Why You're Tired All Day But Can't Sleep at Night (And How to Fix It)

You're exhausted from the moment you wake up. You fantasize about taking a nap all afternoon. You can barely keep your eyes open during your 3pm meeting. But the second your head hits the pillow at night, you're suddenly wide awake. Your mind starts racing, your body feels restless, and you lie there for hours unable to fall asleep despite being completely exhausted.

This is one of the most frustrating sleep problems professional women deal with, and it has a name: reversed cortisol pattern.

What's actually happening to your hormones

In a healthy pattern, cortisol (your main stress hormone) should be highest in the morning—that's what helps you wake up feeling energized and alert. Throughout the day, cortisol gradually decreases. By evening, it should be at its lowest point, which allows melatonin (your sleep hormone) to rise and help you fall asleep naturally.

But when you've been under chronic stress for months or years—demanding job, poor sleep, skipping meals, constant pressure—this pattern gets completely flipped.

Your cortisol ends up too low in the morning. That's why you can barely drag yourself out of bed and need coffee immediately just to function. Throughout the day, it stays suppressed, which is why you feel sluggish and depleted. But then by evening, when you're finally trying to relax and wind down, your cortisol spikes.

Your body releases stress hormones to keep you going, which creates that "tired but wired" feeling. You're physically exhausted—your body desperately needs sleep—but your brain won't shut off. Your heart might be racing. You might feel anxious or agitated even though nothing is actively wrong.

Why this pattern develops

Years of chronic workplace stress, poor sleep (which becomes a vicious cycle), skipping meals or eating irregularly, and constant mental pressure deplete your adrenal glands. They can't produce the right amount of cortisol at the right times anymore. You're stuck in a reversed pattern where you're exhausted when you need to be awake and wired when you need to sleep.

How to start fixing it

This isn't a quick fix—it takes 2-4 weeks to start retraining your cortisol pattern—but it is fixable.

Morning: Get bright light within 30 minutes of waking.

Go outside for 10 minutes, or at minimum sit by the brightest window you have. This signals your brain to produce cortisol when you actually need it and stops melatonin production. It's the single most important thing you can do to reset your circadian rhythm.

Afternoon: Eat balanced meals and cut caffeine after 2pm.

Skipping meals crashes your blood sugar, which forces your body to release cortisol to compensate. And caffeine after 2pm keeps cortisol artificially elevated into the evening when you need it to drop.

Evening: Dim your lights 2 hours before bed and take magnesium.

Bright lights—especially blue light from screens—suppress melatonin production. Your brain thinks it's still daytime. Use lamps instead of overhead lights, and if you must use screens, wear blue light blocking glasses. Take 300-400mg of magnesium glycinate 30 minutes before bed—it calms your nervous system and supports the transition from cortisol to melatonin.

This approach addresses the root cause—your reversed cortisol pattern—instead of just masking symptoms with sleep aids. It takes consistency, but it's the only way to truly fix "tired all day, wired at night."