In the evening
Tired but wired
Exhausted all day, then oddly alert at eleven at night. Why the two go together, and what softens it.
4 minSource: Narrated
The two are the same problem
Running on empty all day keeps the stress response working harder to hold you upright. That does not switch off neatly at bedtime, which is how a day of exhaustion turns into an evening of alertness.
It is a loop rather than two separate complaints, which is also why treating only the night rarely fixes it.
What tends to help
Something restful before you are exhausted, not after. Twenty quiet minutes at four is worth more than an hour of collapse at ten.
A hard edge on the end of the working day, even a token one. Shoes off, laptop closed, ten minutes outside.
Keeping the last hour dim. Bright overhead light late in the evening keeps the body in daytime mode.
There is a ten-minute wind-down in the sleep section that most women find easier to keep than a longer routine.
Energy is the thing every other change in these years is paid for out of. Protecting it is what makes the rest possible.
General information, not medical advice. Narrated never diagnoses.
More in Narrated Energy
Why am I this tired?
Exhaustion is the most commonly reported change of this stage, and the least talked about. What sits behind it.
6 min · Narrated
The things commonly checked when tiredness will not lift
What a doctor often tests when exhaustion is the main complaint, so the appointment starts further along.
5 min · Narrated
The afternoon crash, and what is usually under it
Fine until two, then flattened. The most common shape midlife tiredness takes, and the levers that reach it.
5 min · Narrated
Get the weekly letter
One useful email a week on perimenopause and menopause. What the studies say, in plain words. Free.
Or find out what is happening to you, free, in two minutes.