Why you are tired all the time?

Have you ever felt lethargic for no reason? You may feel like there is no root cause for your situation, and it always persists no matter where you are. You could be getting ready for a cousin's wedding, or you may be heading off to meet your old friends after a very long time. But deep down you don't feel like going.

Not because you are introverted, shy or don't like the crowd. Not because you are not interested in the activity. But because of an underlying fatigue that has slowly accumulated and crept up in your life little by little, without your knowledge. Here are some of the reasons for feeling this way:

1)Sedentary Lifestyle

The pandemic forced a lot of people to stay indoors for safety. While more and more folks have resumed going out, there are people who have completely switched their outdoor lifestyle to a work-from-home (WFH) mode due to ease and convenience.

While there are a lot of benefits to a WFH life such as no travel time and more financial savings from living farther outside the city, there is a great disadvantage from being isolated to your room for all workdays in a week. With no physical activity, all the calories consumed from food do not have an outlet to be spent. You are likely to not exercise as much. With everything available within a click of a button, you can order groceries or food with the tap of a button.

As a result, the excess calories which are not used up are stored as fat and has adverse effects on health on a longer time period such as diabetes, blood pressure and heart related diseases.

When going to work or classes in an outdoor setting, there is effort from your side to groom yourself, socialize with people and travel everyday, which burns a lot of calories simply by going to class or work. It is how civilization has existed since the dawn of time, and being cooped up in an isolated room for long durations of time is not our natural state of being.

This does not mean WFH or staying indoors is bad. But it does put more personal responsibility on you to take care of your health since there is no one else to keep you accountable for your lack of physical activity.

2)Stress

Stress isn't necessarily just the pressure from deadlines, or the expectation to perform well at your job. It can also affect you from a long term level from tragic events, trauma, anxiety, and depression.

Stress creates a hormone called cortisol, which affects creates the "fight or flight" response that we needed back in out caveman days to either fight a dangerous foe or run away to survive.

While not performing well in class or work is not the same as a Sabre-Tooth Tiger coming after your head, the psychological effects vary from person to person. Someone with millions of dollars in the bank losing a job has a different perspective than someone who is about to be evicted by the end of this week loses their job. At the end of the day, money t…

3. Diet

You are what you eat. Sugary foods tend to slow you down and makes you more likely to feel tired. You can experiment this yourself by ordering a large cup of Mocha Frappuccino . Initially there will be a "sugar-rush" and you feel like you can do anything. Productivity goes up, energy levels are high, and everything is going your way. The moment the rush dies out, the "sugar-crash" happens and all the momentum is thrown away.

You don't just need Frappuccino for this experiment. Sugar is in a lot of food items nowadays. Whether it is your usual breakfast cereal, your bottle of tomato ketchup or french fries (yes even french fries), sugar is added into everything as it makes you feel good. Every time you consume it, your brain's reward system is active…

4. Poor Sleep

While everyone has a different schedule and differing quantity of hours when it comes to sleep, everyone has a minimum threshold that they need to maintain in order to simply function. Lack of required sleep causes you to feel lethargic, affects your concentration and lowers your ability to form long term memories. This is the type of memory that helps you improve your skills as you learn new things.

You also take longer to do the same tasks which you can do at a lesser time with good sleep. Doing less work and sleeping early is more effective than doing a lot of work and sleeping late. Over time, the first approach is likely to help you get more positive results than the second.

Poor sleep also has the same effect as being drunk on alcohol…

Conclusion:

The factors discussed above all affect us in some way, shape or form. As we get older, it is important for to take care of your self and ensure that these risk factors are minimized to the best of your ability. All the more important to do so if you have people in your life who depend on you.

The pandemic has affected our natural way of life. It is time to take control and fight back. One step at a time. One lifestyle change at a time.