The Mystery Fatigue

You are getting eight hours. You are not skipping meals. You cut back on caffeine. And yet, by 2 PM, you are ready to hibernate. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. A whole generation is running on empty and the usual advice is not fixing it.

Decision Fatigue is Real

Every choice you make uses mental energy. What to wear. What to eat. What to watch. Whether to answer that email now or later. Modern life is thousands of micro-decisions per day, and your brain only has so much bandwidth. By evening, you are not physically tired โ€” you are decisioned out.

The fix? Automate more. Meal prep so you do not decide what to eat. Capsule wardrobe so you do not decide what to wear. Default responses for common situations. Protect your decision-making energy for things that actually matter.

Sensory Overload

We are constantly bombarded: notifications, ads, noise, light, people, screens. Your nervous system is in low-grade fight-or-flight all day. No wonder you are tired โ€” your body thinks you are being chased by a bear that is actually just your email inbox.

Sensory breaks help. Ten minutes without screens. Five minutes of silence. Looking at something green outside. Your nervous system needs downtime to reset.

Emotional Labor

Managing other people's feelings is exhausting. Pretending you are fine when you are not is exhausting. Being the person who keeps everything running is exhausting. If you are always the therapist friend, the responsible one, the peacekeeper โ€” that drains you even when nothing physically demanding happened.

Check your emotional boundaries. Not everything is your job to fix. Not every feeling needs your attention. Protect your energy like the limited resource it is.