Sept. 20, 2026
NEW: CDC Report Shows 3/4 Of Americans Are Suffering From The Same Health Problem… And It’s Killing Us!
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RSS Feed Apparently we’re all exhausted, and it’s leading to anxiety, cognitive decline, depression, and yes, even early death. A new study from the CDC shows nearly 3/4 of us report feeling fatigued nearly every day and some groups are experiencing it a much higher levels. The study breaks down results comparing genders, race, and where you live in the country to single out which groups are suffering more than others and the results are fascinating. We also go over the suggested home remedies the study offers to help you get those 7 hours it claims we need nightly, and when to contact your doctor for help in sleeping longer and better.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:09
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Sunday, September 20th, and are you exhausted? 75% of you should have answered yes to that question. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. This is something we deal with all the time, me in particular, exhaustion. People are tired. We have new stats, robes that show we as a nation are worn the hell out.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: It's actually kind of shocking, but maybe it shouldn't be. Yes, this is a new CDC report that's just out. And it's based on a 2024 National Health Interview Survey. So they interviewed 27,000 adults ages 18 and older, and they studied them over the past several months. And they say technically it's 71.5% of adults.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: In the U.S.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: Say they experienced fatigue on multiple days over the past three months.
00:01:01
Speaker 1: Is that not just normal?
00:01:03
Speaker 3: They say that that has actually.
00:01:05
Speaker 2: increased significantly because, look, we're not even talking about sleep. They make it clear in this report that fatigue is directly related to stressors and difficulty in life and how it interferes with your ability to function, to work, to socialize, that you're just exhausted. So it doesn't improve If you get more sleep or if you take a nap.
00:01:28
Speaker 1: Oh, that's terrifying.
00:01:29
Speaker 2: So it's defined as physical or mental tiredness that does not improve with additional sleep or rest.
00:01:35
Speaker 1: OK, so people hearing that you can't sleep your way out of this. You can't keep saying, oh, I just need a few more hours. I need to adjust the schedule.
00:01:40
Speaker 2: It's about the quality of sleep you're getting, and the quality of sleep you're getting is deeply impacted by the stressors of your life.
00:01:47
Speaker 3: So you're not getting enough REM. You're not getting enough deep sleep.
00:01:50
Speaker 1: But nobody knows that unless you have a device that tells you that stuff, right? Most people have no idea what the quality of their sleep is. This is why those rings and those... Apple Watches and all those wearable tech. Rose, it gives you a better idea of what you think you got eight hours and you're good. You might have had a terrible night's sleep. Exactly.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: And I have had that happen because I do wear mine pretty religiously. And I'll wake up and I'll know I don't feel right. And I'll think that's so strange because I think I got eight hours. I look, I only got say I got six something. But even if I got a decent amount of sleep, because they do say in this that six to seven hours is usually good for most adults. But if you don't get enough REM or you don't get enough deep sleep. I could get eight hours of sleep and not get enough deeper REM and feel like crap and my sleep score is low. So it really is people mistake. They count the numbers, but they don't identify the quality.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: You know, we did this a lot. We did this a lot when we were co-anchors together on a TV show in that you and I, we would come in and we would be checking in every day about the night before. And, you know, there was a game on. I was up late and I say I only got four hours or three hours and I'm bouncing off the walls and I'm all these things. We started discovering, Robes, with our Oura rings that, yes, I might sometimes have a better sleep score with two hours fewer of actual sleep time. It is fascinating. Look, Oura, I hate to promote them because they're not paying our podcast, but that thing really, Robes, is eye-opening.
00:03:23
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:03:24
Speaker 2: And so it shouldn't be surprising then that nearly three in four adults felt very tired or exhausted several days in the past week. Now, one in six adults experience frequent fatigue. That's defined as feeling very tired or exhausted most days or every day. That's a high number, one in six adults. And they say it hits younger adults more. So the most frequent fatigue reports came from adults aged 18 to 34. And the lowest rate of that was in adults ages 65 and older.
00:04:00
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:04:01
Speaker 3: Stress just goes down at that point.
00:04:03
Speaker 1: That all reads.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Right? Women are more likely than men to report frequent fatigue, 20% versus 13%.
00:04:09
Speaker 1: Can I stop you there? Does that read as well?
00:04:11
Speaker 3: Yes, because we're.
00:04:12
Speaker 2: Usually managing, like this is a generalization, but the kids and us and work and the household and getting groceries. And so, yes, there seems to be more responsibility in a lot of ways for women where you you're stressed out about things and you're overthinking things.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: Give me that stat again, the 20 versus 13 percent.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: So women are more likely to report frequent fatigue. So 20 percent of women say they are frequently fatigued versus 13 percent of men.
00:04:38
Speaker 1: Am I crazy? Are you a little surprised that the women's number was a little is that low? 20%? Frequent. Frequent?
00:04:45
Speaker 3: Frequent. Like nearly every day. Okay.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: Yes, that is maybe, yes. But it's still high for several times during the past month. Because I wouldn't say I'm frequently fatigued, but definitely fatigued a couple times more. Yes, a month.
00:05:04
Speaker 1: As I yawn.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: Right. You're frequently fatigued. Here, this is so interesting in the breakdown of race. I wouldn't have guessed this. The highest rate of frequent fatigue came from Native Americans. American Indian and Alaskan Native adults had the highest rate of frequent fatigue, 25.5%.
00:05:22
Speaker 3: How do they explain that? They didn't. How do we explain that?
00:05:26
Speaker 1: What is that?
00:05:27
Speaker 3: That maybe just the....
00:05:30
Speaker 2: I don't know, their ability to function. Like, I don't know the stressors that they have in their life. White adults came in at 18%. Black adults, 18% of white adults report frequent fatigue. 17.3% of black adults report frequent fatigue. 12.9% of Hispanic adults and the lowest ethnicity, Asians, the lowest rate of frequent fatigue only at 9%.
00:05:58
Speaker 1: Okay, is there any way we can explain all of that? Asians have the lowest, Native Americans have the highest, black and white about the same.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: Yep, and Hispanics are actually pretty low too, 12.9%. That's a big drop, only 12.9%. I don't know if you can attribute it to family, work. I don't know, but it's fascinating and needs to be studied more. And they talked about how this is one of the most understudied health crises. And it is a crisis because it actually is one of, they say this is the most frequently reported health concern in primary care. My brother is a primary care physician. He tells me this. This is the number one complaint. I am exhausted. I can't get quality sleep.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: Help.
00:06:41
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:06:41
Speaker 1: So that's the thing we need to be.
00:06:43
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay.
00:06:44
Speaker 1: We're trying to get quality sleep. How do we get there? It's not a matter of getting in the bed and staying in the bed a certain number of hours. It's about other things in your life you do before you go to bed. It's supposed to cut down on the stress. Is that what we're talking about?
00:06:53
Speaker 3: Yes, there's that.
00:06:54
Speaker 2: And look, when we talk about fatigue, I think we have to, because the study goes into the higher medical risks associated with it. Obviously, if you are chronically fatigued, it's going to limit your ability to move. So you're not going to move as much.
00:07:10
Speaker 3: Because you're exhausted. So you get poor health outcomes. You have a heightened risk of mortality. Yes.
00:07:15
Speaker 2: Fatigue leads to early death. It also leads to difficulty concentrating. Psychosocial problems. So they say 69% of people who have chronic fatigue have anxiety. 46% say they have cognition difficulty, and 45% say they suffer from depression. So anxiety, cognition difficulty, and depression. That is what we're talking about. Okay.
00:07:41
Speaker 1: We need to get this handled because don't we always list those things? Those are said in association with all kinds of issues, Robes, having to do with suicide. That's a school shooting. Absolutely. Robes, all those things lead to other things. So, yes, you're right. We just think sometimes we're tired. I'm just tired. I just need some sleep. I think, Robes, isn't it fair? And I swear to you, that's the way I looked at it really before the aura rings. We always see sleep as a matter of we just need to get more of it and we'll be okay. I don't think there's a drumbeat. I could be wrong. I know there are others or there are some out there who subscribe to this. But, Robes, I don't hear the drumbeat often of the kind of sleep we need to get versus you need this many hours, six to seven to eight and all this thing. I don't, babe. This is a serious health crisis because it touches all these other problems we have in society.
00:08:36
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:08:37
Speaker 2: And to just say, oh, yeah, I'm tired and kind of pass it off as just the way I live my life, it actually, and I tell you this all the time because I do see you exhausted, and I say, please, baby, I actually just, I need you to stick around.
00:08:53
Speaker 3: I need you to live longer. This is serious.
00:08:55
Speaker 2: And I just think it's so interesting, the CDC report pointed out that that exhaustion, fatigue remains, quote, an underexplored topic, despite these shocking, staggering numbers that we should all be paying attention to. And doctors have known for a very long time, this is what their patients come to them and complain about. And yes, eventually, yeah, you have people coming in and saying, Now you've got cancer. Now you've got high blood pressure. Now you've got diabetes. Because all of this exhaustion can lead to overeating. People handle their stress differently. And so you think about if this is a root cause of so many other issues that are killing us, that are costing us our loved ones, that are costing our medical system crazy amounts of dollars, why shouldn't we be studying this and coming up with a plan to help all of us become better? Less stress and get better quality sleep. And when your mind is going, you can't sleep. And when you wake up in the middle of the night and you start going over all the stressors in your head... that's why you can't fall back asleep. And you know that.
00:10:03
Speaker 1: I see you. Oh, I am a poster child for the wrong way to navigate through life when it comes to sleep and rest. The wrong way. The absolute wrong way. And I think, unfortunately, no, unfortunately, fortunately, I haven't. But unfortunately, the only thing that's going to break that cycle is some major issue. Yeah. That hopefully I survive. That sounds crazy, but that is so awful because I haven't had any repercussions other than exhaustion, which is what I'm used, that's how I've lived for 25 years. I don't know anything else. And no one is ever, until the Oura Ring, actually, Made me focus on the type of sleep. How can I get better sleep instead of just making sure I get in there at 9 o'clock and I wake up at 5 o'clock and I get 8 hours? That's crazy. No, Robes, this is another one of those folks. If you ever listen here on the weekend, oftentimes Robes will present a subject or a topic and she does all the research and then she just has me react to it. I didn't think this was going to go this direction. We talk about sleep and, oh, people aren't getting enough sleep and they're tired. Babe, this is a serious health story.
00:11:15
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:11:15
Speaker 1: I am now. This is a totally different podcast.
00:11:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, because because this is serious. I hope that this is a wake up call. Like this is a serious issue and all the other things that you might be suffering from that you aren't attributing to your fatigue. If you can take care of the fatigue, the other problems go away. But the problem is the other problems contribute to your fatigue. Because when you have the anxiety and when you have the depression and when you have the cognition difficulty, it doesn't aid you in trying to reduce stress. It actually just makes you more stressed out.
00:11:49
Speaker 1: So are we supposed to be trying to eliminate the stress or manage it better? What is the thing that whatever doctor, whatever surgeon general, whatever leading health official should be coming out and preaching to us all? We need to be what? Stress is just a part of life. Then we need to teach people how to deal with it better. Correct.
00:12:06
Speaker 3: Yes, correct.
00:12:07
Speaker 2: So.
00:12:08
Speaker 3: Perfect.
00:12:08
Speaker 2: When we come back, we're going to talk about what they say some of the home remedies are and some of these we've all heard before and what doctors and sleep doctors say you should do to try and help out with your quality of sleep so you get better sleep so all those other issues can go away as well.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Amy and TJ.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: You're going to laugh at some of these home remedies that they suggest because you've heard them before and you pretty much do.
00:12:46
Speaker 3: None of these.
00:12:47
Speaker 1: What's the remedy for what, though?
00:12:48
Speaker 3: To get better quality sleep.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: Not about the stress, just about setting the room up right.
00:12:53
Speaker 2: Yes, but then also during the day they have things that you can do to reduce the stress.
00:12:57
Speaker 3: If you can.
00:12:59
Speaker 2: Put all of these things together, they say this will help with reducing stress and and improving the quality of your sleep. The first one, avoid screens an hour before your bedtime. And they say that that's why when the young people have such a high level of chronic fatigue, they attribute that directly to doom scrolling, to social media scrolling, to having their phones in their beds, and literally just, and then your mind is going and you've got a screen and you're just engaged and you cannot get good sleep. So avoid screens at least an hour before bed. Then they say to sleep in a dark, cool room They said even use a sleep mask.
00:13:38
Speaker 3: Or blackout curtains.
00:13:39
Speaker 2: And there was a new study out this week saying that if you even have a little bit of light in your room, it actually affects your heart health. Like there are real repercussions to having light in your room. The other thing, avoid overly sugary or spicy foods before bed. Also avoid alcohol before bed. And then this consistent sleeping schedule. Don't have a different schedule on the weekends, Monday through Sunday. Okay.
00:14:03
Speaker 3: Wake up and go to bed at the same time every day.
00:14:06
Speaker 1: All right.
00:14:06
Speaker 3: During the day, what can you do? Exercise, exercise, exercise.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: A regular exercise routine builds muscle strength, builds endurance, and it reduces fatigue. It's counterintuitive because if you're tired, you don't want to go on a run, but it actually contributes to easing fatigue.
00:14:24
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
00:14:25
Speaker 1: Because I I actually... That's the first thing you said in this segment that I subscribed to.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: All right.
00:14:31
Speaker 2: The other thing is they say that there's limited research and there needs to be more, but on aromatherapy.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: And they say especially.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: If.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: You can put the essential oil lavender in your bedroom, it actually boosts melatonin in your body. And it actually increases that hormone production, which helps you sleep. And you are allergic to lavender.
00:14:52
Speaker 3: So that makes me laugh. But are you allergic to aromatherapy lavender?
00:14:58
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. I don't know what aromatherapy is. I don't know what that means.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: There are essential oils that you can put in, like, I've had them before in my bedroom.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: They actually put out, like, a mist. Like, okay, if you go into a spa, not that you go into a spa, but you'll smell.
00:15:14
Speaker 1: This is going great. Okay, it's just a matter of putting smells in the room that's supposed to help you.
00:15:18
Speaker 2: The Mayo Clinic has studied this and said it has actually been proven that it is a helpful treatment for insomnia.
00:15:24
Speaker 1: Is what?
00:15:25
Speaker 3: Aromatherapy. Lavender essential oil.
00:15:28
Speaker 1: Does it have to be lavender?
00:15:29
Speaker 3: Specifically lavender.
00:15:31
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:15:31
Speaker 3: We could try it.
00:15:33
Speaker 1: Fine.
00:15:33
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:15:34
Speaker 1: I'll get great sleep, but in the morning my eyes are swollen and I have a sinus headache.
00:15:39
Speaker 3: I just laughed.
00:15:40
Speaker 2: Because you know I love to tell the story that we didn't go to Provence because you're allergic to lavender.
00:15:45
Speaker 1: You repeat it. It's the stupidest story. I don't know why. It's the one thing. I know what happened. I'm so annoyed that you keep telling that story. Oh, my God.
00:15:55
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know why that's so funny to me.
00:15:57
Speaker 2: All right, and the other thing they say, and I need to do this more because I know that this is important, and I know you have done this, but I don't know how often you do it anymore, meditation. Emotional regulation through mindful breathing or visualization actually soothes the nervous system and it encourages meaningful rest.
00:16:17
Speaker 1: But at night, they're saying at night. See, my meditation was always in the morning. It used to be one of the first things I did.
00:16:22
Speaker 2: What if you did it first thing in the morning and first thing at night? Because it can help with obviously your daytime stress, which that's important as well.
00:16:30
Speaker 1: Ten minutes. I can't spare it. I'm on the run. As soon as I get up in the morning, I got stuff to do, baby.
00:16:33
Speaker 3: Three minutes. How about three minutes?
00:16:35
Speaker 1: Then I had to wake up earlier. You don't want to miss any sleep.
00:16:40
Speaker 2: Excuses, excuses. But the Mayo Clinic, actually, they have a fatigue specialist. We should go, babe. And they say that no matter what, if you have consistent fatigue, you've tried all of this, it doesn't change. You need to go to a doctor to try and discover the root cause.
00:16:57
Speaker 1: There is a cause. Have I tried all of this? Enough stuff?
00:16:59
Speaker 2: No.
00:17:00
Speaker 3: Well, not when I have been with you.
00:17:03
Speaker 2: You have never tried no screens an hour before bed, sleep in a dark, cool room.
00:17:09
Speaker 1: You make me sleep in a dark, cool room.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: There's still a TV on.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: You know what? That's fair. I'll give you that. So if you turn the TV off. You're right. You're right.
00:17:17
Speaker 2: Because that is, for me, like I will tell you when I do toss and turn a little bit, I have to sometimes position a pillow. to block the TV light because it does, even when my, when my eyes are closed, you can still see the light. And I know you, it soothes you and it soothes anxiety and it soothes, you say you want the TV on because it stops your brain from thinking.
00:17:37
Speaker 1: I never watch a new, you know that I never watch a new movie or try a new show. I watch something that I am already familiar with that makes me pay attention just enough, but not too much that it keeps me awake. That makes me focus on something I'm familiar with versus thinking about the next day. I know it's the weirdest damn thing in the world. I've been doing it since high school.
00:17:56
Speaker 2: Right.
00:17:57
Speaker 3: So I wonder if you tried.
00:17:58
Speaker 2: So obviously I know you've kind of laughed at me and I've stopped, but I used to need white noise for that same reason because it just, and it kind of just is a, it just, it turns your brain off. And so I don't know if you'd be willing to try that because then you've got no screen on. So no lights and you have the, And it might take you a while to get used to. But it took me a while to get used to the TV. I'm still not totally used to it.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: Oh, you hate it still. I still hate it. It might be the end of us, actually. But we should, okay, we'll try it this week. You know what? I didn't plan on this. Let's commit. I'll try this week. I think we're cool schedule-wise. We don't have too much running around. We'll be in town in New York. All right.
00:18:36
Speaker 3: Let's try it.
00:18:37
Speaker 1: This week, TV off.
00:18:38
Speaker 3: TV off.
00:18:39
Speaker 1: All right. I'm going to wear the war ring all week. Okay. All right. And then what's the bedtime?
00:18:44
Speaker 2: I think our bedtime should be, well, what time's your wake-up time? They say six to seven hours you should give yourself. So you want to wake up? Are you still waking up at two?
00:18:55
Speaker 1: Go to bed at eight or nine. You know what? Whatever time I go to bed, I'm not going to wake up until at least six hours later. How about that?
00:19:00
Speaker 3: OK, great.
00:19:00
Speaker 2: Or you're not going to get out of bed and I'll get some lavender essential oil.
00:19:05
Speaker 1: Does it matter if I'm I have to just what if I'm awake? Do I just lay there? That's the thing that drives me crazy. You know this, babe. I'm on a weird schedule. We're here in Arkansas now. I woke up the other day. You said, dude, it's like three o'clock. What are you doing?
00:19:21
Speaker 3: And we didn't have to work the next day. We didn't have to work at all. We didn't have to work.
00:19:25
Speaker 1: And you said, what are you doing? And I was confused because I keep my phone on New York time everywhere we go. So I'm looking at it. Thinking it's normal. You're like, boo, it's like two in the morning here. What are you doing?
00:19:39
Speaker 3: Yes, I know. But you're right.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: The consistent thing when you travel time wise, that's a little bit difficult. But let's try some of these things and see if it works.
00:19:46
Speaker 3: Because, yes, we need to tackle this. This is a serious medical.
00:19:50
Speaker 2: Issue and everyone should be paying attention, but we hope you all learn something from this. And we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:19:58
Speaker 3: We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Sunday, September 20th, and are you exhausted? 75% of you should have answered yes to that question. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. This is something we deal with all the time, me in particular, exhaustion. People are tired. We have new stats, robes that show we as a nation are worn the hell out.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: It's actually kind of shocking, but maybe it shouldn't be. Yes, this is a new CDC report that's just out. And it's based on a 2024 National Health Interview Survey. So they interviewed 27,000 adults ages 18 and older, and they studied them over the past several months. And they say technically it's 71.5% of adults.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: In the U.S.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: Say they experienced fatigue on multiple days over the past three months.
00:01:01
Speaker 1: Is that not just normal?
00:01:03
Speaker 3: They say that that has actually.
00:01:05
Speaker 2: increased significantly because, look, we're not even talking about sleep. They make it clear in this report that fatigue is directly related to stressors and difficulty in life and how it interferes with your ability to function, to work, to socialize, that you're just exhausted. So it doesn't improve If you get more sleep or if you take a nap.
00:01:28
Speaker 1: Oh, that's terrifying.
00:01:29
Speaker 2: So it's defined as physical or mental tiredness that does not improve with additional sleep or rest.
00:01:35
Speaker 1: OK, so people hearing that you can't sleep your way out of this. You can't keep saying, oh, I just need a few more hours. I need to adjust the schedule.
00:01:40
Speaker 2: It's about the quality of sleep you're getting, and the quality of sleep you're getting is deeply impacted by the stressors of your life.
00:01:47
Speaker 3: So you're not getting enough REM. You're not getting enough deep sleep.
00:01:50
Speaker 1: But nobody knows that unless you have a device that tells you that stuff, right? Most people have no idea what the quality of their sleep is. This is why those rings and those... Apple Watches and all those wearable tech. Rose, it gives you a better idea of what you think you got eight hours and you're good. You might have had a terrible night's sleep. Exactly.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: And I have had that happen because I do wear mine pretty religiously. And I'll wake up and I'll know I don't feel right. And I'll think that's so strange because I think I got eight hours. I look, I only got say I got six something. But even if I got a decent amount of sleep, because they do say in this that six to seven hours is usually good for most adults. But if you don't get enough REM or you don't get enough deep sleep. I could get eight hours of sleep and not get enough deeper REM and feel like crap and my sleep score is low. So it really is people mistake. They count the numbers, but they don't identify the quality.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: You know, we did this a lot. We did this a lot when we were co-anchors together on a TV show in that you and I, we would come in and we would be checking in every day about the night before. And, you know, there was a game on. I was up late and I say I only got four hours or three hours and I'm bouncing off the walls and I'm all these things. We started discovering, Robes, with our Oura rings that, yes, I might sometimes have a better sleep score with two hours fewer of actual sleep time. It is fascinating. Look, Oura, I hate to promote them because they're not paying our podcast, but that thing really, Robes, is eye-opening.
00:03:23
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:03:24
Speaker 2: And so it shouldn't be surprising then that nearly three in four adults felt very tired or exhausted several days in the past week. Now, one in six adults experience frequent fatigue. That's defined as feeling very tired or exhausted most days or every day. That's a high number, one in six adults. And they say it hits younger adults more. So the most frequent fatigue reports came from adults aged 18 to 34. And the lowest rate of that was in adults ages 65 and older.
00:04:00
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:04:01
Speaker 3: Stress just goes down at that point.
00:04:03
Speaker 1: That all reads.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: Right? Women are more likely than men to report frequent fatigue, 20% versus 13%.
00:04:09
Speaker 1: Can I stop you there? Does that read as well?
00:04:11
Speaker 3: Yes, because we're.
00:04:12
Speaker 2: Usually managing, like this is a generalization, but the kids and us and work and the household and getting groceries. And so, yes, there seems to be more responsibility in a lot of ways for women where you you're stressed out about things and you're overthinking things.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: Give me that stat again, the 20 versus 13 percent.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: So women are more likely to report frequent fatigue. So 20 percent of women say they are frequently fatigued versus 13 percent of men.
00:04:38
Speaker 1: Am I crazy? Are you a little surprised that the women's number was a little is that low? 20%? Frequent. Frequent?
00:04:45
Speaker 3: Frequent. Like nearly every day. Okay.
00:04:50
Speaker 2: Yes, that is maybe, yes. But it's still high for several times during the past month. Because I wouldn't say I'm frequently fatigued, but definitely fatigued a couple times more. Yes, a month.
00:05:04
Speaker 1: As I yawn.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: Right. You're frequently fatigued. Here, this is so interesting in the breakdown of race. I wouldn't have guessed this. The highest rate of frequent fatigue came from Native Americans. American Indian and Alaskan Native adults had the highest rate of frequent fatigue, 25.5%.
00:05:22
Speaker 3: How do they explain that? They didn't. How do we explain that?
00:05:26
Speaker 1: What is that?
00:05:27
Speaker 3: That maybe just the....
00:05:30
Speaker 2: I don't know, their ability to function. Like, I don't know the stressors that they have in their life. White adults came in at 18%. Black adults, 18% of white adults report frequent fatigue. 17.3% of black adults report frequent fatigue. 12.9% of Hispanic adults and the lowest ethnicity, Asians, the lowest rate of frequent fatigue only at 9%.
00:05:58
Speaker 1: Okay, is there any way we can explain all of that? Asians have the lowest, Native Americans have the highest, black and white about the same.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: Yep, and Hispanics are actually pretty low too, 12.9%. That's a big drop, only 12.9%. I don't know if you can attribute it to family, work. I don't know, but it's fascinating and needs to be studied more. And they talked about how this is one of the most understudied health crises. And it is a crisis because it actually is one of, they say this is the most frequently reported health concern in primary care. My brother is a primary care physician. He tells me this. This is the number one complaint. I am exhausted. I can't get quality sleep.
00:06:40
Speaker 1: Help.
00:06:41
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:06:41
Speaker 1: So that's the thing we need to be.
00:06:43
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay.
00:06:44
Speaker 1: We're trying to get quality sleep. How do we get there? It's not a matter of getting in the bed and staying in the bed a certain number of hours. It's about other things in your life you do before you go to bed. It's supposed to cut down on the stress. Is that what we're talking about?
00:06:53
Speaker 3: Yes, there's that.
00:06:54
Speaker 2: And look, when we talk about fatigue, I think we have to, because the study goes into the higher medical risks associated with it. Obviously, if you are chronically fatigued, it's going to limit your ability to move. So you're not going to move as much.
00:07:10
Speaker 3: Because you're exhausted. So you get poor health outcomes. You have a heightened risk of mortality. Yes.
00:07:15
Speaker 2: Fatigue leads to early death. It also leads to difficulty concentrating. Psychosocial problems. So they say 69% of people who have chronic fatigue have anxiety. 46% say they have cognition difficulty, and 45% say they suffer from depression. So anxiety, cognition difficulty, and depression. That is what we're talking about. Okay.
00:07:41
Speaker 1: We need to get this handled because don't we always list those things? Those are said in association with all kinds of issues, Robes, having to do with suicide. That's a school shooting. Absolutely. Robes, all those things lead to other things. So, yes, you're right. We just think sometimes we're tired. I'm just tired. I just need some sleep. I think, Robes, isn't it fair? And I swear to you, that's the way I looked at it really before the aura rings. We always see sleep as a matter of we just need to get more of it and we'll be okay. I don't think there's a drumbeat. I could be wrong. I know there are others or there are some out there who subscribe to this. But, Robes, I don't hear the drumbeat often of the kind of sleep we need to get versus you need this many hours, six to seven to eight and all this thing. I don't, babe. This is a serious health crisis because it touches all these other problems we have in society.
00:08:36
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:08:37
Speaker 2: And to just say, oh, yeah, I'm tired and kind of pass it off as just the way I live my life, it actually, and I tell you this all the time because I do see you exhausted, and I say, please, baby, I actually just, I need you to stick around.
00:08:53
Speaker 3: I need you to live longer. This is serious.
00:08:55
Speaker 2: And I just think it's so interesting, the CDC report pointed out that that exhaustion, fatigue remains, quote, an underexplored topic, despite these shocking, staggering numbers that we should all be paying attention to. And doctors have known for a very long time, this is what their patients come to them and complain about. And yes, eventually, yeah, you have people coming in and saying, Now you've got cancer. Now you've got high blood pressure. Now you've got diabetes. Because all of this exhaustion can lead to overeating. People handle their stress differently. And so you think about if this is a root cause of so many other issues that are killing us, that are costing us our loved ones, that are costing our medical system crazy amounts of dollars, why shouldn't we be studying this and coming up with a plan to help all of us become better? Less stress and get better quality sleep. And when your mind is going, you can't sleep. And when you wake up in the middle of the night and you start going over all the stressors in your head... that's why you can't fall back asleep. And you know that.
00:10:03
Speaker 1: I see you. Oh, I am a poster child for the wrong way to navigate through life when it comes to sleep and rest. The wrong way. The absolute wrong way. And I think, unfortunately, no, unfortunately, fortunately, I haven't. But unfortunately, the only thing that's going to break that cycle is some major issue. Yeah. That hopefully I survive. That sounds crazy, but that is so awful because I haven't had any repercussions other than exhaustion, which is what I'm used, that's how I've lived for 25 years. I don't know anything else. And no one is ever, until the Oura Ring, actually, Made me focus on the type of sleep. How can I get better sleep instead of just making sure I get in there at 9 o'clock and I wake up at 5 o'clock and I get 8 hours? That's crazy. No, Robes, this is another one of those folks. If you ever listen here on the weekend, oftentimes Robes will present a subject or a topic and she does all the research and then she just has me react to it. I didn't think this was going to go this direction. We talk about sleep and, oh, people aren't getting enough sleep and they're tired. Babe, this is a serious health story.
00:11:15
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:11:15
Speaker 1: I am now. This is a totally different podcast.
00:11:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, because because this is serious. I hope that this is a wake up call. Like this is a serious issue and all the other things that you might be suffering from that you aren't attributing to your fatigue. If you can take care of the fatigue, the other problems go away. But the problem is the other problems contribute to your fatigue. Because when you have the anxiety and when you have the depression and when you have the cognition difficulty, it doesn't aid you in trying to reduce stress. It actually just makes you more stressed out.
00:11:49
Speaker 1: So are we supposed to be trying to eliminate the stress or manage it better? What is the thing that whatever doctor, whatever surgeon general, whatever leading health official should be coming out and preaching to us all? We need to be what? Stress is just a part of life. Then we need to teach people how to deal with it better. Correct.
00:12:06
Speaker 3: Yes, correct.
00:12:07
Speaker 2: So.
00:12:08
Speaker 3: Perfect.
00:12:08
Speaker 2: When we come back, we're going to talk about what they say some of the home remedies are and some of these we've all heard before and what doctors and sleep doctors say you should do to try and help out with your quality of sleep so you get better sleep so all those other issues can go away as well.
00:12:38
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Amy and TJ.
00:12:40
Speaker 2: You're going to laugh at some of these home remedies that they suggest because you've heard them before and you pretty much do.
00:12:46
Speaker 3: None of these.
00:12:47
Speaker 1: What's the remedy for what, though?
00:12:48
Speaker 3: To get better quality sleep.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: Not about the stress, just about setting the room up right.
00:12:53
Speaker 2: Yes, but then also during the day they have things that you can do to reduce the stress.
00:12:57
Speaker 3: If you can.
00:12:59
Speaker 2: Put all of these things together, they say this will help with reducing stress and and improving the quality of your sleep. The first one, avoid screens an hour before your bedtime. And they say that that's why when the young people have such a high level of chronic fatigue, they attribute that directly to doom scrolling, to social media scrolling, to having their phones in their beds, and literally just, and then your mind is going and you've got a screen and you're just engaged and you cannot get good sleep. So avoid screens at least an hour before bed. Then they say to sleep in a dark, cool room They said even use a sleep mask.
00:13:38
Speaker 3: Or blackout curtains.
00:13:39
Speaker 2: And there was a new study out this week saying that if you even have a little bit of light in your room, it actually affects your heart health. Like there are real repercussions to having light in your room. The other thing, avoid overly sugary or spicy foods before bed. Also avoid alcohol before bed. And then this consistent sleeping schedule. Don't have a different schedule on the weekends, Monday through Sunday. Okay.
00:14:03
Speaker 3: Wake up and go to bed at the same time every day.
00:14:06
Speaker 1: All right.
00:14:06
Speaker 3: During the day, what can you do? Exercise, exercise, exercise.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: A regular exercise routine builds muscle strength, builds endurance, and it reduces fatigue. It's counterintuitive because if you're tired, you don't want to go on a run, but it actually contributes to easing fatigue.
00:14:24
Speaker 3: Does that make sense?
00:14:25
Speaker 1: Because I I actually... That's the first thing you said in this segment that I subscribed to.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: All right.
00:14:31
Speaker 2: The other thing is they say that there's limited research and there needs to be more, but on aromatherapy.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: And they say especially.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: If.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: You can put the essential oil lavender in your bedroom, it actually boosts melatonin in your body. And it actually increases that hormone production, which helps you sleep. And you are allergic to lavender.
00:14:52
Speaker 3: So that makes me laugh. But are you allergic to aromatherapy lavender?
00:14:58
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. I don't know what aromatherapy is. I don't know what that means.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: There are essential oils that you can put in, like, I've had them before in my bedroom.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: They actually put out, like, a mist. Like, okay, if you go into a spa, not that you go into a spa, but you'll smell.
00:15:14
Speaker 1: This is going great. Okay, it's just a matter of putting smells in the room that's supposed to help you.
00:15:18
Speaker 2: The Mayo Clinic has studied this and said it has actually been proven that it is a helpful treatment for insomnia.
00:15:24
Speaker 1: Is what?
00:15:25
Speaker 3: Aromatherapy. Lavender essential oil.
00:15:28
Speaker 1: Does it have to be lavender?
00:15:29
Speaker 3: Specifically lavender.
00:15:31
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:15:31
Speaker 3: We could try it.
00:15:33
Speaker 1: Fine.
00:15:33
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:15:34
Speaker 1: I'll get great sleep, but in the morning my eyes are swollen and I have a sinus headache.
00:15:39
Speaker 3: I just laughed.
00:15:40
Speaker 2: Because you know I love to tell the story that we didn't go to Provence because you're allergic to lavender.
00:15:45
Speaker 1: You repeat it. It's the stupidest story. I don't know why. It's the one thing. I know what happened. I'm so annoyed that you keep telling that story. Oh, my God.
00:15:55
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know why that's so funny to me.
00:15:57
Speaker 2: All right, and the other thing they say, and I need to do this more because I know that this is important, and I know you have done this, but I don't know how often you do it anymore, meditation. Emotional regulation through mindful breathing or visualization actually soothes the nervous system and it encourages meaningful rest.
00:16:17
Speaker 1: But at night, they're saying at night. See, my meditation was always in the morning. It used to be one of the first things I did.
00:16:22
Speaker 2: What if you did it first thing in the morning and first thing at night? Because it can help with obviously your daytime stress, which that's important as well.
00:16:30
Speaker 1: Ten minutes. I can't spare it. I'm on the run. As soon as I get up in the morning, I got stuff to do, baby.
00:16:33
Speaker 3: Three minutes. How about three minutes?
00:16:35
Speaker 1: Then I had to wake up earlier. You don't want to miss any sleep.
00:16:40
Speaker 2: Excuses, excuses. But the Mayo Clinic, actually, they have a fatigue specialist. We should go, babe. And they say that no matter what, if you have consistent fatigue, you've tried all of this, it doesn't change. You need to go to a doctor to try and discover the root cause.
00:16:57
Speaker 1: There is a cause. Have I tried all of this? Enough stuff?
00:16:59
Speaker 2: No.
00:17:00
Speaker 3: Well, not when I have been with you.
00:17:03
Speaker 2: You have never tried no screens an hour before bed, sleep in a dark, cool room.
00:17:09
Speaker 1: You make me sleep in a dark, cool room.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: There's still a TV on.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: You know what? That's fair. I'll give you that. So if you turn the TV off. You're right. You're right.
00:17:17
Speaker 2: Because that is, for me, like I will tell you when I do toss and turn a little bit, I have to sometimes position a pillow. to block the TV light because it does, even when my, when my eyes are closed, you can still see the light. And I know you, it soothes you and it soothes anxiety and it soothes, you say you want the TV on because it stops your brain from thinking.
00:17:37
Speaker 1: I never watch a new, you know that I never watch a new movie or try a new show. I watch something that I am already familiar with that makes me pay attention just enough, but not too much that it keeps me awake. That makes me focus on something I'm familiar with versus thinking about the next day. I know it's the weirdest damn thing in the world. I've been doing it since high school.
00:17:56
Speaker 2: Right.
00:17:57
Speaker 3: So I wonder if you tried.
00:17:58
Speaker 2: So obviously I know you've kind of laughed at me and I've stopped, but I used to need white noise for that same reason because it just, and it kind of just is a, it just, it turns your brain off. And so I don't know if you'd be willing to try that because then you've got no screen on. So no lights and you have the, And it might take you a while to get used to. But it took me a while to get used to the TV. I'm still not totally used to it.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: Oh, you hate it still. I still hate it. It might be the end of us, actually. But we should, okay, we'll try it this week. You know what? I didn't plan on this. Let's commit. I'll try this week. I think we're cool schedule-wise. We don't have too much running around. We'll be in town in New York. All right.
00:18:36
Speaker 3: Let's try it.
00:18:37
Speaker 1: This week, TV off.
00:18:38
Speaker 3: TV off.
00:18:39
Speaker 1: All right. I'm going to wear the war ring all week. Okay. All right. And then what's the bedtime?
00:18:44
Speaker 2: I think our bedtime should be, well, what time's your wake-up time? They say six to seven hours you should give yourself. So you want to wake up? Are you still waking up at two?
00:18:55
Speaker 1: Go to bed at eight or nine. You know what? Whatever time I go to bed, I'm not going to wake up until at least six hours later. How about that?
00:19:00
Speaker 3: OK, great.
00:19:00
Speaker 2: Or you're not going to get out of bed and I'll get some lavender essential oil.
00:19:05
Speaker 1: Does it matter if I'm I have to just what if I'm awake? Do I just lay there? That's the thing that drives me crazy. You know this, babe. I'm on a weird schedule. We're here in Arkansas now. I woke up the other day. You said, dude, it's like three o'clock. What are you doing?
00:19:21
Speaker 3: And we didn't have to work the next day. We didn't have to work at all. We didn't have to work.
00:19:25
Speaker 1: And you said, what are you doing? And I was confused because I keep my phone on New York time everywhere we go. So I'm looking at it. Thinking it's normal. You're like, boo, it's like two in the morning here. What are you doing?
00:19:39
Speaker 3: Yes, I know. But you're right.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: The consistent thing when you travel time wise, that's a little bit difficult. But let's try some of these things and see if it works.
00:19:46
Speaker 3: Because, yes, we need to tackle this. This is a serious medical.
00:19:50
Speaker 2: Issue and everyone should be paying attention, but we hope you all learn something from this. And we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes.
00:19:58
Speaker 3: We'll talk to you soon.