“I’m tired.”

“I’m exhausted.”

“I need a nap, then I’ll feel better.”

I hear this all the time and I used to be just like everyone else believing that there was only two reasons for being tired and there was only one solution to that tired.

Tired From Lack Of Sleep

This is the kind of tired most people think of when they feel their energy dragging. They think they need sleep.

If you don’t get the amount of sleep you need you will develop a sleep debt and the only way to fix this is to catch up by sleeping.

Tired From Extreme Exertion

For most of us, this is actually rare. After a marathon you will be tired. After walking up a flight a stairs you probably aren’t really exhausted unless you are sick.

If you have just finished a very hard workout to the point of exhaustion, then you may need sleep or you may need food to replace what you have lost. Often you just need to rest – exert yourself minimally – food and water.

Tired From Low Blood Sugar

Another reason your energy level may drop and make you feel tired is that you had a bunch of sugar or simple carbohydrates about 30 minutes ago and your body just dumped a bunch of insulin into your blood.

You use sugar to fuel your immediate actions. When you eat a meal with sugar, or simple carbohydrates, a bunch of sugar gets into your blood stream. At some point your body goes, “OMG THERE’S TOO MUCH SUGAR.” Then it drops insulin into your blood to take that sugar and store it.

If the sugar you eat is slow to get in your system when your body has too much sugar it can release insulin slowly and balance your blood sugar to your needs.

But if you dump sugar fast into your blood stream, you body has to react just as fast and dumps insulin into your blood stream. Unfortunately it sends too much, which then removes every bit of sugar/energy from your blood and you crash.

If you are having a sugar crash, what do you do? Really there isn’t much. You have to wait until your system gets some sugar from its stores to balance things out. The real solution is to only eat slow carbs in the first place.

Tired From Lack of Movement

Ever felt tired, but couldn’t sleep? You lay down to take a nap and can’t sleep but you are so tired you don’t feel like doing anything else and your brain is wrapped in cotton?

This is what I call, slow body tired. Basically you haven’t done anything and your body decides it doesn’t have any reason to do anything. It doesn’t want to sleep because it doesn’t need sleep.

The solution to this kind of tired is exercise. Seems strange but really it is the most common solution to being tired. Go do something physical. Wake your body up.

This also can help with sugar crash tired as well because it makes your metabolism start working and cleans out your body faster.

So next time you feel tired, think about what kind of tired you are before you just try and take a nap.