Tiredness can be the result of many things. You might be sleep-deprived, overworked, or under psychological stress. You might have nutritional deficiencies, a chronic condition, or lowered immunity. In some cases, it can be a combination of all of these factors that leads you to always feeling tired at work. In this article, we’ll discuss occupational fatigue and give you some tips to overcome it.
Being tired at work is not only causing your job to suffer, but it can affect all other aspects of your life as well. Not performing well at work may lead to tension with your colleagues or supervisors, which then makes going to work more tiring. It can affect your self-esteem and future plans. It can also spill over into your life at home, your relationships, and, quite importantly, your physical and mental health. That’s why it’s important to catch the early warning signs and do something about them before they become much more challenging later on.
Each of these aspects can be considered stressors, something that triggers your body’s stress response. Your body’s global stress response is called the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response and it’s composed of six circuits of organs and systems working together. Although all six circuits will be activated in the presence of these stressors, the Hormone Circuit is particularly involved when it comes to occupational fatigue. This circuit is composed of your adrenal glands, your thyroid, and your reproductive organs.
If you’re just going through a temporary phase of overtime, perhaps due to a period of higher workload or a deadline, you may not have full-fledged occupational fatigue.
Occupational fatigue is characterized by persistent and sometimes quite overwhelming tiredness. And it can come with a variety of other symptoms as well, such as brain fog, anxiety, and even depression.
This doesn’t happen if you’ve had a couple of sleepless nights - it happens when your sleepless nights have become a fixture. Or if the overwork or tension with colleagues is ongoing for weeks or months, rather than during one stressful event.
What happens when stress is chronic like that is that your adrenals work overtime to produce cortisol, your body’s main anti-stress hormone. As noted above, the adrenals are part of the NEM’s Hormone Circuit. And they are also the NEM’s first responder to stress. At first, they work so hard that your cortisol levels rise above the normal range. But then when they get exhausted, their cortisol output drops. These mark the early and more advanced stages of Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS), respectively.
Symptoms of AFS include fatigue, sleep disturbances, weight gain, brain fog, anxiety, mild depression, hair loss, loss of libido, PMS, infertility, hypoglycemia, food and drug sensitivities, lowered immunity, blood pressure instability, and an inability to handle stress, among others.
Some of the professions with the highest risk of occupational fatigue and AFS are those that require long hours, overtime, night shifts, and exposure to harsh or high-risk environments. Some examples are healthcare work, road work, and truck driving. And occupational fatigue increases the risk of making errors, slower reactions, more injuries, and losing focus.
If you’re tired at work all the time and you start to notice some of the AFS symptoms listed above, your tiredness may have turned into something more serious. Or will very soon. Your Hormone Circuit is dysregulating and it might not stop at AFS.
It might start affecting your thyroid. Hypothyroidism is very common, but not many people know that stress and adrenal fatigue can be secondary causes of this condition, along with more primary causes, like Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. That’s why you can see symptoms such as weight gain and hair loss with occupational fatigue, even if you didn’t change your diet.
It also downregulates your reproductive system, which might then lead to sex hormone imbalances, like estrogen dominance. Estrogen dominance can cause things like breast cysts, mood swings, fibroids, and endometriosis.
Many of our clients have occupational fatigue, and one common theme is that they often take too long to get help. And usually, that’s because they thought it was normal to overwork to that point. Sometimes, they think if they didn’t do that, they’d lose their competitive edge. And who can blame them? Overworking has been glamorized in our culture.
This doesn’t only apply to employment. Overwork can be just as common for stay at home moms or dads. Everyone knows that this is a 24/7 job that you do even when you’re sick or stressed. But hardly anyone acknowledges that it can just as easily lead to occupational fatigue and other chronic issues. In fact, many of our clients with advanced AFS are from this category because they tend to stretch themselves the most.
The first step is to dissect the problem. What is causing occupational fatigue in the first place? Is it:
These are just some examples. There are many more possibilities, and rarely is it only one factor. But do your best to boil it down to the main issues.
Once you have those, you need to devise a plan to resolve them. For example, taking your work home with you is something that could be remedied with strategy and organization. Creating a list of what work needs to be done and then allocating specific work hours for it free of distraction may allow you to finish each day’s tasks on time. Or schedule certain hours each day in which you won't work or answer the phone or emails.
Of course, some issues may not seem solvable right now. But creating a plan towards that resolution within some kind of timeframe will help to relieve you one of the biggest stressors: the feeling that the problem has no end in sight. This may require brainstorming with friends, family, colleagues, bosses, and maybe an occupational therapist. Some companies have started implementing programs to decrease health and safety issues, such as fatigue. Check if yours has one.
With that plan in mind, here are some other tips to help you regain your energy and strength. Keep in mind that some tips, such as taking a supplement, will require the guidance of an experienced health professional. Otherwise, you run the risk of hindering rather than helping your condition.
Sleep is one of those things that people sacrifice as soon as something else comes up. This is okay for a special occasion. But as a practice, it is one of the most destructive things you can do to your mental and physical health. Sleep is fundamental. Countless studies have shown that. Yet many people still neglect it.
Make a sleep hygiene routine to ensure you get a full night of quality sleep every night. Keep your room cool and dark, stop using screens two hours before bed, and don’t turn on the big lights if you go to the bathroom at night, use a night light instead. You can also consider a melatonin supplement or herbal sleep aids if needed.
If your office or workplace is not well lit or feels stuffy, that may contribute to the fatigue. Find ways to brighten it up. Use better lighting, keep it orderly and clean, add some plants here and there, and open the windows for fresh air.
If your occupational fatigue has led to Hormone Circuit dysregulation or AFS, all the above tips won’t be enough to turn that around. You’ll need a proper adrenal fatigue recovery plan that includes the adrenal fatigue diet, nutritional supplements, gentle forms of exercise, and stress management techniques. This is especially the case if your AFS is more advanced.
Being tired at work from time to time isn’t a big deal. It’s when it becomes the norm that something is wrong. Occupational fatigue is a huge problem for most companies, which can lose up to $2000 per year per employee due to lower performance. But it’s an even bigger problem for the individual experiencing it. It can cause issues not just at work, but at home and for your physical and mental health.
Talking with your supervisor and devising a plan to reduce the causes of this fatigue is a great first step. Improving your sleep, your work environment, and your hormone balance are just as important. If you’d like to know more about how to do those, we can offer you a free initial consultation with one of our coaches. You can reach us at (626) 571-1234.
If you’re always tired at work, that’s a sign that the stress has caused physiological imbalances that need your attention. It’s not a good idea to load up on coffee and just keep pushing. At some point, you’ll crash. Here are a few tips to start turning things around.