Blog Dis
Levels of fatigue
2025-04-15
I am prepared to lay down a hefty bet, indicative of how assured I am, that by the time you've reached the end of your work week, or for those who labour with shift-work, you'll feel fatigued because of getting up according to your set alarm to get to work on time, in order to work. Fatigue is an equal opportunity bastard. Fatigue doesn't discriminate. Fatigue can capsize any individual, be it the wealthiest, the poorest, the least mindful, the over-thinker or the busiest bee in the bonnet of someone who arranges flowers all day - even they will succumb to fatigue.
There were days when I didn't feel fatigue, but these were the days before the concept of time had parked its car inside my brain, to carve out a wee space all for itself. I speak of the days when we were all toddlers, and when we were in possession of the greatest gift of them all without realizing it: no concept of time, other than comprehending our hunger. When we were as tired as babies, we didn't bother to hold back our emotions, and we balled our baby-eyes out, crying so loud throughout the night that our mom or dad had to come in our baby room to check on us, or we just cried ourselves back to sleep. Babies are high-maintenance. Ask any new mom or dad what it's like raising an infant and they'll look at you w/ dark circles under their eyes from having slept little, for perhaps the first six months. Some new parents tell me they haven't slept as well as they used to sleep since the day their first child was born. I believe them. I don't have children because I choose instead to give birth to books. But I do have siblings and they have kids, and they tell me their sleep cycle has forever changed. They learned how to function at a high-level, completely sleep deprived, and to manage all their responsibilities in a state of continual fatigue. I learned only recently that my nephew was able to change his youngest son's diaper with his eyes closed, half-asleep.
Fatigue isn't much fun.
The levels of fatigue, therefore, come in degrees, which is the default setting for most states of mind in life. The worst, according to some, are sleep-deprived parents, managing wee tots who have a zero-sum concept of time, and are able to nap multiple times throughout the day, when they're put down vs their parents who only dream of the days when they were able to sleep in on the weekends. But once having had children, this luxury is forever gone, and their kids will rise at the crack of dawn, ready to take on the day.
I vividly recall my mom saying to me many times over the years that she slept whenever the baby slept. This makes a lot of sense. I wasn't aware of how much trouble I had caused my mom as a toddler, any more than my siblings remember. But parents don't forget this kind of stuff. So when I became a teenager, and I tried to sleep in on the weekends, after a long week of attending school, and managing homework, my mom got back at us. She'd force open the bedroom door with the vacuum cleaner to wake us at the Godawful hour of 7 am, because this is what we did to her when we were young. Seems fair? Of course not! It's childish and resentful. I can't say I blame her tho' because she had to deal with four children and each one of us, in our time, had robbed her of precious sleep.
Sleep is a currency, and fatigue is its debit card, withdrawing from the bank account of sound-sleep, until the balance can sometimes register as zero hours. Yet, overdraft protection exists only for bank accounts, not for the sleep-deprived, those whose fatigue is having the opposite effect, to create a sleep-deficit. I never used to consider these concepts until I became an adult in my 30s, realizing that I couldn't party like a wild child, the way I did in my 20s, and stay out late on Thursday night until the clubs closed, much less all night without coming home until 6 am (Friday and Saturday nights), returning to work on Monday morning, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as though nothing happened. Now if I attempted this, I'd feel a sense of fatigue that would be analogous to some heavy wool blanket being wrapped around my tired body, making me sleepy just thinking about it.
Fatigue in teenagers is to be expected, and biologically proven by scientists. Teenagers and their malformed brains apparently need many hours of sleep bcus their body and brain are still in development stage. This explains why teenagers appear to be moody all the time, not getting the right amount of zzzzz's during the school week. We can all relate to this because when we slept as teenagers we woke up feeling refreshed, rather than sleepy, to only awaken to fatigue. Granted, teenagers have a reservoir of energy from which to draw, but they, too, need downtime and changing their habits to sleep more isn't necessarily high on their radar, well not as high as getting high with their pals. Do you recall those days when you could enjoy a jay with a friend and later that night you'd sleep like Rip Van Winkle working on a 48-hour clock per day?
I'm not a sloth. A sloth and its metabolism runs slowly, as do their movements, and it looks as though they're in a perpetual state of sleepiness, not fatigued, but merely slow-moving. I envy this because I'm compelled to get things done. This is my nature. I will endure busy periods in my life where not only do I work full-time, and I write, but I handle all stages of being an Indie author, as well as selling at 3-day weekend fantasy exhibition events, where I'll work 30+ hours in three day. I know when my sleep deficit is out of hand. Then my body gives in to its fatigue and I won't be able to keep my eyes open at night on a Friday night when I stay up for one of my favourite TV shows. If I'm tired enough, I'll sleep through it, wake up later, and realize that my fatigue kicked my ass once again.
Then there are the annoying people, you know the ones who can function and survive barely getting four hours of shut-eye at night, but rarely do these persons give you the impression that they're fatigued. I've worked for many Executives in my career and I can say with certainty that the short-sleepers, as I call them, are typically executives who've a lot on the go, responsibility-wise, which means their brains rarely shut off. These persons will text at 2 AM, knowing you're not available, but their brains cannot shut off the flow of ideas, and I'm not even sure that the issue of fatigue registers with them. Executives have developed habits to push through their tiredness.
How fatigued can one be? The worst I've experienced would fall into the category of jet-lag fatigue, dastardly and inescapable. When I traveled to India, I flew from Ottawa to London, England - a 6.5 hour flight, only to wait in Heathrow for a six-hour layover, without being able to sleep, only to hop onto the direct flight that went from London to New Delhi, a total of 13 hours in the air. By the time I had begun my journey, to when I arrived and then cleared customs, plus taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel, I had been awake for over 39 hours. Do you think this level of fatigue would allow me to sleep like the dead? Of course not! My internal clock was so screwed up that I couldn't sleep, and I spent the first few days in New Delhi looking fatigued, like some old rag worn out at the edges. My fatigue didn't work for me. I was only able to nod off after I drank some glasses of red wine.
Nobody tells you this when you're young, that your fatigue will catch up with you, that refusing to sleep is a form of rebellion that is natural and normal for the young, to refuse to go to bed on time. It's at this stage when you'll realize that you're no longer a toddler, or a juvenile delinquent disguised as a teenager, or even a young adult who has many people to bed - you realize you're mature and delicate, while your young adult children will view you as old, as we did when we were young. You may even hear your adult children speak to one another, "Yep... Mom is turning 40. She's old."
I take Rhodiola now, each morning, when I drink my protein shake, before I work out. Rhodiola rosea is a perennial flowering plant that's been used since Greek times. Nutritional consultants will recommend this herbal supplement for those dealing with fatigue, and they might tell you that it helps to protect damaged cells and to regulate your heartbeat. I've also used Panax ginseng for the times when I travel, and the jet-lag turns into nuclear fatigue. I never want to arrive into an airport, when I travel by myself, so tired that my fatigue hampers my thinking. I need to be alert, to be aware of my surroundings, and so in this regard, ginseng fits the bit, but it's brutal afterward, when I can finally relax and sleep in my hotel room, but I'm not able to do so.
Nothing really squashes fatigue like a good night's sleep. I've been writing my fantasy novels for over twenty years, and so I want to believe that I've made peace with my fatigue, and that I've developed the skills to combat it in healthy ways. Fatigue and Coffee go together, incidentally, like five fingers on the same hand that clutch the coffee cup and with one smooth, fluid motion, bringing it to your parted lips, to indulge in the dark bean of energy. However, I stop drinking coffee before Noon because I know better. I want to sleep later in the night, much as I love my java.
By the by, the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation promotes the usage of Rhodiola because it adds cognitive vitality to your brain. I recommend, however, that you do your own research on Rhodiola or any supplement you might lean on for energy, to combat fatigue.
Or, alternatively, get your fanny into bed a little earlier during the work week to squeeze in more zzzzz's. Your body and brain will thank you.
There were days when I didn't feel fatigue, but these were the days before the concept of time had parked its car inside my brain, to carve out a wee space all for itself. I speak of the days when we were all toddlers, and when we were in possession of the greatest gift of them all without realizing it: no concept of time, other than comprehending our hunger. When we were as tired as babies, we didn't bother to hold back our emotions, and we balled our baby-eyes out, crying so loud throughout the night that our mom or dad had to come in our baby room to check on us, or we just cried ourselves back to sleep. Babies are high-maintenance. Ask any new mom or dad what it's like raising an infant and they'll look at you w/ dark circles under their eyes from having slept little, for perhaps the first six months. Some new parents tell me they haven't slept as well as they used to sleep since the day their first child was born. I believe them. I don't have children because I choose instead to give birth to books. But I do have siblings and they have kids, and they tell me their sleep cycle has forever changed. They learned how to function at a high-level, completely sleep deprived, and to manage all their responsibilities in a state of continual fatigue. I learned only recently that my nephew was able to change his youngest son's diaper with his eyes closed, half-asleep.
Fatigue isn't much fun.
The levels of fatigue, therefore, come in degrees, which is the default setting for most states of mind in life. The worst, according to some, are sleep-deprived parents, managing wee tots who have a zero-sum concept of time, and are able to nap multiple times throughout the day, when they're put down vs their parents who only dream of the days when they were able to sleep in on the weekends. But once having had children, this luxury is forever gone, and their kids will rise at the crack of dawn, ready to take on the day.
I vividly recall my mom saying to me many times over the years that she slept whenever the baby slept. This makes a lot of sense. I wasn't aware of how much trouble I had caused my mom as a toddler, any more than my siblings remember. But parents don't forget this kind of stuff. So when I became a teenager, and I tried to sleep in on the weekends, after a long week of attending school, and managing homework, my mom got back at us. She'd force open the bedroom door with the vacuum cleaner to wake us at the Godawful hour of 7 am, because this is what we did to her when we were young. Seems fair? Of course not! It's childish and resentful. I can't say I blame her tho' because she had to deal with four children and each one of us, in our time, had robbed her of precious sleep.
Sleep is a currency, and fatigue is its debit card, withdrawing from the bank account of sound-sleep, until the balance can sometimes register as zero hours. Yet, overdraft protection exists only for bank accounts, not for the sleep-deprived, those whose fatigue is having the opposite effect, to create a sleep-deficit. I never used to consider these concepts until I became an adult in my 30s, realizing that I couldn't party like a wild child, the way I did in my 20s, and stay out late on Thursday night until the clubs closed, much less all night without coming home until 6 am (Friday and Saturday nights), returning to work on Monday morning, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as though nothing happened. Now if I attempted this, I'd feel a sense of fatigue that would be analogous to some heavy wool blanket being wrapped around my tired body, making me sleepy just thinking about it.
Fatigue in teenagers is to be expected, and biologically proven by scientists. Teenagers and their malformed brains apparently need many hours of sleep bcus their body and brain are still in development stage. This explains why teenagers appear to be moody all the time, not getting the right amount of zzzzz's during the school week. We can all relate to this because when we slept as teenagers we woke up feeling refreshed, rather than sleepy, to only awaken to fatigue. Granted, teenagers have a reservoir of energy from which to draw, but they, too, need downtime and changing their habits to sleep more isn't necessarily high on their radar, well not as high as getting high with their pals. Do you recall those days when you could enjoy a jay with a friend and later that night you'd sleep like Rip Van Winkle working on a 48-hour clock per day?
I'm not a sloth. A sloth and its metabolism runs slowly, as do their movements, and it looks as though they're in a perpetual state of sleepiness, not fatigued, but merely slow-moving. I envy this because I'm compelled to get things done. This is my nature. I will endure busy periods in my life where not only do I work full-time, and I write, but I handle all stages of being an Indie author, as well as selling at 3-day weekend fantasy exhibition events, where I'll work 30+ hours in three day. I know when my sleep deficit is out of hand. Then my body gives in to its fatigue and I won't be able to keep my eyes open at night on a Friday night when I stay up for one of my favourite TV shows. If I'm tired enough, I'll sleep through it, wake up later, and realize that my fatigue kicked my ass once again.
Then there are the annoying people, you know the ones who can function and survive barely getting four hours of shut-eye at night, but rarely do these persons give you the impression that they're fatigued. I've worked for many Executives in my career and I can say with certainty that the short-sleepers, as I call them, are typically executives who've a lot on the go, responsibility-wise, which means their brains rarely shut off. These persons will text at 2 AM, knowing you're not available, but their brains cannot shut off the flow of ideas, and I'm not even sure that the issue of fatigue registers with them. Executives have developed habits to push through their tiredness.
How fatigued can one be? The worst I've experienced would fall into the category of jet-lag fatigue, dastardly and inescapable. When I traveled to India, I flew from Ottawa to London, England - a 6.5 hour flight, only to wait in Heathrow for a six-hour layover, without being able to sleep, only to hop onto the direct flight that went from London to New Delhi, a total of 13 hours in the air. By the time I had begun my journey, to when I arrived and then cleared customs, plus taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel, I had been awake for over 39 hours. Do you think this level of fatigue would allow me to sleep like the dead? Of course not! My internal clock was so screwed up that I couldn't sleep, and I spent the first few days in New Delhi looking fatigued, like some old rag worn out at the edges. My fatigue didn't work for me. I was only able to nod off after I drank some glasses of red wine.
Nobody tells you this when you're young, that your fatigue will catch up with you, that refusing to sleep is a form of rebellion that is natural and normal for the young, to refuse to go to bed on time. It's at this stage when you'll realize that you're no longer a toddler, or a juvenile delinquent disguised as a teenager, or even a young adult who has many people to bed - you realize you're mature and delicate, while your young adult children will view you as old, as we did when we were young. You may even hear your adult children speak to one another, "Yep... Mom is turning 40. She's old."
I take Rhodiola now, each morning, when I drink my protein shake, before I work out. Rhodiola rosea is a perennial flowering plant that's been used since Greek times. Nutritional consultants will recommend this herbal supplement for those dealing with fatigue, and they might tell you that it helps to protect damaged cells and to regulate your heartbeat. I've also used Panax ginseng for the times when I travel, and the jet-lag turns into nuclear fatigue. I never want to arrive into an airport, when I travel by myself, so tired that my fatigue hampers my thinking. I need to be alert, to be aware of my surroundings, and so in this regard, ginseng fits the bit, but it's brutal afterward, when I can finally relax and sleep in my hotel room, but I'm not able to do so.
Nothing really squashes fatigue like a good night's sleep. I've been writing my fantasy novels for over twenty years, and so I want to believe that I've made peace with my fatigue, and that I've developed the skills to combat it in healthy ways. Fatigue and Coffee go together, incidentally, like five fingers on the same hand that clutch the coffee cup and with one smooth, fluid motion, bringing it to your parted lips, to indulge in the dark bean of energy. However, I stop drinking coffee before Noon because I know better. I want to sleep later in the night, much as I love my java.
By the by, the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation promotes the usage of Rhodiola because it adds cognitive vitality to your brain. I recommend, however, that you do your own research on Rhodiola or any supplement you might lean on for energy, to combat fatigue.
Or, alternatively, get your fanny into bed a little earlier during the work week to squeeze in more zzzzz's. Your body and brain will thank you.
