The Four Different Types of Fatigue (And How They Show Up in Our Lives)

You know how sometimes you feel tired but also wired, and all you want to do is burn off some energy by dancing around your apartment, going for a walk, or tidying up? And other times you feel tired and all you have the energy for is to walk the distance between your desk and your couch? Why is it that fatigue and energy levels don’t always line up?

That’s because there are different types of fatigue. And understanding what they are and how they show up in your mind and body can help you develop a more intuitive relationship with your energy levels and your tiredness.

There are generally four different ways in which most of us experience fatigue:

1.       Our bodies are fatigued

This feels like a heaviness, achiness, or just a slowing down in your body. There is an urge to do something physically grounding and restorative (sit/lie down or do some gentle movement or stretching).

With that type of fatigue, our brain may still be active and wanting to do things, so we may want to read, do a crossword puzzle, or have a conversation with a friend. Or our mind might be fatigued as well, which is where we get to fatigue types #2-3 below.

2.       Our minds are fatigued

This usually creates the sensation of feeling “fried” and leads to a sense of exhaustion and overwhelm/burnout if we try to push ourselves past that feeling and keep doing things. Think of those situations in which a relatively small task or chore feels like a massive ask because your brain is toast at the moment. This type of fatigue usually comes after a period of stress (like a challenging conversation or a long work day).

With that type of fatigue, our bodies may still have energy so we may feel compelled to move, clean, go for a walk/run, or do anything else that burns off physical and nervous energy, but does not require brain power.

Or our bodies may be fatigued as well, in which case we may feel like doing something that requires both low physical and low mental energy, like watching a TV show that doesn’t require a lot of focus, playing a phone game, listening to a fun podcast, or scrolling through social media.

Quick sidebar here: this latter group of activities that we feel called to when we are experiencing both physical and mental fatigue are usually (and erroneously) labeled “wastes of time” in our culture. Even in the coaching world, these activities are often referred to in a negative light, as examples of buffering. As a result, we often feel guilt about them or even avoid doing them altogether. And we end up creating more overwhelm and mental exhaustion for ourselves in the process, by resisting these activities when we need them.

3.       Our minds need time and space to absorb new information

 The sensation with this type of fatigue is usually less overwhelming than the brain fatigue described under #2 above. This type of tiredness calls for a pause in a specific type of mental activity, but does not necessarily require us to avoid all types of mental strain. I liken this to the difference between feeling totally wiped out physically from being on your feet all day vs feeling some soreness in one specific muscle in your body that you want to avoid exerting for a bit.

After encountering a lot of new information, our brains need time to absorb and process what they learned, but they usually do not feel fried and burned out. Think of a time you were learning a new skill or concept or you were getting coached and uncovered a thought error you didn’t know was there. Afterwards, you probably wanted to do something completely different for awhile to let your brain rest.

With that type of fatigue, you may still have the mental space to do some chores, or chat with a friend, or watch a TV show that’s more complex/requires attention. The type of rest we are called to in those situations usually involves doing something different with our brains than thinking about the problem we have been trying to solve or the information we just learned. That’s because in those moments our minds just need space to process and let what we’ve learned sink in for a bit, so occupying ourselves with something different for awhile feels restorative and helpful.

 4.       Our minds are avoiding a difficult emotion or task

This is different than the other types of fatigue, in that it is the result of anticipating a task or a feeling, rather than the result of having gone through a particular experience. It’s anticipatory fatigue. And it shows up in your body as a sensation of tightness and resistance. You may be trying to avoid feeling sad or angry or ashamed about something and are occupying your attention with any task that keeps those feelings at bay. Or you may have a challenging project on your to do list that you are afraid of failing at, so you avoid the task altogether and find other ways to spend your time that feel less loaded. In other words, you procrastinate (or buffer) in order to feel better in the moment.

In those instances, we don’t really feel called to do any relaxing activities, we just pick some of them up on autopilot as a way to avoid doing some emotional work. And in those moments the activities we pick don’t feel pleasant, relaxing or restorative, because we are feeling tense and resistant the whole time we’re doing them. The same applies to seemingly ‘productive’ activities we do in order to procrastinate or buffer, such as cleaning or physical movement. That’s because buffering is less about the activity itself, and more about the mind space that’s driving the activity. Going for a walk feels amazing when we do it because we really want to or have some energy to burn off. But it feels terrible if we do it because we are trying to suppress some difficult emotions or avoid a difficult task. Same goes for watching a TV show, reading a book, or any other activity in the world. When we buffer, the activities we pick feel less like a calling, and more like us shoving ourselves towards them in a panic, while trying to hide from our feelings. And that can both come from fatigue (the fatigue of anticipating something unpleasant) and can create fatigue (the fatigue of avoiding our feelings and draining ourselves in the process).

In moments of buffering, we don’t need to judge ourselves, because buffering is incredibly human, everyone experiences it, and fairly frequently at that. Nor do we need to immediately stop our buffering and confront everything we are avoiding, because that’s stressful and unrealistic. It’s just helpful to notice when we do that, so that we can have awareness and note the places where we need to dedicate some attention to processing emotion or coaching ourselves on our unhelpful thoughts, once we are ready.

Next time you are feeling tired, tune in to your mind and body and see which type of fatigue you are experiencing. And offer yourself the space to recover in a way that feels most restorative in that particular moment.

Book a free consult if you need some help parsing through your won thoughts and feelings around fatigue and recovery.