Many factors may explain why your anxiety is making you tired. The most common ones include the following:. The main reason has to do with the crash you feel after your adrenaline runs out.

The official name for this phenomenon is adrenal fatigue. Anxiety is like being on high alert. Your body is preparing you to fight or flee; and so it is flooded with energy so that you can respond to a threat. Then, when that adrenaline runs its course, your body goes through a crash that can leave you feeling drained.

Some of that tiredness is entirely mental simply because your brain — like a muscle — can run out of strength. Anxiety is linked to ongoing, stressful thoughts and an overactive brain. It taxes your cognitive capacities, leading to a drain on your ability to think and react. It also increases your emotional load due to distressing thoughts , which means you end up emotionally and mentally drained.

So it should come as no surprise that all those thoughts make your body tired to the point that it wants you to rest.

Becoming tired is sometimes a coping mechanism that your body uses to prevent you from experiencing severe stress. Tiredness motivates you to take a break and rest rather than exposing yourself to more anxiety, which could become even more overwhelming.

Do you often nap during the day? Napping can help you overcome fatigue and reduce anxiety, making it a useful habit in many ways.

But too much napping makes it harder to sleep at night, which in turn may increase your anxiety. Naps should ideally last less than 20 minutes to avoid sleep difficulties at night. Many people with severe stress and anxiety also develop serious problems sleeping, for instance, difficulty falling asleep, nocturnal waking waking up at night without realizing it , and reduced quality of sleep.

All of this contributes to an overall lack of sleep, which causes tiredness. Finally, anxiety can cause temporary or full depression, especially after an anxiety attack. Depression is linked to a huge loss of energy; and that makes it extremely hard to stay alert throughout the day. If you struggle with depression, it may also be worth speaking with someone to see if you qualify for a diagnosis of major depression, for which treatment might be necessary.

Finally, the most important change to make is to prioritize reducing your anxiety. Tiredness is much easier to prevent than it is to stop. The less intense your anxiety is, the less tired you should feel. Anxiety not only causes feelings of tiredness as a symptom - it also causes changes to how your body operates that can make you genuinely sleepy.

Often times, the solution involves simply getting rest, as your body is telling you it is tired because it needs to recharge after a day of struggling with anxiety. If the goal is to be less tired, then the only way is going to be to reduce anxiety and its symptoms. You can ask your doctor for a referral to a psychologist or other mental health professional who uses relaxation techniques to help patients.

Not all psychologists or other mental health professionals are knowledgeable about these techniques, though. Training varies by the type of technique that they use. Some people also buy CDs and DVDs on progressive muscle relaxation and allow the audio to guide them through the process.

Women are also twice as likely to have generalized anxiety disorder than men, and the disorder commonly occurs alongside major depression.

When someone is feeling anxious , part of their sympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive. Your body carries blood away from your digestive system and toward your muscles in case you need to run or fight.

It also increases your heart rate and heightens your senses. While these effects would be helpful in the case of a true threat, they can be debilitating if the fear is all in your head. Some research from even suggests that people with anxiety disorders are not able to reduce their arousal as quickly as people without anxiety disorders.

This means they may feel the effects of anxiety for a longer period of time. Becoming easily fatigued is another potential symptom of generalized anxiety disorder. This symptom can be surprising to some, as anxiety is commonly associated with hyperactivity or arousal.

For some, fatigue can follow an anxiety attack, while others may feel fatigue almost all the time. It is important to note that fatigue can also be a sign of depression or other medical conditions, so fatigue alone is not enough to diagnose an anxiety disorder.

A study of adults with generalized anxiety disorder found that almost 90 percent reported having difficulty concentrating. It also found that more intense anxiety was linked to more trouble concentrating.

Some studies show that anxiety can interrupt working memory , which is responsible for holding short-term information. This may help explain the dramatic decrease in performance people often experience during periods of high anxiety.

However, difficulty concentrating can also be a symptom of other medical conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD or depression, so difficulty concentrating is not enough evidence to diagnose an anxiety disorder. According to a study of adolescents in the United States, there is a direct link between anxiety disorders and irritability.

Compared with self-reported worriers, young and middle-aged adults with generalized anxiety disorder reported more than twice as much irritability in their day-to-day lives.

People with an anxiety disorder may find themselves waking up in the middle of the night and having trouble falling asleep. Some studies suggest that people with insomnia are 10 to 17 times more likely to develop further mental health conditions such as anxiety.

What is known is that if a person treats their underlying anxiety disorder, insomnia often improves as well. Panic disorder is another type of anxiety disorder in which a person may experience recurring panic attacks. Panic attacks produce an intense, overwhelming sensation of fear that can be debilitating.

Panic attacks can happen as isolated occurrences, but they may be a sign of panic disorder if they occur frequently and unexpectedly. You may be showing signs of social anxiety disorder if you find yourself:.

Social anxiety disorder is very common, affecting 5 to 10 percent of people worldwide. Social anxiety tends to develop early in life. In fact, the average age of people with a social anxiety disorder is 13, while around 90 percent of people diagnosed with social anxiety disorder receive their diagnosis by age People with social anxiety may appear extremely shy and quiet in groups or when meeting new people.

While they may not appear distressed on the outside, they may feel extreme fear and anxiety. Extreme fears about specific things — such as spiders, enclosed spaces, or heights — could be a sign of a phobia. A phobia is an extreme anxiety or fear about a specific object or situation.

The feeling is severe enough that it interferes with your ability to function normally. Some common phobias include:.

Agoraphobia is another phobia that involves fears of at least two of the following:. Around These phobias tend to develop in childhood or the teenage years.

If you feel anxious on most days and experience one or more of the symptoms listed above for at least 6 months, it may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. Licensed psychologists and psychiatrists can treat anxiety disorders through a variety of methods.

Treatment often includes cognitive behavioral therapy , anti-anxiety medications, or some of the natural therapies listed above.

Working with a professional can help you manage your anxiety and reduce your symptoms as quickly and safely as possible. Read our review of the best online therapy options to find the right fit for you.

One of the most common symptoms is excessive and intrusive worrying that disrupts daily functioning. Other signs include:. Recurring panic attacks may indicate panic disorder, fearing and avoiding social situations could point to social anxiety disorder, and extreme phobias could be a sign of specific phobia disorders.

Regardless of which type of anxiety you may have, you can use many natural solutions to help relieve it while working with a licensed healthcare professional. Read this article in Spanish. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

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