Does Creatine Make You Tired? Causes & How To Fix

With all the benefits creatine is known for, some people have experienced tiredness associated with its supplementation.  Here’s everything you need to know about creatine and fatigue.

Key Takeaways

• Creatine is unlikely to cause feelings of tiredness directly. Creatine increases your body’s natural creatine stores in the muscles, kidneys, and brain, giving you more energy, not less.

• Because creatine can help you work out more intensely and for longer, you may be tired due to increased activity levels and training output.

• Other reasons you could feel tired are that you’re not drinking enough water, sleeping enough, or eating properly. Also, caffeine, which is sometimes found in supplements that contain creatine, can cause a crash that leaves you feeling more tired.

Want to know all the known side effects of creatine? Check out our guide on Are There Risks of Taking Creatine?

Creatine Makes Me Sleepy: 7 Reasons Why You Feel Tired When Taking Creatine

Creatine is a widely researched supplement considered safe for most of the population. As exercise physiologist, psychologist, and registered dietitian Dr. David Creel says:

“There really doesn’t appear to be any major hazards to it, which is kind of unique for a supplement.”

While fatigue is not a direct side effect of creatine, there could be several other factors contributing to you feeling tired when taking creatine.

Dehydration: Are You Drinking Enough Water?

Creatine is a water-loving supplement, so when you’re using it, water will be drawn into your muscles. By introducing creatine, you are increasing the amount of water directed to your muscles and away from other systems. 

So, if you aren’t drinking enough water to support your creatine use and maintain your bodily functions, you could suffer dehydration.

This could cause fatigue and tiredness because your body is not getting the fluid to regulate temperature and function properly. 

Sleep: Is Creatine Altering Your Sleep Pattern?

Introducing creatine to your diet could increase your brain’s energy, resulting in you feeling more awake for longer and taking longer for your brain to register its time to wind down and prepare for sleep. 

If your sleep system is altered when you’re using creatine, you might be left feeling tired and fatigued as a result.

There is limited available research on creatine’s impact on sleep. However, one notable study conducted on rats attempted to explore this connection by monitoring the sleep-wake cycle of rats who had creatine added to their food.

The study found that sleep time was reduced and sleep structure was altered. While the study was not undertaken on humans, and it doesn’t specifically address a connection between creatine and tiredness, it does provide some relevant considerations:

• ATP is an energy source for your brain cells throughout the time you are awake. It slowly degrades the longer you are awake, and as it does, this contributes to the process that occurs in our brain to get us ready for rest and sleep. 

• With creatine supplementation, increasing ATP energy stores in the brain potentially extends our awake time because more energy is working through the brain, taking longer to degrade. The increased ATP may also lower our sleep intensity because the brain has higher energy levels.

If creatine is, in fact, causing you to be awake longer and impacting your sleeping rhythm and routines, you may experience some tiredness and carry-over fatigue. 

• Learn more about creatine in the article Most Common Types of Creatine.

Type Of Creatine: What Is In Your Creatine Supplement?

When you are taking creatine as part of a hybrid supplement or mixing your creatine in with another supplement, like pre-workout, some of the other ingredients may cause you to feel tired. 

Pre-workout typically includes stimulants like caffeine, at around 400-500mg per serving. For comparison, a typical cup of coffee has around 100mg of caffeine.

After experiencing the high of pre-workout, where you’re feeling revved up, firing, and ready to smash your training, you can experience a caffeine crash. 

A caffeine crash will leave you feeling tired and fatigued and is the result of too much caffeine consumption. 

• Related Article: Should Beginners Take Creatine?

Other Supplements: What Other Supplements Are You Using?

Think about other supplements you’re taking as well:

• If you are drinking coffee, energy drinks, or taking caffeine tablets in addition to your pre-workout, this can also leave you feeling tired because of that increased caffeine consumption and subsequent crash.

• If you’re using steroids, this can affect energy levels as hormones in your body adjust. 

• If you’re taking an L Carnitine supplement, check to see what else is in the ingredient panel, these may also have a caffeine component to them. 

• If you’re trying to increase vascularity and taking a supplement to assist, many of these may contain stimulant ingredients contributing to feeling tired. 

It is important to dose any supplements you are taking in the context of other supplements to ensure you are minimizing potential side effects and maximizing benefits.  

Nutrition: Are You Eating In A Calorie Deficit?

When you take creatine you are providing your muscles with an increased source of energy to support increased muscle performance during your workouts. 

This means you’re likely working harder and expending more energy than you were prior to taking creatine. If you aren’t consuming enough calories to support this, you could be left feeling tired. 

With the ability to work harder during your workouts, you will place increased energy demands on your body. 

So, if you’re using creatine and in an intentional calorie deficit to drop body fat simultaneously, you may be creating too much of a calorie deficit and not getting enough food and energy, leaving you feeling lethargic and tired.  

Training: Has Your Training Output Increased?

Creatine has been shown to improve high-intensity exercise performance, leading to greater training adaptations. Studies also support the development of lean muscle mass. 

So, your creatine supplementation is supporting changes in your muscles, enabling you to push yourself harder during workouts and achieve the following:

• Greater performance output and

• Increased muscle mass. 

This growth requires you to consume enough calories to recover from your workouts and repair your muscles so they can grow.

If you’re not supporting your training on creatine with appropriate nutrition, you could find yourself with low energy and tired. 

Dosage: How Much Creatine Are You Taking?

For some people, taking creatine can cause them to feel mild gastrointestinal side effects, like stomach pains, causing them to poop more.  This is typically attributed to the amount of creatine that is being consumed. 

In instances where you are consuming creatine in higher doses and it’s having an impact on your guts, your body could be losing nutrients through aggressive poop sessions and fighting to repair itself.

If this happens regularly, it could also affect your energy levels. 

Should You Stop Taking Creatine If You’re Getting Tired? 

If you’re feeling tired using creatine, before deciding whether you should stop taking it, try some of these tips:

• Check your water intake to ensure you are adequately hydrating. You want to ensure you get enough water to support your creatine use and your usual body functions. Try incorporating a glass of water on waking, before and after meals and snacks, and sipping it consistently when working out. 

• Review your supplement regime. Suppose your creatine comes from a hybrid supplement or is mixed with another supplement containing ingredients like caffeine. In that case, you can take creatine in isolation or cycle your pre-workout to give your body a break from the stimulants.

• Look at your supplement regime because certain ingredients could have a cumulative effect across many supplements affecting your energy levels. 

• Look at your nutrition plan to ensure it aligns with your performance goals, activity level, and body composition goals for sustained results. Reach out to a nutrition coach if you need targeted assistance with this. 

• Some studies have shown citric acid to be beneficial in improving physical fatigue during workouts. Perhaps have a conversation with a professional to see if this would benefit you and any tiredness you’re experiencing. 

• Pay attention to how much creatine you consume and how your body feels. Research has shown daily servings of 3-5g of creatine will deliver sustained results. There isn’t any benefit to smashing down tonnes of creatine daily because whatever you don’t need, you excrete. Don’t be wasteful, and don’t unnecessarily pressure your body to process something. 

While your body is adaptable, it can be sensitive to changes, so be mindful of the big picture and think about how everything you’re doing or not doing is connected.

Consult with a health professional if you’re feeling confused or still without answers, particularly around sustained tiredness or fatigue. 

Does The Brand of Creatine Matter When It Comes To Feeling Tired?

Generally speaking, the brand of creatine you’re using isn’t likely to matter when trying to understand why you’re tired. 

What you should focus on instead is the ingredients of your creatine supplement. The ingredients in your supplements must be of good quality and have been studied for their safety and efficacy.

Creatine monohydrate is the most common and extensively studied type of creatine. It has an excellent safety profile, and while it doesn’t guarantee you won’t experience any side effects, it does minimize the probability.

Given its proven record, it is best to ensure this is the creatine ingredient in your supplements. 

For creatine-only supplements:

• The ingredient panel should only include creatine monohydrate

• The ingredient panel may also cite, ‘Creapure’, the main brand of creatine monohydrate used in most reputable creatine supplements. 

For hybrid creatine supplements, like pre-workout with creatine:

• The creatine ingredient should be ‘creatine monohydrate.’

• For the other ingredients in your pre-workout, be mindful that stimulants can cause you to feel tired. 

Other Creatine Resources

• Creatine Makes Me Feel Dizzy: Why & How To Fix
• Does Creatine Make You More Hungry? (What The Science Says)

References

Kreider, R.B., Kalman, D.S., Antonio, J. et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z

Dworak M, Kim T, Mccarley RW, Basheer R. Creatine supplementation reduces sleep need and homeostatic sleep pressure in rats. J Sleep Res. 2017 Jun;26(3):377-385. doi: 10.1111/jsr.12523. Epub 2017 Apr 11. PMID: 28397310; PMCID: PMC5435551.

Cooper R, Naclerio F, Allgrove J, Jimenez A. Creatine supplementation with specific view to exercise/sports performance: an update. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2012 Jul 20;9(1):33. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-9-33. PMID: 22817979; PMCID: PMC3407788.

Sugino T, Aoyagi S, Shirai T, Kajimoto Y, Kajimoto O. Effects of Citric Acid and l-Carnitine on Physical Fatigue. J Clin Biochem Nutr. 2007 Nov;41(3):224-30. doi: 10.3164/jcbn.2007032. PMID: 18299720; PMCID: PMC2243251.

Antonio, J., Candow, D.G., Forbes, S.C. et al. Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show?. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 18, 13 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-021-00412-w