Fatigue and Excessive Sleepiness
Tiredness and sleepiness is not a symptom that defines any one particular disease. Rather, it can be a symptom of many different diseases and conditions. Causes range from lack of sleep and over exercise to medical and surgical treatments. The lack of energy can sometimes cause difficulty with normal daily activities, leading to problems with attentiveness and concentration.
Fatigue is a lingering feeling of tiredness that is constant and limiting. With fatigue, you have unexplained, persistent, and relapsing exhaustion. It's similar to how you feel when you have the flu or have missed a lot of sleep. If you have chronic fatigue, or systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID), you may wake in the morning feeling as though you haven’t slept. You may be unable to function at work or be productive at home and be too exhausted to manage your daily activities.
Excessive sleepiness is characterized by persistent sleepiness and often a general lack of energy, even after apparently adequate or even prolonged night time sleep. In most cases, there's a reasonable explanation for the fatigue and sleepiness. It might be a condition such as allergic rhinitis (nasal problem), anaemia (a deficiency of red blood cells or haemoglobin in the blood, resulting in tiredness), <fibromyalgia> (a disorder causing muscular pain and fatigue) <depression> or some other health condition.
When the fatigue and sleepiness doesn’t go away for long periods of time, it may be chronic fatigue syndrome or any of a number of sleeping disorders such as <sleep apnea> or <narcolepsy>.
