Fighting fatigue

You know that if you stay up late at night you’ll feel exhausted at work the next day. But do you also know that even if you catch up on lost sleeping time during the weekend, even if you get a full eight hours, you can still feel tired?

Natural Health Magazine has come up with five surprising but common reasons for fatigue, and also fast-recommended ways to overcome them.

• Sleeping late on weekends isn’t as restorative as it may seem. Changing your bedtime or waking time by two hours or more upsets your circadian rhythms, regulators of our sleep cycle. As a result, you may have trouble falling asleep Sunday night, wake up tired Monday morning and feel sluggish the day after.

Solution: Go to bed and wake up within an hour of the same time everyday. Maybe at first, getting up early on weekends may make you feel sleepy in the afternoon. When this happens, take a nap for 30 minutes. A nap will boost your energy and if you wake up from your nap at least three hours before your bedtime, that will not disrupt your nighttime sleep.

• Poor Posture. Do you know that slouching may feel comfortable but it tires your body and gives you poor posture?

Slouching makes you constantly use your muscles rather than your skeleton to hold you up.

Solution: To improve your posture, imagine a string pulling you up from the top of your head, aligning your vertebrae. Relax your shoulders, chest and abdomen. Slightly tilt your pelvic forward.

Make this a habit. Hold yourself this way as often as you can while sitting, driving or walking. As they say, practice makes perfect. In no time, this posture will be automatic for you.

• Your light isn’t right. When sunlight enters our eyes, it causes our brain to release a chemical called serotonin, which boosts our energy and mood.

Fluorescent and incandescent lights, on the other hand, don’t have the same energizing effect. Exposure to these lights an hour or more before bedtime may add to fatigue by altering our circadian rhythms.

Solution: Try and spend 20 minutes outside every day. Even when it’s cloudy, the light will instantly boost your energy. Open your blinds or curtain as often as you can.

Before going to bed, dim the light in your house.

If you read in bed, use a 25-watt bulb in your reading light. Sleep in complete darkness.

• You are not stimulated enough. We need a certain amount of stimulation in our lives. If we lack physical stimulation, our mood and energy will weaken. Being sedentary weakens your muscles and reduces blood flow to your brain and muscles, draining your physically and mentally.

Solution: Add healthy stimulation to your life. Socialize; start a hobby. Exercise increases circulation of blood to your brain and your muscles, helping you think more clearly and feel energized all over.

• Worrying too much. This is so true. When I’m bothered by something and I worry too much, I feel really tired.

Worrying releases stress hormones that drain you. It also prevents you from getting the sleep you need to recharge.

Solution: When you know you’re worrying too much, try these breathing exercises. They do wonders for me.

Close your eyes if possible and slowly count backward from 10 to one. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth once for each number. Focusing on your breathing distracts you from your worries, lowering your heart rate and blood pressure, reducing stress.

Be aware of these energy zappers and do something about them.

Why feel sluggish when you can feel great?

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