On being tired

As I age, I&#x27;ve learned to distinguish &quot;not being excited&quot; (languor) and &quot;being tired&quot; (exhaustion), which to my younger self felt like the same thing. The former is not always caused by a lack of energy, but also excessive idleness, especially if I&#x27;m doing things that requires attention but also isn&#x27;t intellectually stimulating.<p>When the author refers to &quot;normal tired&quot; and &quot;dead tired&quot;, I think that echoes with my two states. I don&#x27;t quite think of them as existing on a scale, but the experiences sound similar.<p>Doing stimulating things (exercise, reading aloud, singing) can usually bring me out of the state of languor. Just getting that adrenaline rush is enough to jolt me back to life (and thus I don&#x27;t think of it as recharging; more like a jump start).<p>If I&#x27;m exhausted, I can feel gravity in my joints, and I&#x27;ll have to rest. Regular sleep, exercises, and generally keeping a good health is the only way I can combat exhaustion.

I&#x27;ve spent the last couple of years at the two bottom levels of that scale. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize one of the root causes: my wife and I have fundamentally different personalities that are at odds with each other.<p>My wife is an extrovert. She is energized by going out, visiting places, doing things, meeting people.<p>I&#x27;m an introvert. I get energized by staying in, reading a book, watching a movie, spending time by myself.<p>This creates tension every weekend when we need to negotiated what to do. This friction is weary by itself, but then the outcome almost always makes someone unhappy. Most weekends rather than recharging for the rest of the week, I end up more tired than I started.<p>Not sure how well this will generalize but if you find yourself in those bottom steps it&#x27;s worth it to do some introspection and audit how you spend your time.

When I’m falling asleep too late, exhausted, I say to myself: I’ll be alright tomorrow, just tired. I’ve been tired many days and I got through just fine. It doesn’t solve the dead battery problem but it removes the anxiety around not getting enough sleep or dreading the next day.

Sometime back one of mentors mentioned about <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theenergyproject.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theenergyproject.com&#x2F;</a>. I haven&#x27;t gone through the program myself but the way he summarized is, important aspect of managing your work is also managing your energy levels through the day&#x2F;week&#x2F;year. Identify the work which requires more energy(mental&#x2F;physical) and get that done first. Later on identify the things which give you more motivation or joy which in turn provide more energy. These could include going out for a walk or having 1:1 or having conversation with someone. Again this will vary depending on if you are introvert or extrovert.

I find it strange that he takes for granted that activities should &quot;give back energy&quot;, and that you have to be dead tired for that not to happen.<p>Personally, even when I have good energy, almost everything I do drains it and doesn&#x27;t give it back, until I sleep to recharge.<p>Maybe this is the difference between highly motivated people and the rest of us, that they find it normal for activities to give back energy.

Not gonna lie, I get nights where I don’t sleep at all and my mind ‘glows’ with thoughts and the thoughts are intrusive, almost an imposter on my mind. This is a good time to write and take notes. Missing a night’s sleep is detrimental to the next day where all the things that would normally excite me are boring as hell. All I can do is exist during the day and I feel slightly drunk and can’t do anything that requires good dexterity. It’s horrible. Then I make up the sleep debt by falling asleep on that day, and the feeling of rejuvenation is tremendous and I can function. I’ve talked to my doctor about those nights where my mind ‘glows’ with activity and I was diagnosed with mild psychosis. Luckily it’s treatable with meds, so there is that.

Concussion is a trial by fire of discovering what is truly not taking up mental energy. In the acute phase you go from having 16+ hours of it per day to 10 minutes. The answer is pretty much just staring at a blank wall. Anything else is costly to a degree

Photo credit: me. Small world!<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unsplash.com&#x2F;photos&#x2F;SBYsc1gsA-M" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unsplash.com&#x2F;photos&#x2F;SBYsc1gsA-M</a>

I am a fairly energetic person. Yes, things have been slowing down as I age but my spirit is young.<p>I switched careers several times. About 2 years into my dev role I realized that I do have a relatively fixed amount of cognitive stamina. Took me a while to actually get it.<p>1. Partying all night has an extremely bad effect due to several factors I better not mention directly<p>2. Competitive gaming is sucking the life out of me. I have taught myself to avoid playing seriously anything Quake or StarCraft as these high skill 1vs1 games naturally attract other wannabes just like my younger self. It&#x27;s all very demanding and I always end up either taking a beating or 10, or sacrificing the next few work days.<p>I have learned to take the ego hits and suffer horrible humiliations in the games that I love.<p>In any case, what never fails to charge and heal me is going to nature. Does wonders to body and mind

In the UK it is really hot and we are in drought.<p>I am tired. I hope to get my energy levels back up as all I want to do is sleep.<p>I take iron liquid supplement but I don&#x27;t know what&#x27;s causing it.<p>Some days I have energy and can be on the computer until late. Other days I don&#x27;t want to know.

Fatigue is not only a mental thing as many assume. What really happens is our cells are gradually accumulating Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) while we are awake, and when a certain threshold of ROS is reached, we feel tiredness.<p>This is a defensive mechanism of a living organism to keep ROS levels at bay. But what happens if one ignores the fatigue? ROS cellular levels will continue to climb up to the point of a pathological cell destruction. The thing is ROS are chemically active and when there are too much of them, you are asking for problems. Such as: broken enzymes in mitochondria, overoxidized lipids, damages of DNA and mtDNA - it all starts to accumulate. This is when a fatigue may gradually transform into one of the physical diseases. Cardio-vascular problems, T2DM, cognitive impairment, ME&#x2F;CFS. The list go on and on [1].<p>So, if you often feel tired then you should be very aware of the underlying biochemical processes. It&#x27;s all mental until it&#x27;s physical and hardly reversible.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Sleep_deprivation" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Sleep_deprivation</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hms.harvard.edu&#x2F;news&#x2F;sleep-death-gut" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hms.harvard.edu&#x2F;news&#x2F;sleep-death-gut</a>

I also think a very large majority of people on this planet are tired because of an unknown deficit of vitamines and minerals like Omega 3, Zink and Vitamin D

friendly reminder that feeling chronically fatigued or tired is not normal. People experiencing this should consider getting tested for sleep apnea.

Fatigue can be a symptom of a disease. Cancer, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis. Watch for other symptoms.

Interesting this would be posted on a Saturday. Yet another Saturday I&#x27;m working hard to meet a deadline.

The last Lubavitcher rab used to say “so what?” when asked if he was not tired working late into the night.

I believe that there is a general tiredness affecting large parts of the population. Maybe some side effects of covid-19 &#x2F; the vaccines or maybe it’s completely unrelated and more psychological in nature like lack of deeper meaning in most people&#x27;s lives.<p>All I know is that you have to fight it. this tiredness doesn&#x27;t go away with more rest. On the contrary, your self-esteem will take a hit and you will internalise your lack of power.