Concerns
Tired and drained
You wake up tired, have less energy in the afternoon, and the weekend is no longer enough to catch up. Perhaps you have spoken to your health centre, had tests and been told everything looks normal. Still, you know something is not right.
It is not in your head, and you are not alone. Tiredness is one of the most common reasons people seek care, and one of the hardest to get answers about. Many people who get in touch with us have lived with it for so long that it has started to feel normal.
Does this sound familiar?
- You have been told your tests are normal, but you do not feel well.
- You have tried iron, B12 or other supplements without knowing whether you need them.
- You have been told it is stress, age or the menopause, but not given help to do anything about it.
- There is no time to tell the whole story in a short doctor's appointment.
- You have started to shape your life around the tiredness: fewer workouts, earlier nights, less time with friends.
Why is it so hard to get answers?
Healthcare is good at finding disease. Reference ranges are designed to catch what is clearly abnormal, and a value inside them counts as normal, even when it is borderline. A ferritin just above the limit, for example, counts as normal, although many people with that value are tired.
Tiredness is also linked to sleep, food, stress, hormones and several blood values at the same time. An ordinary doctor's appointment is often short and built to rule out disease, not to go through your whole life. That is not any one doctor's fault, but it leaves many people without answers.
With us, the whole picture gets time. We read your results against both standard reference ranges and optimal ranges, and we go through how you sleep, eat and live before drawing any conclusions.
What happens in the body when you are tired?
For you to have energy, your cells need oxygen, fuel and the right signals. Iron carries oxygen in the blood, B12 and folate are needed to make new red blood cells, and the thyroid sets how fast your cells work. Blood sugar provides steady fuel, and during sleep the body and brain recover.
If one of these falters, it often shows first as tiredness. If two or three falter at the same time, which is common, the tiredness becomes harder to explain and easier to dismiss.
What could be behind it?
In our clinic we rarely see a single cause. More often it is two or three things that together drain your energy, such as low iron, poor sleep and long gaps between meals.
Iron deficiency
Iron stores can be low long before you become anaemic. It is common in women with periods and in people who train a lot.
Read the guide: Iron deficiency →The thyroid
A thyroid that works too slowly often causes tiredness, feeling cold and weight gain.
Read the guide: Thyroid health →Blood sugar
Large swings after meals cause energy dips during the day and sugar cravings in the afternoon.
Read the guide: Blood sugar and diabetes risk →B12, folate and vitamin D
Deficiencies that develop slowly and are easily mistaken for stress.
Read the guide: Vitamin deficiency →Sleep and stress
Sleep apnoea, late nights and long-term stress make sleep less restorative, even when you sleep long enough.
The menopause
Night sweats and changing hormones disturb sleep, and tiredness is one of the most common complaints in perimenopause.
Read the guide: Women's health →A client's story
“I'd been going to doctors for years without getting answers. Wellth finally helped me understand the way I felt and what I could actually do about it. My vitamin D was at 28. Now it's 85 and I sleep better than I have in years.”
What you can do yourself
- Keep the same times for going to sleep and waking up for two weeks, weekends included.
- Eat breakfast with protein and eat regularly, so your blood sugar does not drop in the afternoon.
- Have your coffee before lunch, and none after 2 pm.
- Get outside in daylight for a while every morning, even when it is cloudy.
- Write down how tired you are each day on a scale from 0 to 10, and what you did the day before. The pattern helps both you and the person you see.
- Do not take iron or other supplements at random. Measure first, so you know what you need.
What we look at
Your symptoms and your history
When the tiredness started, how it feels, what you have already tried and which tests you have had before. Bring old results if you have them.
Food, sleep and daily life
What and when you eat, how you sleep, how much you move and what your week looks like. There is often as much of the answer here as in your blood.
Tests with a purpose
We only suggest tests that could change the next step. For tiredness that usually means iron status, the thyroid, blood sugar, B12, folate and vitamin D.
Tests that may be relevant
How it works
Four steps
- 01
Tell us about you
You fill in a health questionnaire about your symptoms, your sleep, what you eat and your daily life.
- 02
Take your blood test
You give a blood sample at a lab near you, in Stockholm or at any of more than 100 sampling locations across Sweden. We help you choose the tests that answer your questions.
- 03
Go through your results
You receive a personal health report and a session with one of our practitioners, and we make a plan together.
- 04
Follow up
We follow how you are getting on and adjust the plan. A new blood test after three to six months shows how your results have changed.
When to get medical help
Contact your health centre soon if you also have any of these:
- You are losing weight without trying.
- You have a fever or sweat a lot at night.
- You get breathless doing things that used to be easy, or have chest pain.
- You have blood in your stool, black stools or unusually heavy bleeding.
- You feel low or have thoughts of harming yourself. Call Mind Självmordslinjen on 90101, or 112 in an emergency.
Call 112 in an emergency. Call 1177 for advice on where to get care.
Frequently asked questions
Can I be this tired even though my tests are normal?
Yes. A value inside the reference range means it is not disease, but it can still be low for you. Tiredness also often comes from sleep, stress and daily life, which do not show in a blood test.
Can the menopause make me this tired?
Yes. Sleep often gets worse in perimenopause, and heavy periods in the same years can lower iron stores. Thyroid problems also become more common at the same age, so it is worth finding out what is actually behind it.
What happens if all my tests are normal?
Then you know what it is not, and that is an answer too. We carry on with sleep, food, stress and what you have told us, and that is often where we find what makes the difference.
Can I continue with my usual care?
Yes. We work alongside your doctor, not instead of them. If anything in your results needs to be looked at by a doctor, we will tell you clearly.
Why am I so tired even though I sleep?
Sleeping enough hours is not the same as sleeping well. Sleep apnoea, waking at night and late or irregular bedtimes all reduce how restorative sleep is. Tiredness that does not lift after rest can also come from low iron stores, an underactive thyroid, low B12 or blood-sugar problems. A blood test can check for all of these.
Why do I get tired after eating?
A small dip in energy after a meal is normal. A strong slump, especially after meals rich in refined carbohydrates, can be a sign that your blood sugar rises and then falls quickly. Markers such as HbA1c and fasting insulin show whether this is part of a wider pattern, such as insulin resistance.
Is it exhaustion disorder or something in my blood?
Exhaustion disorder (utmattningssyndrom) is diagnosed by a doctor after a long period of stress, and there is no blood test for it. Blood tests are still important, because anaemia, thyroid problems and diabetes can cause very similar symptoms and need different treatment. Knowing what your results show helps you and your doctor rule these out.
What is included in a Health Assessment?
A health questionnaire, a personal health report and a short session with one of our practitioners. You add the blood test depending on what you want to look into, and we help you choose. If you have a long-term condition and want to find out whether your diet and lifestyle may be contributing, or you need a referral to our doctor, we also offer longer appointments.
Do I need a referral?
No. You book yourself, and the blood sample is taken at a lab near you. We have sampling locations in Stockholm and at more than 100 places across Sweden.
Would you like help finding out what is behind your tiredness? Read about the Health Assessment →
Read more
Sources
Reviewed by
Wellth Team
Wellth
Our content is written and reviewed by Wellth, and fact-checked against peer-reviewed research and current Swedish clinical guidelines.
Learn more about our team →Important to know
Wellth does not diagnose or treat disease. We work with diet, lifestyle and preventive health, alongside the care you already have.
Our reports and sessions do not replace medical advice, and a test result should not be read as a diagnosis. We use both standard healthcare reference ranges and optimal ranges. A value can therefore be normal by healthcare standards and still fall outside the range associated with good health. That does not mean disease, but it can be a chance to act early.
Supplements are only recommended by a nutritional therapist as part of a consultation, never automatically from a test result.
If anything in your results needs to be looked at by a doctor, we will tell you clearly. Contact your healthcare provider if you are worried about your health. Call 1177 for advice, or 112 in an emergency.