Do statins make you tired and can they affect your sleep?

If you’ve started taking statins to lower your cholesterol, you may be worried that they’re going to affect your sleep because you’ve heard or read that this can be a side effect of these medicines.

Below, we look at what the latest research evidence says about statins and insomnia and tiredness.

However, it’s important to note that statins lower your risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease and heart failure, which themselves can cause chronic and extreme fatigue or tiredness. 

Can statins cause insomnia?

If you take a look on a statin patient information leaflet you will usually see insomnia listed as an ‘uncommon’ side effect, affecting 1 in 100 people.

Insomnia is when you have difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up too early and not being able to return to sleep.

But the current evidence suggests that statins do not in fact cause insomnia or other sleep problems.

In 2026, research into statin side effects published in The Lancet found that people taking a dummy pill without any statin medicine were just as likely to report sleep disturbances as those taking a real statin.

The part-BHF-funded study led by University of Oxford researchers was an extensive review of 23 clinical trials covering 150,000 people.

Another review published in Archives of Medical Science in 2015 found that statins did not affect how long people slept each night.

It also showed people taking statins woke up less often during the night than those taking a dummy pill.

The research evidence suggests that people taking statins experience sleep problems because they believe statins will cause them, not because of the medicine itself.

This is a common psychological issue called the ‘nocebo effect’, which is when people experience negative symptoms when they start taking a new medicine because they've read or heard that it can cause them.

This is why it’s important for trials investigating medicine side effects to compare people taking the real medicine with those taking a dummy pill.

• Learn more about the nocebo effect in statins.

Can statins cause tiredness?

According to the NHS, feeling unusually tired or physically weak is a commonly reported side effect of statins. However, research into this symptom has mixed findings. 

A 2012 study in JAMA Internal Medicine with around 1,000 people found those taking statins – particularly women – were more likely to report lower energy levels and fatigue on exertion after 6 months compared to those taking a dummy pill.

But the previously discussed larger 2026 study in The Lancet did not find that people taking a statin for an average of 4.5 to 5 years were more likely to report fatigue than those taking a dummy pill.

This suggests that the nocebo effect may be why some people report feeling tired while taking statins.

Does ‘statin fatigue’ go away?

As discussed earlier, the research evidence is mixed on whether ‘statin fatigue’ is a side effect of taking the drugs.

However, if you’re experiencing symptoms like tiredness when you start taking statins, this should improve over time or even disappear as you continue to take them.

But if you continue to feel tired all the time, or your fatigue is getting worse, speak to your doctor.

Feeling tired can be a symptom of lots of different health conditions, including heart failure, so it’s important to have this investigated by a doctor.

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