Chronic Fatigue — Get Your Energy Back!
- Sleep. There is nothing like a good night’s sleep in a dark room to regulate hormonal output, particularly melatonin. Adults need seven to nine hours of sleep per night for sleep to have a restorative effect.
And they must get enough deep (REM) sleep, which is compromised by sleep apnea and other sleep disorders. School-age children and teenagers need at least eight to ten hours of sleep. (Lack of sleep is but one of many teenage concerns!) Emotional stress, anxiety, chronic pain, allergies, caffeine, alcohol, hot flashes, night sweats, and illness are all renowned sleep thieves. Lesser known culprits are TV, ambient light in bedrooms, personal computers, poor sleep environments, and uncomfortable beds — snoring or thrashing partners may be up there as well!
- Emotions and stress. It is quite possible that your fatigue has both a physical and emotional component. Many of us have a constant stream of chatter going on in our heads — a kind of stress implant from our earliest years — that requires a great deal of subconscious energy to manage. Learning what your private litany is — be it chants of self-criticism, despair, anger, grief, shame or fear — may be the first step toward turning down its volume and reversing the spiral of fatigue.
But you won’t hear much about how to do that in conventional medical circles, where mild to moderate fatigue is often ignored and under-treated.
In the conventional view, persistent mild fatigue is usually considered a reaction to sleep-deprivation or overwork, and as such is usually treated with a prescription for a sedative such as Ambien or Lunesta. While this may allow the user to sleep for six to eight steady hours when they take it — which can do good — it does little to treat the stress-induced physiological imbalance causing the fatigue.
Chronic and hidden emotional stress takes a toll on your body by overtaxing your adrenal glands, which I’ll discuss further below. Coming to terms with stress is a very individualized and complicated issue for most people. Learning how to deal with it may require a protocol of rest, supplements, regular exercise, and various alternative techniques.
- Dietary habits. Often the first thing missing in our high-paced lifestyle is good nutrition. Stress and adrenal fatigue can lead to binge eating and carb cravings. A body that is running on the stress hormone cortisol needs a readily available source of energy, so your brain sends out craving signals for substances like nicotine, caffeine or sugar that will head straight for the bloodstream. But these are only temporary reinforcements that eventually send your body crashing down, along with blood sugar and serotonin levels.
This relationship between poor nutrition, adrenal fatigue and lack of energy creates the downward spiral of fatigue. 
In time, the system becomes incapable of righting itself, your adrenals become exhausted, and cortisol levels plummet, leaving you feeling utterly drained. Not surprisingly, many women develop adrenal fatigue and insulin resistance simultaneously. Limiting simple sugars and carbs and eating three well-balanced meals with two snacks a day will go a long way in helping you restore and sustain energy levels.
Eating too much at one time can also cause fatigue and listlessness. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to digest food completely. One reason people go into a “food coma” after a big meal is that the body diverts blood supply and energy from other places (like the brain) to digestion. This too can be a kind of addictive state, causing many of us to overeat and tune out. Many Eastern cultures recommend eating lightly or fasting for a day or two a month to renew digestive vigor — I’ve noticed myself that a regular diet detox helps me tap into a vast store of energy.