Tired of being tired. Part I
In the morning, your alarm goes off and after hitting that snooze button several times you finally manage to get your body into an upright position. It may not have been the most restful night of your life, but you’ve managed a full eight hours in bed. So, you wonder why you feel so tired.
You know that frustration of plugging your phone in overnight, only to find it at a miserable 10% battery life in the morning. Yep, that’s you right now. And it’s not an isolated incident; it’s like your internal battery needs a serious check-up. What’s going on?
Exhaustion is the first and the most obvious dimension of #burnout. So, I wanted to explore what drains our batteries and how do we keep our energy bars in the green zone.
Let’s start by looking into what ‘energy‘ really means. Beyond its physical definition, ‘energy’ refers to a subjective sensation of vitality, alertness, and a readiness to engage in action. Feeling ‘energized‘ means a peak in motivation, endurance, and a positive emotional state.
‘Give me that challenge, I’m ready for it!’
Conversely, being ‘low on energy‘ is characterized by fatigue, mental fog, and a lack of motivation to take on activities, with challenges perceived more as problems rather than opportunities.
From a neuroscience perspective, subjective energy levels can be linked to some neurochemicals and patterns of activity in the brain. Let’s see in a little more detail on what exactly makes you feel like running on a depleted battery.
Mental fatigue can be cognitive and emotional
While our brains evolved during a time when effort was primarily physical, nowadays, for knowledge workers, the fatigue is more likely to be of a mental nature. When we feel tired, in most cases, we deal with cognitive fatigue and emotional exhaustion.
In stressful working conditions, particularly those involving high demands and information overload, it’s quite common that we experience both cognitive and emotional fatigue simultaneously. Moreover, the symptoms of these two largely overlap.
Cognitive fatigue refers to the weariness or reduced ability to perform cognitive tasks. Symptoms might include:
Reduced concentration
Impaired logical reasoning
Slower information processing
Increased task errors
Difficulty in decision-making
You are definitely not at your best when mentally fatigued.
In turn, emotional exhaustion involves a depletion of emotional resources and resilience.
However, emotional fatigue is inherently more subjective and can be influenced by a wide range of personal and situational factors, making it harder to measure with the same precision as cognitive fatigue. So, here I focus more on the latter.
What drives mental fatigue?
There are three major drivers for mental fatigue:
Motivational Depletion: occurs when the desire to continue engaging in mentally demanding tasks goes down.
Neural Overload: happens when the brain is overloaded with too much information or demands, leading to acute cognitive exhaustion.
Hormonal Imbalance: refers to the disruption of stress hormones, which can impact sleep and other bodily functions, making it harder to mentally recharge.
I believe all three are worth a detailed review, so in this article, I’m covering only the first one and will tell you about the other two next time.
Motivational control theory of cognitive fatigue
Human behavior is largely driven by the pursuit of rewards or the avoidance of punishment. However, there is always a cost in terms of energy for every action we take. We naturally gravitate towards those activities where the perceived benefits exceed the energy expended. Our brains are constantly, although subconsciously, weighing these costs against potential rewards to guide our decisions.
Imagine you are nicely relaxing on the couch immersed in a TV series when hunger kicks in. You have a choice: get up and cook a meal or order Uber Eats to save the energy you’d otherwise invest into the cooking. When you are tired, you’re more inclined to choose the latter, ignoring the benefits of cooking (like cost savings), since tasks demanding more energy seem overwhelming.
According to motivational control theory, fatigue is a drive to avoid actions where energetic costs exceeds perceived benefits. On the neurological level, in this case, we deal with lowered dopamine levels within reward-related brain circuits and therefore lack of motivational drive for the behavior.
This theory suggests that adjusting task value or reward may alleviate fatigue. For instance, higher financial incentives and granting employees more autonomy in their tasks, thereby allowing them to focus on more fulfilling aspects, could lessen fatigue’s impact.
Experimental results showed that when the reward was augmented, performance indeed increased, although only partially indicating that factors other than motivation also play a role in mental fatigue.
Moreover, a heavy workload alone did not necessarily lead to significant fatigue. When perceived reward outweighs the effort, people can work long hours without feeling tired. However, excessive work coupled with a perceived lack of reward is both exhausting and potentially harmful. Rewards encompass more than financial gain; recognition, appreciation, and positive feedback often have greater significance than monetary compensation.
It brings us again to the point that I’ve already covered earlier: high workload is not the reason for burnout. Lack of reward and recognition are.
Summary
In summary, lack of motivation is one of the key contributors to fatigue. Feeling tired may stem from a perception that the effort required for a particular action outweighs its value. So, to combat this type of fatigue, it’s crucial to enhance the perceived benefits of the action.
Imagine a scenario where you’re busy with a mentally demanding task and start to feel drained. If someone taps your back saying: “Great job!”, or if you’re offered a financial incentive to keep going, you might experience a surge of energy or inspiration and forget your exhaustion. However, it’s essential to remember that this boost is only temporary. Over time, as the energy you’ve invested in the task accumulates, the cost-benefit balance may tilt once again, with the costs beginning to outweigh the rewards.
In the next posts, I will explain why it happens and tell you about the other two reasons for mental fatigue and exhaustion.
Stay tuned!
Resources:
1. Boksem, Maarten A.S., and Mattie Tops. “Mental Fatigue: Costs and Benefits.” Brain Research Reviews 59, issue 1 (2008): 125-139. ISSN 0165-0173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresrev.2008.07.001.
2. Boksem, Maarten A.S., Theo F. Meijman, and Monicque M. Lorist. “Mental Fatigue, Motivation and Action Monitoring.” Biological Psychology 72, issue 2 (2006): 123-132. ISSN 0301-0511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.08.007.
3. Van Der Hulst, Monique, and Sabine Geurts. “Associations between Overtime and Psychological Health in High and Low Reward Jobs.” Work & Stress 15, no. 3 (2001): 227–40. https://doi:10.1080/02678370110066580.