Wegovy is one brand name for the drug semaglutide. It’s a higher-dose version of the diabetes medication Ozempic. Wegovy is FDA-approved to help overweight and obese adults shed the pounds, but it can also leave you feeling tired and drained.
Below, we’ll cover how Wegovy makes you tired and how you can use the RISE app to get more energy.
Heads-up: Wegovy is still a relatively new drug. More research is needed into the side effects. As more people use the drug, more reports of Wegovy causing tiredness and sleep problems are emerging.
Wegovy can make you feel tired. Fatigue is listed as a common side effect of the drug, affecting 11% of people in clinical trials. Wegovy may also disrupt your sleep.
This number doesn’t tell the whole story, however. Trials were done on adults with obesity or those who were overweight, so it’s unclear how the drug affects other groups. And it’s not clear whether fatigue was fleeting, ongoing, or compared to how fatigued people felt before taking Wegovy.
And this is just from a handful of clinical trials reported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA states these trials are conducted under “widely varying conditions” and, therefore, rates of side effects “may not reflect the rates observed in practice.”
In practice, there are many variables that could affect side effects, including health conditions and drug interactions.
Beyond clinical research, as more people use the drug, there’s more anecdotal evidence that Wegovy can make you feel tired and cause sleep problems.
For example, a 2023 study published in Brain Sciences analyzed Reddit, Youtube, and TikTok posts about the side effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 receptor agonists), the class of medication Wegovy belongs to. Users reported sleep-related issues most frequently, including insomnia, anxiety, depression, and general mental health issues, which can affect sleep and energy levels.
These findings come from social media, however, not controlled studies, so more research is needed.
Heads-up: Despite often being used interchangeably, feeling tired and feeling sleepy aren't the same thing. Tiredness is when you feel fatigued, but you might not be able to sleep. Sleepiness is when you could physically fall asleep if you tried. Wegovy can make you feel both tired and sleepy.
We’ve covered whether GLP-1 receptor agonists (active ingredient: semaglutide) make you tired including:
And we’ve covered drugs that are dual-acting GLP-1 receptor agonists and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptides (GIP) receptor agonists (active ingredient: tirzepatide):
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More research is needed to find out why taking Wegovy makes you tired. It may be due to eating fewer calories, low blood sugar levels, GI issues and anxiety causing sleep loss, or changes in dopamine levels.
Here’s more on how Wegovy can make you tired:
You may also feel tired due to the common culprits of high sleep debt and circadian misalignment, which can tank your energy whether you’re on Wegovy or not. We cover how to fix those soon.
Wegovy may affect sleep by causing GI issues, anxiety, and depression, which can make it harder to sleep. You may also change your daily habits, which can affect your sleep. For example, you might exercise less, which can make it harder to drift off, or eat less, which can cause nighttime hunger pangs.
Wegovy may cause insomnia. Research from 2023 found reports of GLP-1 receptor agonists causing insomnia in some, but improving insomnia in others. Wegovy may also cause anxiety and depression, which are linked to insomnia.
Wegovy may cause sleep problems that look like insomnia.
It’s not clear whether reports of insomnia can be classified as clinical insomnia, however.
The International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-3) defines insomnia as having:
Having these sleep problems at least three nights a week for at least three months could be a sign of insomnia. If you have them for one to three months, this could be a sign of episodic insomnia.
Speak to a healthcare provider if you think you have insomnia. You may need different, or additional, treatments compared to other Wegovy sleep problems.
Wegovy may improve sleep in the short or long term. Wegovy can help overweight and obese adults lose significant amounts of weight, and losing weight can improve sleep problems, like sleep apnea, and lower your odds of health conditions, like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, which are linked to sleep disorders like insomnia.
Semaglutide may be a potentially promising treatment for sleep apnea. We’ve covered more on Ozempic and Wegovy for sleep apnea here.
The 2023 study we mentioned earlier found social media posts reporting improvements in insomnia, anxiety, and depression from GLP-1 receptor agonists for some users.
And you’re encouraged to improve your diet and exercise on Wegovy, so these changes can help improve your sleep, too. You may naturally eat smaller meals or less fatty foods, which is also good news for sleep.
Wegovy may even reduce your cravings for alcohol and cigarettes, and cutting down on these can also improve your sleep.
We’ve covered more on the link between sleep and weight loss here.
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More research is needed to know how long Wegovy fatigue lasts. Fatigue, and side effects causing sleep loss, may go away as your body gets used to the drug. The exact duration can vary, however. A 2022 study found vomiting can last two days, whereas constipation can last 27 days.
Your dose of Wegovy will gradually increase — usually once a month until your fourth or fifth month when you’re kept on a consistent dose. It may take a while for your body to adapt to the higher maintenance dose, so it’s unclear how long fatigue will last.
More long-term studies on Wegovy are needed.
The most common side effects of Wegovy include:
Many of these potential side effects can cause anxiety and sleep loss.
An increase in resting heart rate is another relatively common side effect. The mean increase in clinical trials (at any visit) was one to four beats per minute, but 26% experienced an increase of 20 beats per minute or more.
More rare side effects include an allergic reaction, pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas), gallbladder problems like gallstones, kidney failure, and an increased risk of thyroid cancer and thyroid tumors.
Seek medical attention if you’re experiencing serious side effects.
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You can improve Wegovy fatigue by lowering your sleep debt, syncing up with your circadian rhythm, improving your sleep hygiene, managing GI issues, reducing anxiety, eating healthfully, and getting some exercise.
Here’s what to do:
We’ve covered more ways to stop feeling tired here.
One key way to stop feeling tired is to make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Enough sleep looks different for everyone — and it varies quite a bit.
When we looked at how much sleep 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up needed, we found it ranged from five hours to 11 hours 30 minutes. RISE can work out how much sleep you individually need.
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RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can view their sleep need here.
Fatigue is a common side effect of Wegovy, and the drug may cause sleep problems.
Feel less tired while on the drug by keeping your sleep debt low, living in sync with your circadian rhythm, and maintaining good sleep hygiene.
To make those steps easier, RISE works out and tracks your sleep debt, predicts the timing of your circadian rhythm, and sends you personalized reminders for 20+ sleep hygiene habits.
Users say these habit reminders improve their days, even if they can’t get a full night’s sleep:
“I’m sleeping better regardless of time asleep (we all know life happens) because RISE gives me notifications about when to stop drinking coffee and alcohol, and when my ideal time to go to bed is.” Read the review.
And it doesn’t take long to feel the difference — 80% of RISE users have more energy within five days.
RISE makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential
RISE makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential
