I find that if I’m up late for a few nights in a row, I get exceptionally tired, so much so that I can fall asleep almost as soon as dinner is over, stay asleep until bedtime, then sleep right through to the alarm the next morning, and still feel tired.  I also find that I’m tired more during the darker winter months.  I wouldn’t say that I suffer from Seasonal Adjustment Disorder as it doesn’t get me down particularly, but I think my mind says “it’s dark, must be time to sleep”, and when dark happens around 4pm, I start to shut down a lot earlier.

An article in Top Sante posits there are four main types of tiredness but it should be recognised that with each of these types, when your overall energy level is low, you’ll reach them more quickly.  Listening to your body can help you decide what to do next, whether that’s resting or having a routine or schedule.

Signs, causes and how to help each tiredness type are detailed below:

1. Mental tiredness – can find it hard to find the right words, brain fog or a sense of being unable to settle, often caused by anxiety patterns pushing your mind into overdrive. All you mind to rest by reducing stimulation.  Using mindless tv shows, podcasts etc may be a good way to distract your mind, allowing it to settle.  Reducing your exposure to noise and harsh light can help your brain fully rest.
2. Emotional tiredness – being extra sensitive or reactive and feeling like you’re at your limits emotionally.  Often overact to small things and lack any kind of resourcefulness, as if you don’t have the capacity to take on anything else.  Take some time to get away from the source of emotional overwhelm by setting firm boundaries with other people, taking time out on your own and allowing yourself to feel all the feels in order to process and digest them.
3. Physical tiredness – aching muscles and physical weakness, all you want to do is lie down and rest.  Listen to your body and allow it time for deep physical rest whilst working to build up your energy reserves so you don’t run out of energy so quickly when you’re active.
4. Environmental tiredness – a sense of flatness, apathy, drained by all the small things.  A sense of despondency and hopelessness, spending increasing amounts of time in the same small environment.  Changing your environment can help, if you have the physical energy, like moving the furniture around, redecorating, or something as simple as lighting a scented candle.  Avoid spending the whole day in bed though, at least relocate to the sofa.

The advice the article offered was that fatigue is real and you shouldn’t try to ignore it.  Give yourself a chance to heal by understanding the underlying physical and psycho-emotional needs.

Of the four, I probably suffer with a combination of mental and environmental tiredness.  I have a busy day job, then come home to a busy home life with activities most evenings and all weekend.  I get little time to just simply sit, and when I do, I usually end up nodding off.  Environmentally, we have so much stuff in our house that there’s barely a surface that doesn’t have a pile of something on it.  I try to keep my spaces tidy, but the volume of #bellringing paraphernalia we have of one sort of another creeps into just about every room in the house.  It’s too much sometimes to look at it and wonder how the heck it’ll all get sorted.  There’s too much of it to even know where to start sometimes.  I’d love to have uncluttered floor space, a table I could put a nice vase of flowers on without running the risk of them getting knocked over, or even be able to get to the wardrobe and cupboards without having to mountaineer my way over boxes and piles of stuff.  It’s tiring just to look at it.

What sort of tired are you?