If you experience these 4 symptoms, please stop and rest immediately. No kidding.

I wonder if you have ever had this experience: you get tired as soon as you use your brain, fall asleep as soon as you lie down, and become exhausted when you try to work. You are clearly urging yourself to grit your teeth and work hard, but you just can't move.

This feeling of being tired no matter what you do may not be due to your weak will or laziness, but rather that your energy bar has already reached the bottom and "hidden fatigue" is quietly accumulating.

“Fatigue” means the body is “lack of power”

"Fatigue" and "fatigue feeling" are two different concepts. Fatigue is the actual loss, while fatigue feeling is the signal perceived by the brain and transmitted to the conscious level.

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The operation of the human body is like a rechargeable battery, which is in a dynamic balance of "charging" and "consuming" for 24 hours. Fatigue is equivalent to the amount of electricity used. The more you use, the more tired you are. Fatigue is the dial that reminds you how much power you have. The more power you have, the weaker the fatigue; the less power you have, the stronger the fatigue. When the power drops to the critical point and the value display turns from green to red, the body will send a warning to the brain, reminding it to enter the "power saving mode" and recharge in time.

The horror of “hidden fatigue”:

I don't know I'm tired

Under normal circumstances, fatigue can indeed serve as a relatively accurate indicator of our physical state, reflecting the degree of fatigue. However, fatigue, like pain, is a subjective experience that integrates multiple dimensions such as physiology, psychology, and culture. Therefore, it is not always accurate and often makes mistakes.

A person's perception and tolerance of pain are adaptive and plastic. When an individual is repeatedly exposed to a certain painful stimulus, their nervous system will gradually adapt to this stimulus, becoming less and less afraid of pain and more and more able to tolerate pain, to the point where they become insensitive to pain perception.

Similarly, when a person is in a state of "high consumption and low replenishment" for a long time, the battery is never full and the value is often red, he will forget what it feels like to be "not tired".

You thought your health bar was full, but you didn't realize that 100% was just a false mark and the actual power was only 70%; you thought you consumed 5 bars of power by working overtime and you could make up for it after a good night's sleep, but in fact the power was almost exhausted and the battery was severely damaged, so you needed a long vacation to recuperate.

The threshold of fatigue gradually increases with the little tolerance and neglect in life, resulting in the fact that even if the fatigue has accumulated to the point of being life-threatening, one still remains unaware.

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In today's society, the pursuit of efficiency, self-discipline and perfection has become a universal value. This concept has given rise to a strange but common phenomenon: everyone is complaining about being tired, but no one is tired. People are trapped in the vicious circle of "hidden fatigue", whether actively or passively, and are deeply trapped in it.

Working overtime day and night, drinking a lot of coffee and milk tea, the brain, which has received the "low battery" signal from the body, has a rapid secretion of dopamine due to the impact of caffeine, nicotine, high sugar and high fat, which temporarily increases the brain's excitement and blocks the brain's processing and transmission of fatigue signals.

In this state, people will mistakenly think that they are fully charged and full of energy. However, they do not know that their battery level is still at the bottom and fatigue has not been eliminated. This short-term excitement only masks the fatigue warning of the body, making the brain insensitive to fatigue and even causing cognitive bias, mistakenly thinking that it is fully charged and full of blood, putting the body in the extreme state of "low energy, high operation", which not only aggravates fatigue accumulation, but also poses a serious threat to health.

Just as pain protects us from injury, fatigue protects us from overexertion. People with no pain are at risk of injury because they cannot feel pain; similarly, people who are insensitive to fatigue are putting their health and lives on the brink of collapse.

How to determine whether you have "hidden fatigue"?

When the body is in a state of hidden fatigue, it will also send out warning signals. Therefore, by understanding and identifying the warning signs of "hidden fatigue", we can take timely measures to prevent the body from falling into the brink of collapse.

1. Frequent brain fog and difficulty concentrating

When we feel that our brain is slow to react, our thinking is stuck, our memory is offline, and our attention is off track, as if our brain is shrouded in a hazy fog, like it has been flooded or covered with paste, we may have actually fallen into a state of "brain fog".

There may be a close connection between brain fog and hidden fatigue. They may be manifestations of each other, that is, brain fog may be an external manifestation of hidden fatigue; at the same time, they may also induce each other, that is, the state of hidden fatigue may aggravate the symptoms of brain fog.

2. Restless and easily bored

"Irritability" is a typical manifestation of hidden fatigue. When the body is in a state of fatigue, people may feel upset, have greater mood swings, and easily get angry or upset over trivial matters. This emotional state may affect daily life and work, making it difficult for people to stay calm and focused.

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At the same time, "getting bored easily" is also a common symptom of hidden fatigue. As the brain function is affected by fatigue, people may become impatient and lose interest in things easily, and even things they usually like may become boring and annoying. This emotional state may further aggravate fatigue, forming a vicious cycle.

3. Falling asleep in the middle of the night and waking up in the middle of the night

When you find yourself falling asleep unconsciously while doing some daily activities, such as watching TV or riding the subway, or even waking up to find that you have sat an extra stop or watched a few extra episodes of a show, this may indicate that your body is overtired. This phenomenon of "falling asleep midway" has been confirmed in brain science and is a protective measure taken by the brain to force rest when fatigue reaches a certain level.

Therefore, it is more like fainting than falling asleep. This phenomenon is particularly noteworthy because it may mean that your sleep quality is also declining, and the decline in sleep quality will further increase fatigue, forming a vicious cycle.

Extremely tired people can't fall asleep, and people who are extremely tired often don't sleep well. If you find yourself waking up frequently in the middle of the night, and not because you need to go to the bathroom or for other physiological reasons, this may also be a sign of hidden fatigue. This situation is usually related to sleep disorders, which may be caused by the accumulated fatigue of the autonomic nervous system, leading to a disrupted sleep cycle.

4. Bad breath, body odor, herpes and acne

When the body falls into a state of hidden fatigue, the metabolic level may be significantly reduced, which brings about a series of chain reactions. For example, the amount of saliva secretion decreases, and the bacteria in the mouth multiply rapidly in the mouth, which then decomposes the food residues in the mouth and produces smelly gas, thus causing bad breath.

In addition, the reduction in metabolic levels also leads to incomplete metabolism of nutrients. These incompletely metabolized nutrients accumulate in the body, forming metabolic wastes with odor, including lactic acid, urea, ammonia, etc. These wastes may be discharged through the skin in the form of sweat, interact with bacteria on the skin, and produce unpleasant body odor.

The key point is that as the physical condition continues to decline, the immune system will also be significantly reduced, and inflammation will become active. This is often accompanied by the appearance of skin problems such as acne and blackheads. More seriously, the herpes virus parasitic in the body may become active, forming blisters on the lips, armpits and other parts. This is undoubtedly another significant and important warning sign of hidden fatigue that cannot be ignored.

What is the best remedy for dealing with “hidden fatigue”?

It is normal to feel "tired", but not knowing you are "tired" is fatal! The root cause of "hidden fatigue" lies in the long-term imbalance between excessive "energy consumption" and insufficient "energy charging", so that the brain loses sensitivity to "fatigue" and loses the perception of "not being tired".

To break the shackles of "hidden fatigue", we need to find ways to achieve efficient "charging" under high-intensity "energy consumption", or to reduce "energy consumption" to ensure that "charging" can keep up in time.

1. Sleep is the best way to recharge

As we all know, good sleep is the golden rule for efficient energy recharge and recovery. Some scientists even firmly believe that it is the only way to recover from fatigue. In a nutshell, ensuring good sleep is undoubtedly an important part of our daily life.

2. Reduce energy consumption: Life needs a sense of relaxation

In the case of being unable to guarantee efficient "charging", it is particularly important to minimize "energy consumption". After working or studying for a long time, the energy utilization of the body and brain will become inefficient, just like an idling tire, which does not move forward but consumes energy and damages itself.

Therefore, proper relaxation, "slacking off" after highly concentrated attention, "being lazy" after long hours of work, and maintaining a sense of relaxation in work and life can slow down the accumulation of fatigue. This kind of "slacking off" and "being lazy" does not mean escaping from work or responsibility, but giving the body and brain a short break, allowing them to free themselves from the tense state and restore vitality.

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It should be noted that the "slacking off" mentioned here does not mean taking time out to play games or watch videos. In fact, being absorbed in games or watching videos with great interest will only make you tired and make things worse. Because as long as there is information input, the brain cannot stop working.

Therefore, the truly effective way to "slack off" is to do something with low information input and low energy consumption, such as standing for a while to stretch your muscles, taking a walk away from the small world of the screen, looking at the blue sky and green grass outside the window, petting cute cats and dogs, and hugging your close children and loved ones. "Being lazy" means to change your goal in time and change your mood when you feel "bored".

Think about it from this perspective. “Slacking off” and “being lazy” are a kind of investment and self-discipline in a healthy life, and they are efforts for the next wave of struggle! In the final analysis, to stay away from “hidden fatigue” is to let go of the sense of urgency and maintain a sense of relaxation.

References

[1]Fight Fatigue with Your Fork | Psychology Today

[2]Dimensions of Fatigue | Psychology Today

[3] Mary Burgess & Trudy Child. The Fatigue Self-Help Manual: Use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Regain Your Vitality. Guangzhou: Guangdong Tourism Press. 2021.

[4] Kajimoto Osami. Hidden fatigue: The true face of fatigue that cannot be eliminated even with rest. Shanghai: Oriental Publishing House. 2020.

[5]KM Smirnov. “[Latent fatigue]..” Gigiena truda i professional'nye zabolevaniia (1989). 28-31.

[6]Sleep: Facing Up To Fatigue | Psychology Today

Author: Su Jing, National Level 2 Psychological Counselor

Reviewer: Zhang Xin, Associate Professor, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Peking University