Good resources on the relationship between tiredness and an active Lifestyle?

Akrasia
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While doing my yearly review I while back, I have realized that I complain pretty often about my lack of energy. Since I try to be smart about how much I can do without burning out, I find myself trying to do less basically all the time and am kinda locked in a defensive battle between my aspirations and my worries about doing too much.

What I thought might help is gaining some insight into the relationship between tiredness and being active.

I have not done a lot of sports or visited museums or met with friends etc in the last months and my assumption is that I am tired because I don’t do enough active things. And that there is a vicious cycle of not doing much -> feeling tired -> not doing much etc. So maybe one way to get more done is actually to do more and not protect myself too much against doing too much, so to speak.

Since this is a bit counter intuitive and just a hunch on my part, I first of all wanna know more about the relationship between an active lifestyle and tiredness.

So if anybody has any resources as regards to this I’d be happy to hear about them. I wil try to find something myself as well.

EDIT: Tried to clarify my writing a little bit…

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I struggle with this, too, so will be interested in what we may turn up. :slight_smile:

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You might want to look into improving your sleep habits. It can change things dramatically in terms of having more energy.

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Not the best resource but an interesting pointer nonetheless (my emphasis): Fatigue: Why am I so tired and what can I do about it?

10) Too much or too little activity

A person who feels fatigued may not exercise, and lack of exercise can cause further fatigue. Lack of exercise may eventually cause deconditioning, making it harder and more tiring to perform a physical task.

This talks about physical deconditioning but I don’t see why there shouldn’t be also mental/social deconditioning, too. Also the word fatigue is probably useful to research further.

This seems to be true and well documented (One example). On the other hand I do get a lot of sleep and quality sleep too.

I have sleep data thanks to sleepcycle which I use every weekday. My sleep quality is about 78% (average is 76%) over the last few months and my time in bed is 7 hours 26 minutes (average is 7 hours 21 minutes). So I sleep about the same as everybody else, maybe even a little better. I know that isn’t necessarily reliable data, but still better than nothing.

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Another terrible sources filled post about tiredness and fatigue! Here’s a general list of things that help fight against those things:

  • Diet: drinking lots of water, eating smaller meals more often (keep a constant good blood sugar level), less caffeine, less alcohol, less sugar, lose/gain weight
  • Sleep: about 8 hours, go to bed and wake at the same time always, no naps during the day, wind down before sleep, get out of bed immediately
  • Activity: sit less, exercise
  • reduce Stress: meditate, have more fun (lol), asses your lifestyle to find what stressors can be removed, what relaxing things can be added, consider therapy/a doctor’s opinion

Sources:

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Don’t forget real medical things like sleep apnea! I know two people who got on CPAPs and it seemed like they deaged 10 years in a matter of a month or two, in both mental acuity and general activity.

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Thanks for this link, I started using the app :slight_smile: is the premium worth it?

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@apolyton I have it (except backup) because I bought the app way back when, but I don’t use most of them. I only use the weather feature.

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Some more things about this, especially since I’m looking for things about “social fatigue”:

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