By Dr Andrew Greenland
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May 17, 2022
Feeling tired has become so common amongst patients that the medical sector has developed our own acronym for it: TATT - tired all the time. A YouGov survey found that an incredible 25% of people feel tired all the time. In addition, 44% of people find themselves to be weary around ‘half of the time’. So if you find yourself feeling tired and exhausted all the time, you are not alone. Why are we all so tired? Some of the reasons we are all tired are obvious. As a society, we stay up late on too many nights, most of us work long hours, and some of us have young children who need us throughout the night. A new reason for our tiredness has emerged: long covid. Fatigue is the most common symptom of long covid. As long covid has become more widely recognised within the NHS, more research is being conducted into the symptoms and ways to treat them. Most people make a full recovery from long-covid in around 12 weeks, but coping with fatigue during this time can be challenging. Patients I have worked with have felt forced to leave their jobs, unable to make it through the day while feeling so tired. Others just simply aren’t performing the way they would want to. Why does Covid cause fatigue? Covid is a viral illness. Viral infections impact the mitochondria and manipulate them in a way that can lead to cell death. With the mitochondria being such an essential tool in generating our body’s energy, any virus that interferes with its function can cause fatigue and lethargy. Covid is no different to any other viral infection in that it impacts your mitochondria and your energy. Unfortunately, conventional medicine doesn’t have much to offer patients suffering from tiredness. If you are suffering badly, you may be referred for a basic assessment or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). With the NHS so stretched, you can expect to wait for quite some time before receiving these services you desperately need, just to stop feeling tired. What can I do? Before seeking treatment, there are several things you can do to try to optimise your recovery time overnight and reduce the fatigue you experience throughout the day. Optimise your sleep It seems obvious, I’m feeling tired so I should sleep more. But the time you spend in bed doesn’t necessarily equate to better sleep. We should be aiming for higher quality sleep. An essential step to optimising your sleep is timing. You should be aiming to sleep ideally by 10.00 pm. An old saying is that every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after, and research shows this is true. A study by Exeter University showed that people who fell asleep between 10.00 pm and 10.59 pm have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. When we sleep late, we experience increased inflammation problems and other issues that can affect body function and cause fatigue. It isn’t always possible to sleep at 10.00 pm, and your work schedule might make that impossible. The best alternative is to keep a one hour window in which you fall asleep. This regular sleep pattern helps to improve the health of your sleep and can reduce your overall fatigue. Optimise your nutrition Nutrition is often overlooked when it comes to sleep health, but a balanced diet doesn’t just affect how you perform during the day. Research is beginning to show a link between our nutrition and the quality of our sleep. Diets high in carbohydrates have been shown to increase the restlessness of your sleep and reduce the amount of time you spend in a deep sleep cycle. If you haven’t already, you should look to optimise your nutrition. Plenty of fruit and leafy vegetables will help you get the right balance of vitamins and nutrients you require. You should also try to avoid eating late at night and keep in mind that caffeine and spicy foods can make it harder to get to sleep. Understand your activity Unfortunately, when we are fatigued, we are less capable. It is vital to take note of all of our activities and create an altered lifestyle plan to ensure we are not pushing ourselves into further fatigue. I recommend keeping a journal of your daily activities, separating essential activities and what you can remove or reduce. Keep notes of how fatigued you feel and what changes based on what you add or remove from your activities. As your body starts to recover, you can gradually increase your strain, take longer runs, and have extra gym sessions. Reduce your stress Stress and sleep are two highly linked functions. When we are stressed, our sleep can be negatively impacted. When we don’t sleep enough, we tend to be affected more by stress. It is a vicious cycle. If you are fatigued, it is important to recognise that you need to change the daily stress you put yourself under. Try to reduce your stress where you can. Take on less at work until you feel recovered, try and scale back on any projects that will put you under more pressure. Once you have recovered from your fatigue, you will feel more energised and capable of taking on extra challenges. Red Light Therapy and fatigue Red light has a lower frequency than blue light and has been found to have the broadest range of therapeutic benefits. When using a full-body red light treatment machine, your entire skin is exposed to low levels of red and near-infrared light. Isolating this spectrum of light allows you to enjoy the benefits of the natural range of light found in sunlight without the damaging effects of ultraviolet rays, which can be harmful to your skin. There is growing evidence that a full-body red light treatment can play a significant role in helping your body to overcome fatigue. The red and near-infrared light penetrates the skin and targets the cells’ mitochondria. Your mitochondria are the body’s energy powerhouses. They are responsible for converting nutrients into chemical energy that fuels all of your bodily activity. Stimulating these powerhouses with red light can play a huge role in giving you the energy you are missing to get over your fatigue.