Are we turning into a nation of exhaustion zombies? Doctors are reporting epidemics of exotic-sounding, self-diagnosed illnesses whose core symptom is constant tiredness.

A host of new conditions with names such as adrenal fatigue, candidiasis, under-active thyroid and even 'low blood PH' are being popularised by celebrities and 'check yourself' websites.

So many patients are turning up at their GPs complaining of fatigue that doctors have invented an acronym for their woes: TATT — or 'tired all the time'. Studies show, however, that only around one in five of these patients actually has an identifiable physical illness.

Yawn: GPs are seeing so many people complaining of tiredness that they've come up with an acronym for the complaint - TATT, or Tired All The Time
Leading experts have another, simpler, explanation for our growing malaise: we're suffering from 'electronic insomnia'. We need to switch off our smartphones, laptops and other gadgets at night and get some proper sleep, lest we really do develop serious illnesses.
Many 'tired all the time' patients whose GPs say there is nothing wrong with them go on the internet or look to the celebrity world to find an explanation for their fatigue. They don't have to go far.
Gwyneth Paltrow and the fashion designer Donna Karan, for example, have declared that they are working to boost the 'alkalinity of their blood' in order to beat fatigue.

Earlier this year, Dannii Minogue became a standard-bearer for people who put their tiredness down to a thyroid condition after she was told she had an under-active thyroid.


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But UK doctors have reported an alarming rise in people self-diagnosing with this particular ailment. An editorial in the British Medical Journal has raised fears about a rise in misdiagnosis of hypothyroidism, with patients increasingly seeking access to non-standard treatments and unregulated alternative practitioners.

The internet is awash with self-testing websites — the website candidatest.co.uk, for example, offers a 'full screening test' for 'candidiasis hypersensitivity'.

The tests are sent to a laboratory in Germany run by alternative therapists rather than medical doctors. Candida, a kind of yeast, is claimed to be behind a fungus infection that causes fatigue, depression and stomach aches.

Sleep time: UK doctors have reported an alarming rise in people self-diagnosing causes for their exhaustion
Mainstream medicine does not believe that this condition exists, except in a tiny minority of patients with severe problems with their immune systems, such as being infected with HIV.

Another fashionable tiredness-related condition is adrenal fatigue, also known as '21st-century syndrome'. Saliva-test kits that claim to identify the condition through measuring for high levels of stress hormones are available on the web for around £100.

The condition is said to affect thousands of westerners whose adrenal glands have been 'worn out' by the stresses of modern life. Symptoms are said to include tiredness, sleep problems, digestive upsets, nervousness, and aches and pains. But medical experts say the illness simply does not exist.

John Wass, professor of endocrinology at Oxford University, is seeing growing numbers of patients referred to him for testing by private doctors who have diagnosed adrenal fatigue.
'Adrenal fatigue is not a diagnosis that is accepted by qualified endocrinologists,' he says. 'When I test these patients' blood, there is nothing to indicate that there is anything wrong with them or their adrenal glands,' he says.

These glands sit on top of the kidneys and produce hormones that help control the heart rate and blood pressure.

Treated: Singer and former X Factor judge Dannii Minogue was told she had an under-active thyroid
Professor Wass says: 'Often these patients have been diagnosed by private practitioners who have measured the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva. But this means nothing.' There is certainly no clinically-supported link to 'fatigued' adrenal glands.

Worse still, Professor Wass adds: 'Some of the patients referred to me have been prescribed steroid drugs, which is terrible. If you give anyone steroids, it will make them feel buzzy. The patients therefore think that the drugs are doing them good.

'But, in fact, the steroids make the brain suppress the adrenal system, so patients end up having a real case of the non-existent adrenal problems that they started with. They could end up dependent on powerful steroids for life.'

Long-term use of steroids carries a high risk of side-effects such as liver damage, heart problems, loss of libido, mood swings and sudden aggressiveness.

Beyond all these exotic diagnoses, there appears to be a far simpler explanation as to why growing number of Britons are suffering persistent symptoms of tiredness. We are not getting enough sleep.

But in these days of a 'medical diagnosis for every ailment', many people want to believe that there is something more exotic wrong with them than a simple lack of natural rest and a lifestyle that is out of kilter with their body's needs.
Last month, a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that Britain is the tired man of Europe: we spend less time sleeping on average than our EU partners.

In fact, one in eight of us now sleeps for less than six hours a night, according to a survey this year by the Economic and Social Research Council.

When we do go to bed, we have difficulty switching off. One in ten Britons takes sleeping pills three times a week or more, said a study by Professor Sara Arber, of the University of Surrey, in March.Although a small percentage of people will suffer from insomnia, a medical condition, another reason for sleeplessness is becoming much more prevalent, experts say: our electronic gadgets are keeping us awake.

A survey of 6,000 adults by researchers at Cambridge University Hospitals found that, just before they turn in, more than 70 per cent of adults now go online to update social networking sites, send messages and check celebrity gossip.

Millions of us leave our smartphones on at night , according to a survey by the bedmaker Silentnight. But being exposed to bright light from computer and mobile phone screens while in bed can confuse our body clock, delaying the brain's ability to get to sleep.

On top of this electronic insomnia, a number of other lifestyle factors can exacerbate the problem. These include our workaholic culture (we are up at the top of Europe's long-hours league, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), junk-food diets, and a lack of exercise.

The answer is clear, according to the leading British expert, Professor Adrian Williams, of the London Sleep Centre: we must ban all electronics from the bedroom — including televisions and laptops.

'So often it is people's highly networked lifestyle causing constant tiredness, rather than any of these strange new diseases,' he says.

'It is well recognised that using phones and computers in the bedroom is a common cause of sleep problems. The standard rule of sleep hygiene is that the bedroom is for sleep and sex, and nothing else.'
Professor Williams says he increasingly sees patients complaining of exotic tiredness-related ailments that they have self-diagnosed. 'Only yesterday, one man said to me that he believes he has an under-active thyroid. But actually, that simply would not have caused his straightforward symptoms of sleepiness.'
'One way of seeing if someone isn't sleeping enough is to ask them about their symptoms on a Monday, when they've had weekend catch-up sleep, and then on a Friday, and see if their “illness” symptoms have increased.'
Professor Williams says while 'lack of sleep' may sound neither as intriguing or dangerous as the new crop of 'illnesses', it can nevertheless have serious consequences, as it has been linked to an increased risk from a host of conditions including diabetes and heart disease.

Professor Jim Horne, the director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, echoes the call for a ban on electronic gadgets at bedtime. The answer, he says, is to rely on an older form of technology at bedtime: the printed word.

'It is old-fashioned but it works: read a book in bed — this will help you to conk out naturally.'