Fatigue is a word used to describe an extended experience of exhaustion, when a person just can’t seem to muster energy or stop feeling tired. Our society’s hectic scheduling tends to create feelings of fatigue in many people in all sorts of careers and life situations, and most people find that an ongoing state of fatigue tends to detrimentally affect a person’s ability to continue getting through the daily routine. Over time, fatigue extends from the merely physical realm into sapping emotional energy as well.
Fatigue is generally caused by one of two fundamental causes—either over scheduling (and the attendant lack of sleep), or an underlying illness. If the latter is the problem, a physician’s services are needed to diagnose and treat the ailment contributing to a person’s fatigue. If there’s no underlying illness at issue, a change in lifestyle is called for. Here are a few ways you can beat fatigue and start enjoying your life again.
Schedule Time to Sleep
A full night’s sleep is one of the basics of good health, and missing “just an hour” can start to have a serious cumulative consequence for people who keep missing that hour night after night. Multiply the effects for those who are consistently short-changing themselves on dedicated sleep time. Different people have different needs for a “full” night’s sleep—factors might include age, state of health, season of the year, physical conditions like pregnancy, and the simple differences among individual people’s biological needs. Whether you personally need the standardized recommendation of eight to nine hours each night, or a different amount of more or less, make a point to set a schedule that allows for the sleep you need, and (here’s the hard part) stick to it.
Eat Well
Multivitamins can take care of your body’s basic needs of mineral and vitamin resources, but for optimized functionality, your body still needs calories and other nutrients that can only food can provide. Skimping on calories in attempts to diet can lead a body to feel fatigued, because it doesn’t have the necessary energy source to perform its basic functions. Sugary or carbohydrate-laden foods can also leave a person feeling exhausted in the long run because of how quickly the body processes the energy source; a short burst of energy from sugars is generally followed by a feeling of lethargy and tiredness. In short, the most straightforward way to erase your fatigue through eating is to eat the way your mother probably advised, all those years ago: fruits and vegetables and fibers and lean meats and healthy oils. .
Add Exercise and Subtract Substances
It may seem counter intuitive when you already feel tired, but even a short spate of exercise, such as a brief ten-minute walk, can revitalize your energy levels, increase blood circulation and heart rate, and generally leave you feeling more alert.
Avoid or minimize alcohol, which acts as a depressant and adds lethargy to an already fatigued system. Caffeine, too, can contribute to fatigue if you use it in such a way that it interferes with your scheduled sleep.