*A full night’s sleep doesn’t always leave you feeling rested. Doctors call this unrefreshing, or non-restorative, sleep. People experiencing it may wake up exhausted despite spending enough hours in bed.
“A lot of times people feel like, ‘It doesn’t matter how long I sleep. I wake up and feel like a truck ran over me,'” Dr. Sonja Schuetz, a neurologist specializing in sleep medicine, told Time in a report republished by University of Michigan Health.
Unlike insomnia, which makes falling or staying asleep difficult, non-restorative sleep can occur even when someone sleeps through the night. People often “feel just as tired as they were before they went to sleep,” said Thomas Roth, founder of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Health.
The first step is determining whether you’re getting enough sleep. Most adults need seven to nine hours nightly, although some underestimate their needs. “A lot of times, insufficient sleep feels like unrefreshing sleep,” Schuetz said.
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She recommends allowing yourself to wake naturally on a day without obligations. Sleeping significantly longer than usual may indicate accumulated sleep debt.
Medications are another possible culprit. Dr. Lucinda Bateman, founder of Utah’s Bateman Horne Center, says melatonin, prescription medications, and sleeping pills can cause morning grogginess. Research also suggests cannabis edibles may contribute. A doctor can review medications and adjust treatment when appropriate.
Healthy sleep habits may also improve rest. Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet, maintain consistent sleep hours, limit alcohol and caffeine, and put away electronic devices before bedtime. Bateman also recommends relaxation and mindfulness techniques to manage anxiety.
However, persistent exhaustion sometimes signals an underlying condition. Long COVID, ME/CFS, fibromyalgia and restless legs syndrome can interfere with restorative sleep. Narcolepsy, hypersomnia and sleep apnea may also cause excessive daytime sleepiness.
“If sleep is [chronically] unrefreshing, you need a medical workup,” Bateman said.
When doctors rule out other conditions, disrupted deep sleep may help explain the problem. The body cycles through different sleep stages overnight, including deep sleep, which supports physical recovery.
“There’s a certain amount of deep sleep that is required for good sleep quality,” Schuetz said.
Roth explains that brief awakenings, often forgotten by morning, can interrupt these restorative stages. Sleep apnea can trigger such disruptions, while bursts of waking brain activity may also interfere with deep sleep.
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