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I'm in my early 40's and started feeling the same way about 18 months ago.

I'm up every day at 5 am for work, usually get home by 4 and workout for 45 mins or so 3-4 days a week. Last spring I lost all my energy and motivation. I pushed through each day and couldn't shake it. Most weekdays I would wake up and already feel tired.

I went and had bloodwork done, and my total test was 600 and free test was 6.1. My PCP (female) said total test was normal, and the free was a little low. So we did nothing and just attributed my fatigue to "getting old."

Here I am 18 months later and still have the lethargy. I can barely get motivated to cut the grass. I am going to schedule more labs soon, and if the test is low I may change PCP's to a male to see if I can get a different perspective.

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After reading all of that, my biggest takeaway is caffeine and sleep.

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+1. You're probably exacerbating the problem getting caught in a cycle with these too. Can't sleep, so you need more caffeine in the afternoon, so you sleep worse, etc.

Bad sleep will make you feel like dog shite in the afternoon. Your fitness seems to be fine based on your post. If you haven't already, get a sleep mask and/or blackout curtains. Even the smallest bit of light can throw your sleep off. Obviously there's no easy fix for the home life stuff that's keeping you up, but maybe being in the dark can help your body get back to sleep rather than tossing and turning.

Stop the caffeine before lunch. Workout in the mornings instead of afternoons. You’ll get a great boost of energy post workout. Try magnesium L-threonate before bed. Drink lots of water throughout the day. Dehydration is a real thing most people don’t realize they have. LMNT electrolytes work great to counter that. I take every morning with creatine

Might need to get checked for Sleep Apnea too.

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I find afternoon workouts cause me to sleep worse.

Caffeine will release cortisol stress hormones NIH

Cut back on it, your tiring yourself on it.

You didn't mention the type of work you do. Is that job stressful?

I feel you.
46. Willis-Ekbom disease (Restless Leg Syndrome) + age are doing a number on me. I take gabapentin for the RLS, which takes the edge off, but I need a THC gummy to actually sleep. The gaba leaves me lethargic the next day, regardless of sleep quality. Gaba and Paxil have both led to weight gain.

I’m early 40’s and have experienced most of what you’ve said.
This is just from my experience:

Caffeine was a detriment for me. Sleep, patience, anxiety, etc.
It stays in our system 5-10 hours even after we stop feeling the effects. As I still need it to wake up and for workouts, I changed from 5:30 pm workouts to 6 am workouts. This took a few weeks of adjustment but it’s been a game changer for me. I’m more patient, less irritable, and very relaxed when I try to get sleepy. I also stay asleep. There are many options to get energy throughout the day such as carbs, sunlight, B vitamins, etc.

Nicotine. This one is tricky and I’ve done a little research. When our bodies have the nicotine levels it’s used to, sleep isn’t a problem. If the chemical is suddenly absent, this would cause me to wake up in the middle of the night. Your body could be entering and exiting a nicotine withdrawal phase even if very slightly. Not sure. I would either stay with the dip or eliminate it completely. (temporarily until you figure out the other issues)

I will admit, alcohol is a non-factor for me. I quit drinking years ago so maybe someone else can elaborate on that.

In my opinion, sleep is the answer to your problems. 7-8 hours of good, undisturbed sleep. Once you get your sleep down the rest will start to follow. I’m a big advocate of being all natural especially with sleep. I just think the quality of sleep is better and quality matters. I’m no doc but it seems to me that sleep would be better without chemicals and medicine running through our bodies. That’s how they were designed after all. There’s even some studies that show Benadryl is so effective because it’s basically suffocating part of your brain. Diphenhydramine can actually predispose people to dementia per Dr. Dan Kaufer, neurologist.

Some tricks that worked for me include getting in bed with a show, movie or book about an hour before I want to fall asleep. Having not had caffeine since that morning. A box fan. Not an app, but a real box fan on the high level. Ceiling fan on high. Cold a/c. Dark room with blackout curtains.

Also, my life and sleep-life started getting better when peace became my goal over happiness. Happiness can never be fully achieved because it’s based on external factors whereas peace is internal. A way I achieved this peace was through morning devotionals, prayer and going to church on Sunday’s. It’s a daily effort and must be sought after first thing in the morning and on a daily basis.

Good luck!

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Jesus, last night I was thinking about posting my situation on here. Glad I'm not the only one with issues. I'm getting my sleep apnea test done soon and hope that's the issue and not some sort of long Covid situation.

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First of all long Covid isn’t real

But is there a way to get a cpap machine without the test? I’m willing to buy the machine just to try it out like it just blows air how could it hurt anything


I took an online sleep test where they make you wear a monitor overnight and sent it in and there was this little bs hurricane in Florida and they said the results got lost and acted like I was a bad person for being annoyed considering we have real hurricanes and life goes on like normal and nobody cares but when it rains in Florida it makes national news

ETA: I would rather die of sleep apnea that go to one of those places where you try to sleep in a cage while college kids taunt you