Why am I tired?

 Does sleep differ from rest?

Are you tired after a good night's sleep? Or do you feel that after work there is absolutely no energy for anything other than sitting on a sofa and staring at the telly? Many signs tell you that you are running on a low battery. Unfortunately, you have to figure out the battery or batteries that need charging.  Everyone is told to sleep 7-8 hours a night and then your body should get enough sleep. Maybe, but that is not helping if you are running low with your nutrients or water, nor does it help when you are emotionally drained, physically exhausted, mentally down, creatively blocked or sensory overload keeps your mind on a run. Many little big things can be in the way of a balanced and well-rested body and mind. And those can not be fixed with a good night's sleep. When you are running with low batteries, you need to rest and replenish. 

Before getting deeper into the forms of rest. One needs to realize that also too much rest and sleep is bad for you. Everything should be in balance. That is why you might have nights when you have slept 10 hours and feel utterly horrible in the morning. However, to keep this understandable and easy to read, I will focus only on the low batteries and the re-charge scenario. 

Has food and water really something to do with my sleep and rest?

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night to eat? Or do you sometimes wake up really thirsty? As I have written before human beings need balance in everything by nature. We need to replenish regularly and if we do not do so during the day, our body demands to fix that at the night. At least at first. To be honest, our body stops screaming for food and water when it has not been heard and tries to cope with what is available. Your body may not be able to fix that torn ligament you hurt earlier when you rushed into a bus. Or it may not be able to maintain proper heart rate or blood pressure. It also starts to prioritize due to energy deficiency. Therefore eat well, fill all the storages with good nutrients and replenish your water reservoir. Then your body can heal you while you sleep and do its job. 

I eat well, but I am still exhausted in the morning.

If you are still drained, after a good night's sleep, you need to start to balance everything else in your life. Let us start with the easiest that is purely physical tiredness. Do you feel that no matter how hard you train you can not feel nor see the difference? Then you do not have balance in your training regime. Soft training is the best training partner hard training can have. Your body will benefit more from your hard workout sets at the gym when you accompany those with some health qi gong or yoga classes. When your training is in balance with your diet and rest, you sometimes treat your body to a proper massage or quiet moment in a sauna and drink enough to keep your body's spring fresh, your physical side should be in balance. 

What about sex?

Yes, that can be counted as physical as well, but also emotional and mental. Sex affects us on many different levels. And before one starts to panic about this, let me calm your mind. It is not about having sex or not having it, it is about being happy within one's own body and knowing its needs. Just remember what comes to sex quality is always more important than quantity. Overdoing, it may drain your energy. Indulgence in moderation. 

What is the difference between mental and emotional tiredness or rest?

You may be mentally tired after a long day at the office when you have had a hard task at hand and you have used all resources from math to grammar to clear it. On the other hand, the same office may drain you emotionally as well if you feel that your bosses put you under pressure and that you feel that they are not appreciating your efforts. Both can be equally tiring and both need a different approach in terms of rest. Firstly, let us focus on the rest, not on the fact that there might be a need to address some issues as well. 

What is emotional rest?

How to take a break from matters that burden you emotionally. First, identify the burden. Is there something that can be done with it, or is the burden something that must be carried along with no matter how hard and painful that might be like a death or illness within the family? Whatever it may be, first acknowledge the burden and give it the appropriate amount of respect. Understand that some sorrows we will carry with us for a very long time and some are fleeing very fast. Both are exhausting, individual and should not be compared to anything. At that moment that issue is causing tiredness and sorrow. 

How to compensate for sorrow? With joy. When the sorrow is the greatest it is very hard to find joy in anything, but one must try. Dark emotions are like black holes in space, they suck the joy out of living and that joy needs to be replenished. Therefore, while walking through the darkest forest where the air feels too dense to breathe, one must search for joy from within. One good aide is music. Do not choose the melancholy ones you are drawn to, but select either light and airy or calming sounds that touch the light inside you. Anything that puts you on a path away from the dark. Paint, but choose the brightest colours. There will come a day that you may use the darker tones again, but now those will pull you deeper. allow all that is joyful to lift your spirit. 

What about mental rest?

Overburdening your mind with problems that need solving, may cost you more than rest. How to rest a mind that is very deep into a problem-solving state? One needs to understand a couple of things. First, the mind loves to work and be active. Therefore, meditation is not always an easy option. One can train the mind to calm and meditation is a powerful tool, but to quiet a troubled mind is a task that needs to be trained. If you feel that being calm, sitting still and breathing deeply is not yet for you, you may start with something easier. Transfer your mind to a different setting. People tend to do this with television and movies, but by doing so they put themselves into a different stress-building environment. Sensory overload is too common nowadays. So choose something slow. Read a book or a short story. Write something that lifts you up. But keep it easy. Some of us love knitting and some crafts. Those too are helpful if the task is kept simple. Just enough to activate the mind, but not too much. Martial Arts are a perfect way to train the mind. Concentration and focus are in the essence of all Arts. When one can fully focus, it is easier to learn proper meditation and find quietness from within. When one can quiet the mind, the spirit finds rest in the place one loves. For some, that place is a seashore, but it may as well be a forest, a mountain or one's own back yard. Many find a soothing sensation from the smell of just washed fresh laundry. As you can understand some methods to rest can be used for many types of restlessnesses.