Why depression causes fatigue?

People with depression often report feeling fatigued, tiredness, and exhaustion. For those who experience fatigue apart from depression, fatigue may increase the risk of developing depression. This creates a cycle that can be difficult to both sort out and break. It’s estimated that fatigue affects about 90% of people diagnosed with major depressive disorder.

Experts believe that fatigue that comes with depression may be caused by sleep difficulties, stress, and medications used to treat depression. Sleep can become disrupted due to depression. Difficulty falling asleep or trouble to stay asleep can be common with depression. Lack of sleep isn’t a cause of depression but rather a symptom, which can, in turn, exacerbate other symptoms of depression. People with depression often have a lower quality of sleep. Without enough sleep, the body isn’t getting much-needed rest and regeneration, and fatigue can result.

Stressful events increase the risk of developing a major depressive disorder. Ending a relationship, the death of a loved one, financial difficulties, changing jobs, or other major events can create stress. Stress dysregulates the amount of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin in the body. These neurotransmitters play a major role in regulating both mood and energy. When these become imbalanced due to stress, fatigue is a natural result.

Medications often used to treat major depression are designed to influence the brain’s neurotransmitters to help them balance and regulate. Some of these medications can result in fatigue.

If you’re dealing with depression and related fatigue, talking with your doctor is an important starting point. Your doctor can determine if another underlying condition may be responsible for either fatigue or depression. Often, treating underlying conditions that may contribute to fatigue can improve both fatigue and depression. If medication is a fatigue factor, your doctor may help you determine if changing medications will be helpful. Your doctor may refer you to a therapist, or you may choose to talk with a therapist if you’re experiencing symptoms of depression. Depression is often treated with therapy, medication, or a combination of the two. 

You can also make lifestyle changes to improve your sleep quality by:

• Increasing exercise activity, which helps promote better sleep
• Avoiding caffeine and other stimulants
• Limiting daytime naps
• Setting and keeping regular bed and wake times

Talking with your doctor if you notice fatigue that becomes problematic and doesn’t ease with restful sleep can help you quickly identify and address the underlying problems associated with fatigue. Leaving fatigue untreated can cause some complications that may contribute to larger problems. If you’re experiencing depression, working with a therapist can be a helpful step in treatment, along with working with your doctor and making lifestyle changes to improve symptoms.