The permanent feeling of hunger and sleep affects more people than we think. These symptoms can accompany a wide variety of imbalances: thyroid disorders, anemia, hormonal changes (such as those experienced during pregnancy), or depression are some of the most frequent. But let me tell you that many of them have something in common: the influence of habits and mental-emotional state.
In this FastlyHealarticle, you will understand why you get starving and sleepy, as you will find the leading causes and practical tips to reverse them.
Table of Contents
Hormonal disturbances
Hormonal changes can destabilize your body if it is in a precarious balance. Many times without realizing it, we push our body to the limit: many hours of work, lack of rest at night, stress, anxiety, eating in a hurry, and foods that do not nourish us, too many hours in front of the screens, among others.
These bad habits can cause any hormonal change to be experienced with greater intensity, with more symptoms and discomforts. Being hungry and feeling sleepy are signs of imbalance and can appear in absolutely normal physiological states such as menstruation and pregnancy.
Pregnancy
Two hearts in your body is not an easy thing to sustain. If your body is not in the most balanced state, you can experience a large number of symptoms, such as:
- Pains in the body
- Headache.
- Nausea, vomiting
- Excessive sleep
- Very hungry.
That is why taking care of your habits at this critical stage of the baby’s development is crucial, not negatively affecting your body.
Menstruation
You can experience all symptoms by reducing estrogen before menstruation if you suffer from physical imbalances.
Discomforts such as acne, moodiness, stomach aches, headaches, too much or little appetite, excessive sleep, or even trouble sleeping are some of the symptoms that may appear.
As in pregnancy, you can feel better as you improve your habits. Later we will see some practical tips to feel good these days.
Metabolic imbalances
Some metabolic disorders can generate more energy requirements from your body. When energy is wasted or not developed properly, you may experience more tiredness, sleepiness, and hunger than usual.
Among the pathologies that usually present with these symptoms are:
Thyroid disorders
The thyroid is one of the body’s regulatory organs. The hormones that it secretes act on all the cells of your body, causing many metabolic processes to start.
When there is less thyroid hormone in your body, you may experience more sleep than usual, tiredness, a tendency to gain weight, less energy, and your food needs may change. The latter is due to the change in tissue requirements and because hypothyroidism can be accompanied by depression. In that case, you may feel the need to appease your negative emotions with food.
Hypoglycemia
If there is any alteration in the metabolism of sugar, this translates directly to your energy and feeling of well-being. You can experience:
- Decay.
- Confusion.
- Feeling of endless hunger or more significant than usual.
- Lethargy.
- Drowsiness.
- More sleep.
But be careful because it does not necessarily mean that you should eat more sugar. When the body goes into imbalance, you must likely improve your digestion to feel good. Liver and pancreatic problems leading to insulin resistance often begin with these dysregulations.
So, instead, it is preferable to focus on improving digestion to make the most of the nutrients that enter your body.
Diabetes
As I have mentioned, the feeling of excessive hunger and sleep can mean that your body is not working correctly. Diabetes is a problem in which the pancreas suffers because of the metabolic demands of transforming unhealthy excess refined flour, white sugar, fat, and processed products.
This, combined with a lack of exercise, results in a lack of insulin response. With which, blood sugar levels rise (hyperglycemia), generating a series of problems in different areas of the body:
- Malfunction of metabolic organs (pancreas, liver).
- Impact on the nervous system.
- Bad circulation.
- Kidney overload
- Low defenses and higher risk of infection.
These problems and many others are made worse when harmful habits are maintained. The medication usually used to treat diabetes only tends to lower blood sugar levels, but this causes the disease to become chronic since it will not be the original cause of the problem.
Anemia
Anemia is a decrease in red blood cells or a decrease in function. These are responsible for transporting oxygen to all tissues, a fundamental element for body function.
Therefore, when this vital nutritional contribution is decreased, various symptoms arise, such as:
- Pallor.
- Lack of strength.
- Decay.
- Fainting.
- Very sleepy.
- Too much appetite
- Drowsiness.
- Noises in the ears.
- General weakening.
Here it is critical to also go to the cause of anemia. Most of the cases are related to poor digestion and poor absorption of nutrients.
In addition to the typical treatment with iron and foods rich in iron, it is essential to improve the functioning of your digestive system. Even if you eat the foods that are supposed to improve anemia, if you don’t digest them well, they won’t help you.
Emotional and mental disorders
As I have told you, it is also possible that depression generates such discomfort that it can translate into physical symptoms such as increased sleep and hunger. Pain, physical decay, lack of strength may also appear.
Another emotional disorder that can cause these symptoms is anxiety. Although it is a manifestation contrary to depression, being constantly in a state of instability and restlessness can cause you to feel a large number of physical discomforts such as:
- Tightness in the abdomen.
- Body aches of all kinds.
- Nausea, vomiting
- Headaches.
- Muscle contractures.
- Need to eat permanently or lack of appetite.
- Very sleepy or insomnia.
- Fatigue.
These symptoms and many more are associated with a permanent state of alertness, which is not healthy.
That is why if you notice that your mind is playing tricks on you and you think that the symptoms you have are due to emotional and mental discomfort, it would be good to consider seeking help. The help of one or a professional, learning relaxation techniques, going to someone you trust to talk to, doing physical exercise, or looking for what makes you feel better can be keys to overcoming the problem.
Something discussed lately because its positive effects have been proven is mindfulness or techniques to quiet the mind. It is about being more present in your life and thus not being permanently mobilized by the pastor concerned for the future.
Your habits can also make you hungrier and sleepy.
I have insisted a lot in this article about how your habits can lead you on a path of well-being or increase discomfort, but the reason is that we are increasingly aware of the influence of what we do, what we think, and what we do. We feel about our health. It is in your hands to make the imbalances increase and become chronic or to attend to the cause of your problem.
I suggest some practical tips have less sleep and appetite :
Sleep adequately
Your body must rest appropriately so that the hours you sleep are refreshing and so that the hormonal mechanisms that must be activated do so correctly. To do this, I suggest:
- Sleep at night: during the hours without light, the body performs cleaning and tissue repair tasks that do not occur if you sleep at other times. You must sleep between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
- Eat early dinner: this habit also favors a good rest and proper digestion of the food you have eaten, avoiding intestinal, stomach, and metabolic disorders.
- Avoid using screens before sleeping: television, mobile phones, and other electronic devices generate too much brain stimulation, which prevents the relaxation needed in the hours before sleeping.
Poor sleep directly impacts your metabolic and hormonal system, so if you improve this aspect, you will probably also enhance your feeling of hunger.
Avoid excess sugar and refined flour.
It is essential to improve the quality of the food you eat so that your body can correct its imbalances. It is the fuel your body needs to function, and it is necessary not only what you eat but also how you do it. Eating calmly, enjoying the flavors, chewing what is required to enhance the food, and paying attention to when you feel full are essential.
White sugar and flour are tremendously harmful among the foods that easily unbalance the refined body since they favor metabolic and digestive disorders and promote body inflammation, among other problems.
On the other hand, excessive consumption of stimulants can also make you feel hungry and sleepy. I’m talking about coffee, cola, black tea, sugar.
It is preferable to incorporate fruits and vegetables in season, whole grains, healthy proteins (legumes, nuts), and avoid processed ones, vegetable oils, excess meat, dairy products, and fried foods.
Eat less
Overeating is just as harmful as eating insufficient or improper food. That is why you should be careful if you are following a strict or unhealthy diet, if you count the calories you eat one by one or if your diet lacks essential foods such as healthy carbohydrates.
Sedentary lifestyle
Movement is critical for the circulation to be activated and your body’s metabolic processes to start correctly.
Spending many hours at rest, either in a bed or in a chair, generates:
- Lethargy or tendency to remain immobile.
- Depression or anxiety
- Cardiovascular problems.
- Digestive disorders
- Metabolic problems such as hypothyroidism or diabetes.
The answer is in the movement. You don’t need to run a marathon, but at least you need to start somewhere. Walking, swimming, dancing, yoga, or any activity that breaks inertia can do you a lot of good.
lack of stimulus
We often fall into bad habits due to a lack of external stimuli, but let me tell you that no one but you has the power to heal your body and mind. Don’t expect someone else to do it for you.
This is when mindfulness and relaxation techniques are also instrumental to finding within yourself what you are waiting for from outside.
This article is merely informative. At FastlyHeal .com, we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any condition or discomfort.
If you want to read more articles similar to Why I am hungry and sleepy, we recommend that you enter our Well-being category.
I am a Surgeon with a diploma in comprehensive ultrasound and surgical care residency, an area I am specializing in. During the exercise of my profession, I have realized the need for patients to know the diseases they suffer, and I can tell you that a large part of their complications is due to a lack of information. Being a health web writer allows me to transmit my experience, without borders, to all those readers eager for knowledge, educate them in the prevention of diseases and promote a healthy lifestyle.