Why You’re So Tired Even When You Sleep
- Brainz Magazine
- Oct 7
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 8
Bronwen Sciortino is an International Author and Simplicity Expert who spent almost two decades as an award-winning executive before experiencing a life-changing event that forced her to stop and ask the question, ‘What if there’s a better way to live?
You fall into bed and hope it helps. But morning hits, and the weight is still there. Not just in your body, but in your chest, your mind, and behind your eyes. It’s the kind of tired that no amount of sleep seems to touch. This isn’t about your bedtime routine, although that’s important. Rather, it’s about the slow leak that’s been happening all day.
The overthinking. The emotional load. The invisible work. The pressure to hold it all together. When you live in that zone for too long, even sleep becomes another thing to manage. You’re not lazy, and you’re not weak. You’re tired because your energy is being pulled in too many directions. And rest isn’t just about stopping, it’s about what you allow back in.
If you want to wake up and actually feel better, it’s not about doing more. It’s about getting real about what’s wearing you down, before your body takes the wheel. It starts with your body whispering all day. And then, because you ignored them, those whispers turn into a full-throated scream called symptoms, foggy thinking, mood swings, gut issues, forgetfulness. These aren’t random. They’re warnings.
When you don’t give your system a chance to reset, it starts running on fumes. You may look fine on the outside, but inside, your body is fighting to keep up. Sleep can’t undo chronic stress, or fix constant people-pleasing, or refill a soul that’s been pushed to the background for years.
You need more than a break. You need truth, space, and time to be human again, without all the noise. Because when your body feels safe, it starts to heal. But that safety doesn’t come from sleep alone. It comes from living in a way that doesn’t keep you bracing for impact. And that shift, subtle, slow, powerful, is what begins to bring your energy back.
Small shifts for better sleep so you wake up differently
These aren’t dramatic changes. They’re steady moves that restore your energy from the inside out. The kind of shifts that help you wake up clearer, lighter, and more like yourself.
1. Name what’s draining you
Grab a pen. Make two columns.
Column 1: What gives you energy? What takes it away? Be specific. Meetings, habits, names, tasks, whatever it is that drains you, belongs on that page.
Column 2: What brings you joy? What makes you feel alive? The things that make you laugh, fill you with energy, and fuel your day need to go in this column.
Most people stay tired because they stay vague. They want rest, but don’t know what’s stealing it. Your body does. That pit in your stomach before a meeting? That sigh when your phone rings? That’s your nervous system speaking.
Each time you feel drained, pause. Ask, ‘What just happened?’ Write it down. Notice patterns. Some will surprise you. That’s good. You can’t change what you won’t name. This list becomes your starting point. This isn’t about fixing everything. It’s about seeing clearly. So, you can stop blaming yourself and start protecting your energy with intention.
2. Stop soaking in noise
Most people are never really still. Even in quiet rooms, their minds race, phones ping, notifications flash, and to-do lists nag in the background.
This noise keeps your system stuck in high alert. You lie down to sleep, but your brain keeps going, your shoulders stay tight, and your breath stays shallow. With all the background noise, your body can’t receive the signal to stand down.
Start small. Choose one pocket of the day and carve out ten minutes. No phone, no sound, no input. Just stillness. Let your senses settle, your thoughts drop, and your body catch up.
This is not a productivity hack. It’s a nervous system repair. When your body feels safe, it starts to unwind. When you reduce the noise, your system starts to rest. That’s where your energy begins to return. Stillness isn’t empty. It’s full of what your body’s been missing.
3. Let your body lead
Your body always speaks first. It tightens, sighs, and slows. But you’ve trained yourself to override it, to keep going, to push through. Start small. Before you open your laptop, check in. Am I hungry? Thirsty? Holding my breath? Am I calm or rushing?
Answer honestly. Then give yourself what you need. Stretch, sip, breathe, move, pause. Let your body take the lead for once. This isn't about pampering or being ‘selfish’. It's about reconnection. Your energy lives in the present, not in your performance, and your body knows the way back.
When you follow its signals, you stop leaking energy and you quit the struggle that comes from pushing against yourself. This shift is subtle, but powerful. You begin to live inside your own skin again. You stop living from the neck up. This is where real recovery begins.
4. Close the open loops
Your brain holds onto everything left undone. Emails, conversations, errands, even tiny tasks. Just like a web browser with too many tabs open, the undone tasks sit there, draining you in the background.
You go to bed, but your mind stays busy. Your body tenses, sleep feels shallow, and you wake up tired. To stop the cycle, deliberately close your loops. Before bed, write down what’s unfinished. Capture it in one place, don’t leave it floating in your head. Give it a container. This signals safety to your brain. It says, ‘You don’t have to hold this overnight.’
When you close your day with intention, your mind starts to release its grip. Your body follows, and you finally get to rest for real. You’re not broken. You’re overloaded. Most people think sleep is the fix. But the truth is, rest isn’t the same as repair, and that’s where things go wrong.
You lie down each night and expect sleep to carry the load. But sleep can’t do what your day keeps undoing. You’re not just tired, you’re holding too much. Every thought you didn’t say, every task you didn’t finish, every feeling you didn’t let land. It all builds. It weighs on you in ways no sleep routine can ever solve.
This kind of tired doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means you’ve been carrying the cost of silence, pressure, and performance for too long. And if your body still wakes up tired, that’s not failure, it’s feedback. A signal. A call for change.
Your system doesn’t want to collapse, it wants to recalibrate. That starts with space, with truth, and with steady shifts that help your body feel safe to soften, not just at night, but all day. Because real rest isn’t just what happens when your eyes are shut, it’s what happens when you stop living like everything depends on you.
Bronwen Sciortino is a Simplicity Expert, Professional Speaker, and an internationally renowned author. You can follow her on her website, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Bronwen Sciortino, International Author & Simplicity Expert
Bronwen Sciortino is an International Author and Simplicity Expert who spent almost two decades as an award-winning executive before experiencing a life-changing event that forced her to stop and ask the question, ‘What if there’s a better way to live?’ Embarking on a journey to answer this question, Bronwen developed a whole new way of living, one that teaches you to challenge the status quo and include the power of questions in everyday life. Gaining international critical acclaim and 5-star awards for her books and online programs,
Bronwen spends every day teaching people that there is an easy, practical, and simple pathway to creating a healthy, happy, and highly successful life. Sourced globally for media comment as an expert and working with corporate programs, conference platforms, retreats, professional mentoring, and in the online environment, Bronwen teaches people how easy it is to live life very differently.
