About half of Americans report feeling tired during the day for three or more days out of the week.
Fortunately, making a few lifestyle changes can help you to naturally increase your energy levels and improve your overall health.
1. Get More Sleep
While it might sound obvious, improving your sleep habits is crucial for enhancing your energy levels.
The CDC estimates that as many as 35 percent of Americans fail to get the recommended seven hours of sleep each night.
Sadly, sleep deprivation can sap your energy levels and lead to fatigue.
That being said, getting good sleep is essential for increased energy levels and better stamina.
Here are a few tips that might help:
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Go to bed and wake up around the same time each day to regulate your circadian rhythm
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Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and comfortable
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Put your electronics away an hour before bed
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Don’t drink caffeine past midday and limit alcohol close to bedtime
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Try taking a bath or reading a book to help you wind down and relax
If you follow these steps and are still having trouble sleeping, it could mean that you’re living with a sleep disorder. You may want to speak to your doctor about sleep apnea, insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and other medical conditions.
2. Learn To Relax
Stress and anxiety can have a significant effect on your physical health, and can contribute to issues like erectile dysfunction and severe fatigue.
Taking steps to reduce your stress and anxiety levels might help you feel more energized. Here are a few methods that have been shown to help relieve stress.
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Physical exercise helps support the release of endorphins in your brain to reduce stress and anxiety. Even a simple walk can help clear your head and combat chronic fatigue.
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Meditation is a healthy habit that helps silence intrusive or stressful thoughts. With enough practice, you can remain calm during challenging times.
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Laughing is a natural stress reliever. Joking around with loved ones, watching a comedy, or seeing a comedian can all help you lower your stress levels.
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Yoga is a combination of physical and mental meditation. It can help you to relax your mind and body while combating low energy.
3. Eat a Balanced Diet
Your body relies on three essential macronutrients to function: protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
When your diet contains too many (or too few) of these nutrients, your energy levels suffer.
For instance, eating too much pasta and not enough protein or fat will slow down your digestion and raise your blood sugar levels. This can zap your energy and make you feel sluggish and off.
Here are a few tips for eating a balanced diet and potentially increasing your energy levels:
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Eat at least five servings of vegetables every day: Vegetables are an excellent source of carbohydrates, which are easily broken down and converted into energy.
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Try whole grains and complex carbs whenever possible: Try to reduce your consumption of refined grains and starchy foods, which have very little nutritional value. Instead, focus on whole grain products like brown rice and oatmeal.
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Eat at least two servings of oily fish each week: Fish is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and lean proteins, nutrients that support increased energy.
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Avoid saturated fat as much as possible: While some fats are essential to your health, saturated fat and trans fats are not. Limit your intake of these fats as much as you can.
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Drink at least eight glasses of fluids every day: Dehydration comes with many side effects, including erectile dysfunction and extreme fatigue. Drinking water can help you stay hydrated and energized.
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Limit added sugar: Added sugar (sugar that doesn’t occur naturally in fruit or dairy) may give you a quick energy spike, but that energy fades quickly and depletes you. For that reason, limit your intake of sugary foods like pie, cake, and ice cream.
4. Exercise More Often
In addition to improving your overall health, physical activity can help you boost and maintain your energy levels. In a study, subjects who participated in a six-week exercise program saw improvements in overall fatigue levels, quality of sleep, and cognitive function.
Here are a few simple exercises that can help increase your energy:
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Walking: An easy cardiovascular exercise with immense benefits. Try to maintain a brisk pace while also engaging your core and maintaining good posture.
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Yoga: An excellent form of exercise that doesn’t require additional equipment or a special location.
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Jumping jacks, crunches, and push-ups: Quick exercises that can give you a boost of energy that sustains for several hours.
5. Cut Out Bad Habits
Reducing your consumption of chemical substances can reduce feelings of fatigue. Here are a few substances you should consider limiting or cutting out entirely.
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Smoking can impact your lungs’ ability to transport oxygen throughout your body. This can cause you to become tired more easily.
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Alcohol can make you fall asleep faster, but it greatly disrupts the quality of your sleep in the process. A regular sleep cycle requires a slow transition through various stages of rest. With alcohol-induced sleep, you skip some of these steps, and are unable to get the deep, restful sleep you need to feel energized and productive.
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Caffeine is known for its energy-boosting benefits – but it can actually contribute to the issues it’s used to treat. It blocks certain receptors in your brain that tell your body that it needs rest. While this can be helpful in the moment, it can dramatically throw off your sleep schedule.
How Rex MD Can Help
Life is tough enough without constantly feeling fatigued. Making a few lifestyle changes can help to improve your health and boost your energy levels. Let the experts at Rex MD explain how you can boost your energy.
Keep in mind, you don’t have to adopt all of these changes at once. Start with one or two!
As your energy levels increase, you can start adopting even more changes, and feel like a better, more energetic version of yourself.
