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On being tired

jukkaniiranen.com

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Re: On being tired

#51

Post by copperx »

garganzol wrote: post #47

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. 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 patho…

I've never heard of this before. Is this well known? Do ROS go away after sleeping?

Re: On being tired

#52

Post by ceezee »

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

Re: On being tired

#53

Post by garganzol »

rolisz wrote: post #18
Silverback_VII wrote: post #12

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

How do you fight it? I had COVID in March 2020 and I feel like ever since then I'm more tired all the time, even if I sleep enough.

Take a look at [1]. It may have some actionable explanations on what's going on with you.

It all starts with lingering fatigue.

[1] https://www.hormonesmatter.com/recovering-from-post-covid-mi...

Re: On being tired

#54

Post by baby »

atentaten wrote: post #7
angarg12 wrote: post #5

I'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. My wife is an extrovert. She is energized by going out, visiting places, doing things, meeting people. I'm an introvert. I get energized by staying in, reading a book, watching a…

What was your solution to the problem of negotiating with your wife about what to do on the weekends?

accept it, and enjoy the fact that it is making your life better. You could be dating an introvert and you could both be looking at your computers over the weekend.

Re: On being tired

#55

Post by williamtrask »

samsquire wrote: post #42

In the UK it is really hot and we are in drought. I am tired. I hope to get my energy levels back up as all I want to do is sleep. I take iron liquid supplement but I don't know what's causing it. Some days I have energy and can be on the computer until late. Other days I don't want to know.

As someone also in the U.K., check your CO2 levels where you sleep and work.

Re: On being tired

#56

Post by asdfqwertzxcv »

moonshinefe wrote: post #35
powersnail wrote: post #11

As I age, I've learned to distinguish "not being excited" (languor) and "being tired" (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'm doing things that requires attention but also isn't intellectually stimulating. When the author refers to "normal tired" and "dead tired", I think that echoes with my tw…

This was an interesting post to me because I've never heard of that distinction, and I think I'm similar. I've often had issues with "being tired" but it's probably more accurately what you call languor. I'll have times when I'm bored throughout the day and sleepy but then a video game or stubborn coding problem will get me engaged and I'll suddenly spend hours and not feel tired at all while the time flies. Likewise…

When I hit the motivation plateau like you’re describing, simply going for a walk or going to the gym pulls me out of it rather quickly. By the time I’m done, I come back and am motivated to work on high-impact things. I’ve found that moving my body and taking a break from dicking around online, or doing low-quality “productive” tasks with little consequence is the key there.

Re: On being tired

#57

Post by garganzol »

copperx wrote: post #51
garganzol wrote: post #47

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. 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 patho…

I've never heard of this before. Is this well known? Do ROS go away after sleeping?

This is relatively well known [1]. ROS normally go away after sleeping, and this one of the reasons we need sleep.

But. If you are past a certain threshold, ROS can do so much damage that it starts to affect cellular ATP production, leading to a tissue hypoxia. When this happens, it leads to onset of an acquired mitochondrial dysfunction. This is a pathological state that is characterized by a lingering fatigue as its main hallmark sign. Such fatigue does not go away after sleeping.

But usually it is not like 0 or 1. A person may have something in between and live without even knowing it, thinking that it's all just mental or age-related.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27285492/

Re: On being tired

#58

Post by jmfldn »

rubicon33 wrote: post #45
powersnail wrote: post #11

As I age, I've learned to distinguish "not being excited" (languor) and "being tired" (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'm doing things that requires attention but also isn't intellectually stimulating. When the author refers to "normal tired" and "dead tired", I think that echoes with my tw…

This hits the nail on the head for me. Interestingly, I only came to this realization later in life as well. I've always thought of myself as "tired" but the real problem is I require an exceptionally high stimulating environment to excite me out of langour. Exercise. Video games. Occasionally (rarely?) an academic subject that I am good at and interests me can also elicit this excitement and energy. But in general I…

Sorry to hear. I think you're doing the right thing in trying to see if you can cope with lower stimulation gradually. Try lower stimulation hobbies, reading novels, going for long walks etc. Maybe you'll find that you can somewhat recondition yourself gradually. There really is a great joy in enjoying simple pleasures without distraction. Don't fret if you can't get there quickly or have a different baseline too, there's nothing wrong with being a certain way but, speaking from personal experience and general life experience, many of us seem addicted to things to one degree or another these days. Not least things involving screens.

Since you mentioned the word depressed, it can't do any harm to talk to a mental health professional too if you're concerned in any way about your emotional state. It may or may not be needed but that could also be a factor.

Re: On being tired

#59

Post by jjtheblunt »

samsquire wrote: post #42

In the UK it is really hot and we are in drought. I am tired. I hope to get my energy levels back up as all I want to do is sleep. I take iron liquid supplement but I don't know what's causing it. Some days I have energy and can be on the computer until late. Other days I don't want to know.

taking iron supplements for a male is dangerous, my doctor told me years ago, for whatever that is worth

Re: On being tired

#60

Post by asdfqwertzxcv »

rubicon33 wrote: post #46
angarg12 wrote: post #5

I'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. My wife is an extrovert. She is energized by going out, visiting places, doing things, meeting people. I'm an introvert. I get energized by staying in, reading a book, watching a…

If her extroversion isn't strictly social, maybe you kind find activities that allow you both to recharge. A camping trip for example could allow you an opportunity to read, and enjoy nature, and give her the opportunity to explore (hike, kayak, forage, etc.) If that doesn't work you may also just consider doing different things on most weekends, and making explicit time for each other for a nice dinner, a movie, or…

This is how my partner and I negotiated this.

We’re opposite in a lot of things we prefer: - They love traveling w/ crazy schedules, bouncing around timezones for a week or two at a time. - Sleeping and waking late. - Going out late partying with friends. - Spin classes or yoga with club music blasting. - When not doing the above, they stay home doing literally nothing but watching Netflix or reading in bed for days on end.

They are either fully on, or fully off. I find this exhausting and/or boring as hell, depending on what mode they’re in.

I prefer the opposite in a lot of ways: - Staying local, maybe taking a day or weekend trip every few months, and international trip once a year. - Waking and sleeping early - Time alone every day - Working on personal projects or hobbies - Lifting weights or exercising while listening to stimulating lectures or books. - Having hours-long meals with friends or family once or twice a week.

We’ve found that instead of trying to do things we don’t like to appease the other. We find things that overlap for us and make it a point to do them together whenever possible: - Cooking some meals at home - Walking our dog around the neighborhood - Going on day or weekend trips once in a while. - Meals w/ friends and family, when I peel off to go home after, when they go meet up with friends to burn the midnight oil.

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