Nearly 3 in 4 US adults felt very tired or exhausted on at least some days, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey.The report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) analyzed data from the 2024 National Health Interview Survey, which included approximately 27,000 adults aged 18 and older.Fatigue is generally defined as physical or mental tiredness or exhaustion that does not improve with additional sleep or rest.However, it should be distinguished from sleepiness, which is the experience of feeling drowsy or having difficulty staying awake, the report stated.How Common Is Fatigue Among US Adults?28.5% never felt very tired or exhausted.54.9% felt very tired or exhausted on “some days.”10.7% felt this way on “most days.”5.9% felt very tired or exhausted “every day.”About 1 in 6 adults experienced frequent fatigue, defined as feeling very tired or exhausted on “most days” or “every day.”Who Is Most Affected?Women were more likely than men to report frequent fatigue (20% vs. 13%).American Indian and Alaska Native adults had the highest rate of frequent fatigue (25.5%), followed by White adults (18%), Black adults (17.3%) and Hispanic adults (12.9%). Asian adults had the lowest rate (9.1%).Frequent fatigue was highest among adults aged 18–34 years (19.5%) and lowest among those aged 65 and older (12.9%).What Other Difficulties Are Linked To Frequent Fatigue?The report showed that among adults with frequent fatigue, 69.6% reported symptoms of anxiety, 46.1% reported cognition difficulty and 45% reported symptoms of depression.Compared with adults without frequent fatigue, those with frequent fatigue were more than three times as likely to have symptoms of depression, more than twice as likely to have cognition difficulty and twice as likely to report symptoms of anxiety.How Does Fatigue Affect Daily Life?Fatigue also affected work and social activities, with 36% of adults with frequent fatigue reporting work limitations, compared with 15.3% of those without frequent fatigue.Meanwhile, 16.2% of adults with frequent fatigue reported some difficulty with social activities, compared with 5.3% of those without frequent fatigue.Another 12.8% reported a lot of difficulty with social activities or said they could not engage in them at all, compared with 2.6% of adults without frequent fatigue.What Experts Say About Fatigue“Fatigue is one of the most frequently reported health concerns in primary care,” Natalie A.E. Young, the report’s author, said.She added that people who report regular fatigue “are at higher risk of activity limitations and disability, including permanent work disability,” while pointing out that there had not been much attention to the frequency of general fatigue symptoms in the US adult population.While fatigue symptoms can be associated with various conditions, Young noted that some may not be linked to a specific medical condition.“Stress can cause surges in hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which can wear a body down. That increasing stress contributes to an uptick in fatigue,” Jennifer Caspari, a clinical psychologist licensed in Denver and Vancouver, British Columbia, was quoted as saying to NBC News.