Feeling nauseous, tired, or dizzy can affect your daily life and can be frustrating when you can’t think of why you are experiencing this. Feeling fatigued often causes you to experience dizziness. Most people find that resting or a good night’s sleep helps them to get rid of these symptoms.
While these are common symptoms, they are often not serious and can go away on their own. However, some symptoms may need medical intervention.
For example, dehydration is a common cause of nausea, tiredness, and headaches. Dehydration happens when your body loses more fluids and electrolytes than you drink. Hangovers are often the result of dehydration and can cause you to feel tired, weak, and nauseous.
Other common causes of these symptoms include:
- interrupted sleep
- low blood sugar
- high or low blood pressure
- migraine episodes
- anemia
- stress
- medication side effects
Learning more about the possible causes of these symptoms can help you know when to seek professional advice.
Causes
A wide range of conditions can cause you to feel fatigued, dizzy, and nauseous. The symptoms often happen together.
Below are just some of the possible reasons why you may experience these symptoms.
Blood pressure
Lower blood pressure is generally healthier for your body. However, when blood pressure dips too low, this is called hypotension. Usually, there is nothing to worry about, but it can cause unpleasant symptoms.
Healthcare professionals consider low blood pressure as hypotension when your reading is lower than 90/60 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg).
Dizziness and light-headedness are common signs of low blood pressure. Other symptoms can include:
- Dizziness and nausea: This can be particularly prevalent when you stand up after sitting for a long time. You may hear healthcare professionals refer to this as orthostatic hypotension. It can feel like a head rush that throws you off balance.
- Tiredness: Low blood pressure can mean your muscles and organs are not receiving enough blood, making you feel tired, even if you sleep well. A 2018 study suggests a link between hypotension and chronic fatigue syndrome.
- Fainting: Fainting, or syncope, is a common symptom of low blood pressure. It happens when your brain does not receive enough blood. It can be harmless but may be a sign of an underlying health condition.
Some possible causes of low blood pressure include:
- dehydration
- pregnancy
- bed rest after surgery
- diabetes
- thyroid conditions
- blood circulation problems
- certain medications like beta-blockers and diuretics
- excessive vomiting
- blood infections
High blood pressure may also cause symptoms of tiredness and fatigue. Talk with a doctor if you have concerns about your blood pressure.
Migraine
A migraine episode can last anywhere from a few hours to multiple days. Migraine episodes cause various symptoms, typically headaches, but they can also cause tiredness, nausea, and dizziness.
Migraine headaches often cause pain on just one side of your head. Other symptoms include:
- light sensitivity
- sound sensitivity
- vomiting
- difficulty concentrating
A distinctive symptom of a migraine episode is an aura that occurs immediately before the headache part of the migraine begins. Around 25% of people who experience migraine episodes notice auras before.
These can present in the following ways:
- visual flashes and spots of light
- pins and needles in your arms
- difficulty thinking straight
Low iron
Your red blood cells carry oxygen around the body to your muscles and organs. Anemia is a health condition where your body is unable to make enough red blood cells, or they do not function well. Red blood cells are not able to carry the oxygen that your body needs. The iron content in your red blood cells allows them to transport oxygen.
Excessive bleeding or a lack of iron in your diet can cause anemia.
When your body does not have enough oxygen, it can cause weakness, tiredness, and dizziness.
- chest pain
- quickening heart rate
- cold hands and feet
- pale complexion
- headache
- weakness
COVID-19
Dizziness and fatigue can happen for many different reasons, one of which may be COVID-19. This is still a developing area of research, including the effects of long-term COVID-19 (commonly known as long COVID) symptoms in some individuals.
Experiencing tiredness and dizziness if you have had COVID-19 is not generally concerning, as this generally happens when you contract a virus.
However, long-haul COVID-19 is a complication of COVID-19 that researchers are still trying to understand. Long-haul COVID-19 can cause severe fatigue and cardiovascular symptoms resulting in dizziness and shortness of breath.
A review from 2021 notes that fatigue was a symptom for 55% of people experiencing long-haul COVID-19. Researchers also note that fatigue is one of the most persistent and severe symptoms of long-haul COVID-19.
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