Tired all the time?

Sedentary lifestyles and an age of convenience have brought in a constant sense of fatigue in people. But are these the only factors to blame?

- GARIMA SADHWANI

F YOU'RE SOMEONE who feels constantly tired or if you're perpetually living with a sense of fatigue, you're not alone. According to a 2023 study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, globally one in every five healthy adults, with no underlying medical conditions, experiences general fatigue that could last up to as long as six months. A poll conducted by YouGov in 2022 in the United Kingdom also revealed that one in eight adults was always feeling tired. In fact, the acronym TATT which stands for 'tired all the time' became one of the most common phrases to be used on social media platform TikTok post Covid-19.

Thirty years ago, Monica Geller from the hit TV show Friends would have said, "Welcome to the real world. It sucks, you're gonna love it!" But even if a sign of adulthood, feeling tired all day every day is not normal. So why is this epidemic of fatigue all around us?

The usual suspectsDr Manisha Arora, director of internal medicine at Delhi's CK Birla Hospital (R), says that a major factor to blame for this excessive tiredness is our lifestyle. She says, "We have long hours of work, sitting, and unprecedented screen times. But not just that, our diet is now majorly unbalanced because it's not homemade for many and we consume processed foods. There is a deficiency of vitamin B12 and vitamin D in the population too, which causes fatigue."

Sleep is the other major factor. Dr Ravi Shekar Jha, director and unit head of pulmonology at Faridabad's Fortis Hospital, tells FE, "Sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining physiological and cognitive functions. It facilitates cellular repair, immune system regulation, and hormonal balance, including growth hormone secretion and stress hormone modulation."