to go back to pooping, but is there a way of knowing how we interact with caffeine and our bowls?


I'm a one cup a day person, usually in first half hour. Won't have caffeine past 4pm, usually do t have much outside of that cup in the morning.

Coffee tends to hit my guts hard, why I do t have more than the 1 cup.
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Steve O

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I know it helps me poo in the morning, but I have not looked into the specific effects on the bowels. I'm pretty sure it stimulates smooth muscle contractions (smooth muscle is what moves things through our guts). Like with most everything, there will be individual variation in response, and it sounds like you already know how caffeine interacts with your bowls.

Many years ago I worked midnight shift, was newly married and was drinking tons of coffee. It was not helping me stay up at night, just wrecking my sleep in the daytime. I quit cold turkey and didn’t have coffee for years. Hot water had the exact same effect on my “bowels” as did the coffee. I don’t think it is the caffeine that helps get things moving in there.
 
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There are some obvious reasons. I've got 5 kids under 8. I'm a farrier. I crossfit at 6 AM most days. And I understand that those are generally good reasons for a person to be tired. However, I need a better answer.

I'm 36 years old. I eat healthy and balanced meals. I usually get 7-8 hours of good sleep per night. I drink tons of water. I'm happy and satisfied with life and marriage (not depression). But I'm exhausted every dang day. Even on a Saturday, when I sleep in and don't workout, I'm ready for a nap by 11 AM. And if I do nap, which is rare, I can sleep for like 2 hours, and then be ready for bed by 8:30 that night.

I've had people tell me that it's just part of getting older, or part of raising kids. But I want a better answer. I have lots of friends in the same stage of life, with a similar lifestyle, that aren't as tired as me.

Anybody else out there that's extra sleepy? Better yet, anybody that used to be and has discovered some solutions or lifestyle changes that helped?
There isn’t a harder job on the planet than being a farrier. I tack one shoe on and it’s like I’ve been working 12+ hours
 

Muddler

Lil-Rokslider
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Nov 5, 2019
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I've heard people talk about the cold plunge. What's the science behind why that gives a person more energy?
I don't recall if the exact mechanism has been determined, but I believe it's thought that working out after a cold plunge and forcing your body to warm up has an effect on hormones and causes testosterone to increase. There's only been a small number of studies on cold plunge before working out, and of course I can't find the one I'm thinking of right now, that shows high levels of T when doing this. There is also some anecdotal evidence of some ppl on the internet (bloggers, influencers, etc) who say their T levels are now higher after doing the cold plunge/work out routine. I haven't done any T testing before or after mainly because I'm cheap and I also can't find a Dr who isn't stuck in the 1950's medical mindset and has no interest in running any test beyond the most basic metrics.

There has been a good number of studies showing that doing cold plunge post exercise blunts hypertrophy and has little to no effect on T. IIRC, the hypertrophy depression is fairly mild and not really concerning for your average joe. If you were trying to win a body building comp, then it's probably not a good idea.
 
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I started a TRT thread on here last year and have been updating it with my experiences being on it. It has been a game changer for me. I recommend getting your testosterone levels checked.
 

NDGuy

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Been dealing with the same thing, I just did a sleep study. Doc gives you a kit to bring home and monitors your O2/HR etc while you sleep.

Will likely test Testosterone/Thyroid after reading comments in here.
 
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I'm 38 and in the same situation from what you are saying. I've been fatigued for a few months now and I think I had Covid through most of February and still have a little lingering effects. I have a pacemaker from contracting Lyme's Disease from a tick bite in 2015. Yesterday during my routine office visit to check on the pacemaker, it showed I had an Afib-type situation on February 3rd for 26 hours and one on Saturday for 7 minutes. I can't confirm the one on Feb. 3rd, but I can confirm the one on Saturday, because I was playing in an alumni basketball game and felt it at the end of the game as we were losing the game and we started pressuring (my heart rate was very high). It concerned my care nurse and we set an appointment for this afternoon with the doctor to look into it. Looking at this thread, I am going to bring up hormones on top of Covid as well as possibly getting Lyme's again from a tick bite from late last summer, which I thought I got off of me in plenty of time. I'm hoping to get blood test done today and hopefully not a big diagnosis. I'll check back in with what I make out.
 

Fire_9

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We eat at 6:30 or 7

If possible, I would bump that up earlier. It's a hard routine to get into but I really think it helps. You want all of your food to be digested before you go to sleep. Otherwise your body is working on digesting the food while you sleep instead of rest/recovery.
 

WoodBow

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Jul 21, 2015
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I feel you. 36 years old with 4 kids, 3 of which are 8 or under. I work long hours and an unpredictable schedule and I commute a minimum of 3 hours M-F, and have done so for 8 years. I try to lift and do cardio regularly. We had a garage with bath and laundry room built and I am doing all of the interior work in the spare time that I don't have. I try to be a good dad and husband. I try to have a life but hobby time seems to have all but disappeared. I'm spread thin, plain and simple.

I turned in my notice a week ago. I just can't keep up this pace any longer. I will make half as much as I was but I will only work 3 days a week and will work 20 mins from home. Being the only bread winner in the household, it was a very stressful decision. But I crunched the numbers and we can still pay our bills, there just won't be much meat left on the bone. The job I'm leaving has a fair bit of stress baked into it. The new job does not. I'm really hoping this change improves how I feel. I don't struggle with being sleepy, but it is very rare for me to not feel tired.

On the topic of cold plunging, I listened to multiple podcasts where it was discussed by scientists. Primarily Andrew Huberman and Shannon Sorenson (i think thats her name). Eventually I heard enough to believe that it was beneficial and I just started doing it. I would struggle to recite any of the benefits to you. I just know that I look forward to it every day (right up until the moment before I get in, which is pure dread usually), and I do feel better overall. I like doing it in the evenings right after supper. I eat, then plunge, then shower, then relax for about an hour before bed.
 

5MilesBack

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When you are on the radar around here, you gotta choose your words.
Best pg explanation I could come up with.
A meme might have worked best here.

The funny thing about coffee for me is I rarely drink it past dinner time. However, if I do......that night is sometimes the best sleep I'll get in weeks. I'll completely sleep through the night without waking. So sometimes I'll have night coffee just so I can get a good sleep.
 
OP
Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jul 22, 2018
Messages
554
Location
Colorado
I feel you. 36 years old with 4 kids, 3 of which are 8 or under. I work long hours and an unpredictable schedule and I commute a minimum of 3 hours M-F, and have done so for 8 years. I try to lift and do cardio regularly. We had a garage with bath and laundry room built and I am doing all of the interior work in the spare time that I don't have. I try to be a good dad and husband. I try to have a life but hobby time seems to have all but disappeared. I'm spread thin, plain and simple.

I turned in my notice a week ago. I just can't keep up this pace any longer. I will make half as much as I was but I will only work 3 days a week and will work 20 mins from home. Being the only bread winner in the household, it was a very stressful decision. But I crunched the numbers and we can still pay our bills, there just won't be much meat left on the bone. The job I'm leaving has a fair bit of stress baked into it. The new job does not. I'm really hoping this change improves how I feel. I don't struggle with being sleepy, but it is very rare for me to not feel tired.

On the topic of cold plunging, I listened to multiple podcasts where it was discussed by scientists. Primarily Andrew Huberman and Shannon Sorenson (i think thats her name). Eventually I heard enough to believe that it was beneficial and I just started doing it. I would struggle to recite any of the benefits to you. I just know that I look forward to it every day (right up until the moment before I get in, which is pure dread usually), and I do feel better overall. I like doing it in the evenings right after supper. I eat, then plunge, then shower, then relax for about an hour before bed.
I believe that will be one of the best decisions you ever make. Work to live, don't live to work.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2016
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738
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Utah
I'm 35, pretty decent shape, not super overweight, pretty active, diet is pretty good, but always tired. Just did a sleep test this week and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Had 59 occurrences in a 6 hour period where I stopped breathing for at least 20 seconds. Longest was 51 seconds. 200 something other occurrences of partial obstruction. I think it's worth checking into.
 
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