Tiredness is primarily caused by a lack of sleep, but there are many reasons why we may have trouble sleeping. For example, we may not be going to bed at a reasonable hour, we may lie awake worrying, exercise too close to bedtime, spend too much time staring at a screen before going to bed, or drink too much caffeine or alcohol. The problems that being tired all day can cause, however, are often even more numerous, and the only way to stop these problems is to address the causes and stop ourselves feeling so tired.

The primary effect that tiredness has on an individual is on our mood. It is well known that many people can be particularly grumpy when they have just woken up, and that this is because they are feeling tired. So if tiredness can make us feel miserable and snappy in the morning, it can have a very negative effect on us, and those around us, if the tiredness continues throughout the day. There is a proven link between lack of sleep and mental health problems, because if we are tired all the time then our mood becomes consistently low, which can lead to depression and other disorders.

Being tired all day can also affect our employment and education. No-one can give their all to any task if their concentration is impaired by poor sleep, and how well our memory works is greatly affected by how much sleep we get each night. Furthermore, just about the worst thing that you can do at work is to fall asleep on the job (you will find yourself being disciplined, or even fired), and falling asleep at school or college could result in a detention, or just being laughed at and finding pictures of yourself all over the internet.

Tiredness can also affect our social lives, partly because friends and family can quickly become sick of people that are grumpy, short-tempered and withdrawn, as chronically tired people can be, and partly because tiredness stops us feeling like we want to go out and socialize. We may also have a lot less patience to listen to our friends¡¯ problems when they need someone to talk to, and this certainly does not make us popular.

While it is the problems caused by a lack of sleep that have a negative effect on our daily lives, it is no good just focusing on the effects of being tired because without addressing the causes, we cannot make the problems go away. It is important to take some wind down time before going to bed at a reasonable hour, not eat or drink too late into the evening, and deal with our worries before we go to bed at night, so tiredness does not plague our daytime.