Nearly 3 in 4 Adults Say They've Felt Exhausted Lately, CDC Finds
Have you spent the past few months wondering why you're so tired? Turns out, you have lots of company.
A new CDC report found that nearly three-quarters of Americans have felt tired or exhausted in the last three months.
Some folks, however, are more tired than others.
CDC: Most Adults Have Felt Frequent Fatigue Lately
The new CDC fatigue report for 2026 looked at responses from nearly 32,000 adults who participated in the 2024 National Health Interview Survey.
Researchers asked people how often they felt "very tired or exhausted" in the last three months.
The answers suggest we're a sleepy bunch:
54.9% felt fatigued some days
10.7% felt fatigued most days
5.9% felt fatigued every day
28.5% said they never felt fatigued
Put it together, and 71.5% of adults experienced fatigue at least occasionally.
The CDC classified the 16.6% who felt exhausted most days or every day as experiencing "frequent fatigue."
As for the 28.5% who said never? We'd like to know their secrets.
Women Are More Tired Than Men
The CDC fatigue survey found some substantial demographic differences.
Women reported frequent fatigue at a rate of 20%, compared with 13% of men.
Age brought another surprise.
We might assume older adults would be the most exhausted, but the numbers went in the opposite direction.
Adults aged 18 to 34 had the highest rate of frequent fatigue at 19.5%.
The percentage gradually dropped with age, hitting 12.9% among adults 65 and older.
Where You Live Makes a Difference, Too
Geography also made its way into the CDC's frequent fatigue statistics.
Adults in the South and Midwest reported higher rates of frequent fatigue than those in the West and Northeast.
And there was an even bigger difference between cities and less populated areas.
Frequent fatigue affected 14.5% of adults living in large central metropolitan areas.
And, for people who live in nonmetropolitan areas, that jumped to 20.5%.
Income followed a similar pattern.
Adults with family incomes below the federal poverty level had a 21.7% rate of frequent fatigue, compared with 13.6% in those whose family incomes were at least four times the poverty level.
Fatigue Often Comes With Other Problems
This is where the report becomes a little more serious.
In adults with frequent fatigue, 69.6% also reported symptoms of anxiety, while 45% reported symptoms of depression.
Another 46.1% reported difficulty with cognition.
That doesn't mean the CDC found that fatigue causes anxiety or depression, or vice versa.
The study looked at conditions that occurred together, rather than establishing what caused what.
Still, the fatigue, anxiety, and depression link in the numbers is striking.
About half of the adults with frequent fatigue reported difficulties in at least three areas of functioning.
In adults without frequent fatigue, that figure was just 16.9%.
Being Tired Can Get in the Way of Life
We're not just talking about wanting to crawl back under the covers when the alarm goes off.
Among adults experiencing frequent fatigue, 36% said a physical, mental, or emotional problem limited the kind or amount of work they could do.
Another 29% reported some level of difficulty participating in social activities.
The CDC was careful to note that fatigue is different from simply being sleepy.
It's generally considered physical or mental exhaustion that doesn't disappear after getting more sleep or rest.
America Could Use a Nap
The CDC isn't trying to diagnose why we're all wandering around looking longingly at sofas.
Its report specifically examined how common fatigue is and how it overlaps with other problems, not just the underlying medical causes.
The numbers give us a pretty good answer if we've been wondering how many adults are tired.
Many of us.
Nearly three-quarters experienced fatigue at least occasionally, and about one in six dealt with it most days or every day.
So, if you're tired of being tired, you're certainly not alone.
You may, however, want to have a word with that suspiciously energetic 28.5%.
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