I am 13 years old, male, and live in North America. I actually made another post in the sleep disorders section, which isn't relevant anymore.
In the last one and a half months or so, I've experienced fatigue and weakness, as well as constant brain fog and unrefreshing sleep, on a daily basis. Over the last two weeks, I've been experimenting with my diet to see if this is a dietary problem.
I've found that I experience (and have been experiencing for around two years now) symptoms of iron deficiency: the general weakness, a craving for ice cubes (which passed around half a year ago), two weeks of angular cheilitis about two and a half months ago, and vertical nail lines, which I've had for over a few years now. Fatigue and weakness are also apparently symptoms of other mineral deficiencies, like magnesium and zinc deficiencies, so that's a thing. I could also be suffering from an omega-3 inadequacy, because I eat fish and seafood only around twice a month.
Looking at my diet up to now, I don't have too many sources of these nutrients. I usually only have a cup of milk and occaisionally an egg for breakfast, my meats are usually chicken and pork (which don't have much iron), and I have to take supplements to feel normal (those don't have iron either).
Last week, I began eating iron-rich oatmeal, then switched to iron-rich and magnesium-rich cereal three days ago. When I began having the oatmeal, I think I noticed an improvement in my energy (I was less sleepy at school is something I noticed), but that might have been me finally returning to good sleep. About the cereal, I'm not too sure as to how that will turn out. Yesterday, I only slept 6.5 hours because I had to wake up early for an event, so I was pretty tired. Today, however, even though I slept 9 hours (7.5 good hours of sleep, the rest being 30-60 minute chunks), I felt drowsy and spaced out the entire day (including now, as I write this post). The cereal I eat twice a day, which supposedly gives me 100% of my RDA for iron (honestly I probably should be eating less of it, but it actually tastes really good (this is what happens when you eat cereal for the first time in 6 years)) and 50% of my RDA for magnesium. Also, I'm quite sure I'm not getting too much. Today, my mom came home with some omega-3 supplements (I didn't ask for them), which provide 1 gram of DHA/RHA per day, provided I take 2 capsules/day as listed. It might be unrelated, but I felt slightly more energetic about 20 minutes after taking the first capsule.
In the last two weeks, I've also been staring at a computer screen for unhealthy amounts of time a day, which is probably why my vision feels weird and strained. I'm also getting chromatic aberration at slight angle shifts on my glasses, and I wonder if my brain gets confused by those or something. Either way, I haven't seen any major improvements in anything but my mood and my sleep in the last month and a half. This might also just be part of growing up, but 1.5 months seems pretty long.
Finally, if you've read up to here, thanks. Because you probably know way better than me (I am only 13), please help me figure out what's happening because it actually affects my day to day life quite a lot (being tired is not great). Thanks!