In the fast-paced life, high-pressure studies, frequent overtime work, sleep difficulties or even obstacles, and family pressure have caused us so much trouble that fatigue, especially mental fatigue, is actually very serious. It has become a feeling that we experience almost every day.
Our instinctive, habitual reactions and thoughts in the face of fatigue and stress - which are often derived from evolution and long-term experience - often further worsen the situation because they conflict with physiological laws. The scarcity of knowledge about fatigue and stress means that this problem often does not receive the attention it deserves, causing people in trouble to adopt some messy solutions at will, resulting in low work efficiency and even incurable mental illness. Falling deeper and deeper.
The human body itself is a complex system that consumes limited resources and must have its ultimate working state and optimal working state. We cannot require everyone's body to maintain an abnormally efficient working state for a long time, because the metabolic products of the nervous system will feed back to the receptors of the nervous system (body), reducing people's sense of accomplishment and making people tired and drowsy.
The main forms of energy intake by the human body are lipids and sugars. These energy substances will be converted into glucose after digestion. After glucose enters the blood (that is, blood sugar) and is absorbed by cells, it is oxidized and decomposed into chemical energy in the cells and is partially stored in ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The operation of various functions of our body mostly comes directly from the energy provided by ATP hydrolysis.
For our nervous system, the fundamental function of neuronal activity and nervous system regulation is electrical discharge, and neural signals can therefore be monitored using external devices. The energy for these activities requires ATP. When we are awake, especially in the "task state" when we are engaged in certain thinking, the firing frequency of neurons will be higher, and the energy consumption will therefore be higher.
The total amount of ATP in the entire human body is about 0.2 moles, and human cells require 100 to 150 moles of ATP to provide energy every day. In other words, on average, each ATP molecule is recycled more than 500 times per day. It can be seen that ATP is very active as an energy storage medium.
When the nervous system is engaged in complex tasks for a long time, the consumption of ATP will exceed its income. Therefore, the concentration of ATP in the neuronal environment will decrease with the continuation of heavy mental work. Correspondingly, the concentration of the stepwise hydrolysis products of ATP will also change. Before rest is obtained, the concentration of its final hydrolysis product adenosine will decrease. gradually rise.
The accumulation of adenosine in the nervous system will cause the reaction of the four adenosine-receiving neurons. It will cause the orexin neurons in the brain, especially the hypothalamus, to reduce the excitation level, and then through these neurons The projection further leads to functional changes in the whole brain, suppressing the excitation level of the entire cerebral cortex. As a result, the coordinated work of various cerebral cortical structures required for our mental activities will be inhibited, that is, when thinking about the same type of problem, we will need more time and be more prone to errors and distractions.
In addition, orexin neurons are a key factor in triggering the body's circadian rhythm switch mechanism, which is the key to controlling falling asleep and waking up. Reduced levels of excitation of these neurons urge the nervous system to enter a sleep state, making people feel drowsy.
At the same time, the reduction in the excitability level of these neurons will also inhibit the activity of dopamine neurons, reduce the secretion of dopamine, inhibit the reward system of the human brain, and produce a sense of powerlessness that the work has not been accomplished. Losing interest in doing thinking work.
Furthermore, the reduction in the excitation levels of these neurons will inhibit the activity of serotonin neurons that make people feel relaxed, reducing serotonin levels. This change can make people nervous, have difficulty concentrating, be anxious, be irritable, prone to aggressive behavior, and reduce learning and memory abilities.
Based on the above changes and symptoms, we can define non-pathological fatigue, which is the normal fatigue state that each of us experiences: decreased concentration, boredom, anxiety, tension, lack of sense of accomplishment, and violent tendencies , sleepy.
The basis of fatigue lies in our body’s metabolism. When we don’t get enough rest, stay up late, or have other sub-health conditions, metabolic replenishment will be hindered, making it difficult for neuroendocrine conditions to return to their optimal state.
This affects people's cognitive abilities, limiting memory, reading, language and logical thinking abilities. As a result, our brain's ability to immerse ourselves in a task is diminished, manifesting as difficulty concentrating.
The mechanism of fatigue determines that when we are tired, there will be side effects such as a reduced sense of accomplishment, loss of interest in work, and proneness to violence. Therefore, long-term and high-intensity working methods such as overtime and shift changes will change people's "personality" and make them boring, spiritless, and tasteless.
Adenosine's effect on orexin neurons in the hypothalamus makes people sleepy, its effect on the dopamine system makes people lose interest in work, and its effect on serotonin makes people nervous. Therefore, the most direct strategy to relieve fatigue is to reduce the concentration of adenosine in the neuronal system - rest, or sleep.
The human brain requires the coordination of the whole brain when engaging in anything, but when engaging in complex tasks, some areas are more active than others, that is to say, these areas are more involved. During task processing, the neurons within them fire more frequently, which results in a relatively higher concentration of adenosine in these areas, resulting in an uneven distribution of adenosine in the nervous system. In theory, then, we could give these tired areas a break by doing different things (actually it's a lot more complicated).
This strategy of doing different things is actually equivalent to "multitasking." But strictly speaking, the human brain is not a multi-tasking system. When facing the target task of attention, our brain's processing ability and reaction speed for other tasks will be reduced. This reduction in processing power comes from two aspects:
1. Task switching dissipation: When switching between the same two tasks, the human brain cognitively suppresses the previous task and strengthens the latter. The time required for the task and the resulting cognitive decline. Depending on the complexity of the tasks being processed, the switching time can vary greatly, ranging from around 200 milliseconds to tens of minutes.
2. Task confusion and dissipation: means that after cognitively switching to the latter task, the content of the previous task will still appear in the mind from time to time, which will inevitably reduce cognitive ability.
Typically, at the beginning of processing a complex single task, the human brain needs to allocate resources and build resources for the task. After the configuration is completed, and within a certain period of time, it will continue to optimize during the process of processing the task. configuration, so that the processing efficiency of this task is continuously improved.
When the human brain switches between different daily cognitive tasks, in addition to the above two dissipation problems, it also faces the cognitive channel problem. After our basic functional areas such as vision, hearing, and movement are initialized by a task, the signal is in the maintenance stage, that is, the corresponding channel is occupied. If a similar task is introduced again, channel conflicts will occur. This will lead to two possible outcomes: task switching or task conflict, the latter of which can lead to a severe reduction in cognitive performance or even the inability to perform.
We can draw a circle with two hands at the same time, but we cannot draw a circle with one hand and a frame with the other hand because the latter requires dual tasks to occupy the same network.
From the above explanation, we can understand that doing different things to rest may not be a good rest strategy.
On the one hand, if the task is more complex, then the mental thing will almost certainly use a similar network (brain area) to the previous thing, and the so-called assumption of using different brain areas will not be true.
On the other hand, character switching dissipation and task confusion dissipation will also greatly reduce the efficiency of switching to new tasks. If we want to rest the tired brain area, we can only switch to tasks that do not require concentration, so that the brain's task signal state will not be established.
Exercising, listening to music, and meditating after work may be good examples of rest. In this way, it seems easier for us to understand meditation: The most important strategy of meditation is to relax, so that you don’t have to concentrate and can let your consciousness emerge freely and flow freely, that is, a state without executive control signals.
In addition, even if there is no obvious conflict between the cognitive channels involved in what was done before and after, it is only equivalent to reducing the concentration of adenosine in certain brain areas in the former state, which makes this Concentrations gradually transform into regions, and adenosine concentrations remain elevated throughout the nervous system.
One of the most obvious feelings fatigue brings to us is drowsiness. During our waking working stage, the consumption of ATP and the accumulation of adenosine will trigger non-rapid eye movement sleep, that is, there is no rapid eye movement. of sleep. In this state of sleep, brain activity drops to the lowest level, and various organs and muscles of the human body can be completely relaxed. The nervous system is therefore in a state of recovery, with adenosine concentrations gradually decreasing while also storing glycogen, an important source of ATP.
At the same time, due to the continuous metabolism of adenosine during the non-rapid eye movement period and the resulting decrease in adenosine concentration in the nervous system, the inhibitory effect of adenosine on the nervous system is also weakened, and the brain So more inclined to wake up.
After fatigue, it may be a good idea to follow the call of your physiological system and take a nap.
If external conditions do not allow us to take a nap or relax when we are tired, but require us to continue high-intensity work, then blocking adenosine receptors in the nervous system is a last resort.
Various receptors in the nervous system are susceptible to interference by other substances with similar chemical structures. These interfering substances are generally not present in the nervous system, so the normal functioning of these receptors is generally not affected. But people can ingest some synthetic or natural substances from the outside that no longer exist in the body. These substances may have higher affinity for specific receptors, saturating the receptors, which is its sensing ability. is blocked and no longer functions properly.
The most common example is drugs. Drugs block a variety of neuroreceptor channels, especially dopamine receptors, making people extremely excited and euphoric. Drugs can also block adenosine receptors, making people less fatigued. But the potency of drugs is too high and can easily cause damage to the nervous system, so drugs are illegal.
Some natural substances also have a higher affinity for adenosine receptors than adenosine, such as coffee. Caffeine can block adenosine, so that people no longer feel it. Drowsiness caused by fatigue and difficulty concentrating. However, this is a "treating the symptoms but not the root cause" measure. The blocking effect of caffeine does not reduce the concentration level of adenosine. If we continue to work under this situation, its concentration will continue to rise until caffeine It cannot be blocked.
Adenosine is a nerve inhibitor and a modulator of nerve repair. Long-term high levels of adenosine concentration can lead to abnormal repair functions of the nervous system, which may cause harmful substances to invade the nervous system, cause organic structural and functional damage, and induce neurological disorders such as depression that are difficult to cure or cannot be "completely cured" disease. In other words, while long-term use of coffee to fight fatigue and block the fatigue feeling in the nervous system, it also puts one's nervous system at higher risk.
Under current medical conditions, the human nervous system can never be repaired to its previous level once damaged. In this view, the nervous system is an extremely precious consumable.
Switch to doing different things. The new thing must be cognitively significantly different from the previous thing. Otherwise, the rest effect will not be achieved, but an inefficient "multi-tasking" state will occur.
The working principle of the nervous system determines that the time a person can work efficiently is limited, usually no more than a few hours. Taking a short nap or meditation and other methods to relax your mind can restore your mental state very well.
Drinking coffee, Red Bull and other energy drinks are emergency methods and can be used occasionally. Such methods can put a person's nervous system at higher risk, and long-term use of such strategies is not advisable.
Sufficiently long and deep sleep every night is the basis for ensuring mental state. A good night's sleep can fully restore the nervous system after a stressful day at work and exhaustion. People with sleep problems should seek medical attention as soon as possible.
We usually understand that the causes of fatigue are longer working hours, more work tasks and greater work pressure. In addition, alertness is a common but easily overlooked factor.
Alertness means the working state triggered by the brain in order to avoid possible dangers.
In a stricter sense, "alertness" may refer to the working conditions of organisms in dangerous environments, especially situations that trigger the "fight or flight" mechanism. In such cases, the creature's reactions are driven more by instinct, and its logic is temporarily shut down. "Fight or flight" involves a series of neuroendocrine changes, including the secretion of adrenaline and norepinephrine, which cause the body's blood vessels to constrict, the heartbeat to accelerate, blood pressure to increase, and muscles to tense. These reactions increase blood flow to various parts of the body in preparation for survival.
For humans in our modern society, this fight-or-flight vigilance has diminished and been replaced by another, longer-term and less intense vigilance: deadlines for task completion. Stress, discordant co-worker and family relationships, competition and comparison on a broader and higher platform, frequently changing work and living environments, and the troubles of chronic diseases, etc.
Alertness causes us to feel stressed and eliminates some of our physiological and behavioral responses. The stress caused by persistent alertness also disrupts our cognitive abilities, making it difficult to concentrate, absent-minded, and often worried. Difficulty performing complex cognitive tasks.
The mechanism of this type of stress works through the amygdala and autonomic nervous system in the brain. That is to say, the triggering factors are difficult to describe in detail. They are some of the oldest internal evolution of the human brain. The area gives decision-making responses based on the working conditions of the nervous system, and the entire decision-making process does not enter the conscious level. We enter such an alert state without knowing it.
The result is something we can perceive - a decline in cognitive ability. Even if the intensity of study and work is not high, it will lead to a lot of stress and fatigue.
People often attribute this kind of pressure to the fact that they are not suitable for the job, do not like to study, etc. Wrong attribution causes irritating aversion to current life, forming a vicious cycle of feedback.
Chronic vigilance processing worsens our cognition across the board, and has an important and far-reaching consequence: sleep disturbances. This includes difficulty falling asleep, fragmented sleep, insufficient time in deep sleep, drowsiness, etc. This type of situation is most common among people who need to work shift work. The alertness caused by this type of work also disrupts circadian rhythms.
Long-term sleep problems (one week or more) can cause people to accumulate "sleep debt." For an adult or older person, it often takes longer to replenish the sleep debt than the sleep debt owed to recover. And once sleep debt causes neurological damage, it's almost impossible to fully recover (at least for now).
Alertness originates from our conscious perception of danger. In today’s society, alertness is often triggered incorrectly, thus disrupting our lives and work.
Although triggers of alertness are difficult to describe quantitatively, they usually stem from factors that lead to "insecurity." This includes disharmonious family relationships and co-worker relationships; some unreasonable work schedules, which can easily lead to sleep problems; chronic inflammation and pain in our bodies, pollution in the living environment, etc.
In order to avoid unnecessary alertness, we need to feel comfortable: working environment, sleeping environment, home environment, etc.
The comprehensive manifestations of fatigue mainly include drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, difficulty collaborating, loss of interest in work and increased aversion to complex problem-solving tasks. Among them, the impact of mental fatigue on concentration is often ignored or misunderstood.
When we are mentally tired, we often feel that it is better to persist, and our inability to persist is regarded as a lack of perseverance. Wrong attribution leads to self-denial, undermines one's self-confidence, and makes people give up on themselves.
Attention refers to our consciousness, the ability to make choices among numerous pieces of information and to concentrate resources on the selected information.
When we are tired, our ability to select information decreases, and information other than the target information enters our consciousness - we perceive the presence of some information, and this information becomes lingering. This extra information is extra annoying and makes us more distracted. That is to say, our "selective attention" is affected, and it further affects our attention maintenance.
In addition, fatigue can also affect our executive attention, that is, the ability to suppress some irrelevant responses and activate relevant responses. Executive attention is very important for us to handle complex cognitive tasks, and its decline during fatigue can seriously affect our efficiency.
Interestingly, when we are tired, some special areas of the cerebral cortex become overactive, which makes us mistakenly feel that our cognitive abilities have not been reduced. This phenomenon makes people feel "satisfied" at work, and they feel that their steel work efficiency is very high, and they want to return to their previous working conditions. But in fact, the level of mental fatigue at this time is already very high, and attention control is very weak. It is almost impossible for you to concentrate on the previous things in the short term.
If we continue to persevere after fatigue, our attentional performance will drop dramatically. Fatigue at this time not only affects our cognitive state, but also affects the working state of our autonomic nervous system. The "perseverance" we often praise not only leads to inefficiency in our work, but even affects our physical health.
Inattention, easy distraction, burnout at work, etc. are all manifestations of fatigue. However, if we blindly promote perseverance and persistence, it will lead to inefficiency.
Theoretically, we cannot bear fatigue and stress without a bottom line, especially when the changes caused by fatigue challenge our physiological limits for a long time, problems are more likely to occur, that is, collapse. One of the main early symptoms of a meltdown can be feelings of exhaustion (which describes a state of loss of motivation and emotional exhaustion).
Feelings of burnout are often mistakenly thought to be simply an emotional response to long, challenging work hours. However, extensive research proves that this is actually completely wrong.
When you feel exhausted, the human nervous system has undergone organic changes, that is, it is no longer just an emotion, but like a wound on our body. Real physical existence.
A common external reason for feelings of burnout is that the fatigue and stress of work and life exceeds the level we can cope with. Things such as unsatisfied deadline pressure at work, unreasonable customers, and endless emotional needs of service recipients are most likely to lead to a sense of exhaustion.
Those who are easily troubled by the feeling of burnout are not those who are just dawdling around, but those who are motivated and focused at work. The feeling of exhaustion was triggered by greater fatigue from mindful work and a mismatch between the feedback his work gave him and his input.
In addition, low-controlled work (complete self-control of work processes and time, self-control of work quality and working methods, and full responsibility) is compared with high-controlled work (process limits, evaluation A complete system and clear responsibilities) are more likely to lead to a sense of exhaustion. However, highly controlled jobs are also jobs that lack challenges and pay lower wages. With the advent of the era of artificial intelligence, such jobs are at greater risk of being replaced.
The feeling of exhaustion is caused by changes in the neuroendocrine state of our brains, specifically changes in cortisol release. Normally, cortisol is secreted into the bloodstream when we sense a threat, which triggers changes throughout the body, including cardiovascular activity, immune system enhancement, and memory formation. Once the source of danger is gone, cortisol levels return to normal and the functioning of these systems returns to normal levels.
Our nervous system views fatigue and stress as threats. Once fatigue and stress persist, our physical state caused by increased cortisol levels will continue until it is no longer sustainable - the body's A breakdown in the stress response system and low-grade inflammation throughout the body.
There are many more serious and difficult-to-recover conditions than the collapse of the nervous system in the face of long-term fatigue and stress, mainly some common "mental diseases" - depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder obstacle.
Thoughts such as "life is hopeless" are symptoms of mental breakdown and mental illness, not the cause, nor the cause of suicide. Another misconception is that patients with depression need more counseling, which is actually ineffective. Depression is a mental illness, more specifically, a pathological state of the brain's nervous system. The depressive thoughts of patients with severe depression cannot be enlightened. Enlightenment and distraction have no effect on them, and may instead aggravate the symptoms. Their sense of fatigue.
Symptoms such as anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder have many similarities with depression. Generally speaking, this type of mental illness is more difficult to recover from than exhaustion, and it may be a state that patients have to face throughout their lives from the date of onset. This type of mental illness generally has a clear triggering living environment, and changing the environment is one of the most important coping strategies. In the face of these diseases, we should not so much treat them as manage them. If the environment cannot be changed, drug treatment and psychological counseling are required based on the severity of the disease and the diagnosis of a psychiatrist. Various drugs used have their side effects and generally cannot be taken for a long time. Psychological counseling generally uses cognitive behavioral therapy to manage mental illness.
"Psychiatric disorders" such as depression and anxiety are the main response directions of cognitive behavioral therapy. Moreover, cognitive behavioral therapy was first developed in the 1960s to deal with depression. . It mainly uses goal-oriented and systematic procedures in the form of conversations to change patients' views on things, including their own thoughts, perceptions of others and the environment. Cognitive behavioral therapy does not eliminate the patient's problems, but finds the thinking habits that produce anxiety and replaces them with more positive and reasonable thoughts. The effectiveness of this method depends largely on the patient's cooperation.
Although there are some relatively objective instruments and data methods to measure your understanding of your own fatigue level, these methods are cumbersome to operate and require special data processing and equipment. There is also a type of self-measurement method based on scales. The measurement results of this type of scale are highly subjective and are often caught in the debate between "how tired I feel I am" and "how tired I think I am."
The Fatigue Scale (FS-14) proposed by King's College Hospital in the UK is the most widely used fatigue scale. The FS-14 Fatigue Scale consists of 14 items. Each item is a fatigue-related question. Participants need to select "yes" or "no" according to their own feelings, and then the scores are tallied. The details are as follows:
During the test, you need to give answers directly based on your first feelings.
For items 10, 13, and 14, "yes" is worth 0 points and "no" is worth 1 point. For other items, "yes" is worth 1 point and "no" is worth 0 points.
The first 8 items mainly reflect physical fatigue, and items 9 to 14 mainly reflect mental fatigue. However, in the century situation, it is not easy to strictly distinguish between these two types of fatigue, and their performances will also overlap with each other.
The higher the score assessed by the scale, the more severe the fatigue is. According to the general assessment standards, 2 to 4 points are considered mild fatigue; 5 points or more but the duration is less than one month is considered fatigue; if it lasts for one month but less than 6 months, it is long-term fatigue; those with chronic fatigue syndrome Fatigue symptoms persist for more than 6 months.
Regularly use this scale to test your perceived fatigue level, and you can have a reasonable understanding of your work and life situations, which can lead to the introduction of the second question, understanding yourself, especially your nervous system. Tolerance to fatigue and stress.
Everyone's tolerance to fatigue is a physiological property that is not affected by subjective factors. In other words, we cannot change it through methods such as "beating chicken blood" and thereby make ourselves successful. This is the weakness of all "successful studies" and "chicken soup articles".
The fatigue tolerance of our nervous system will significantly affect our cognitive performance under stressful situations, thus determining a person's "perseverance" and "concentration." It can be said that this factor is the physiological basis of "perseverance". Perseverance can be exercised, but perseverance is difficult to exercise, so it is easy to understand.
People with good nervous system fatigue tolerance are more likely to succeed, but they also face higher risks - they will be promoted, become more important, and be exposed to more stressful work environments. , facing greater stress until their tolerance is challenged.
Appropriate pressure can stimulate more personal output and promote the development of our abilities - the existence of fatigue and stress is necessary, provided that they are within the appropriate range. Therefore, the management of fatigue and stress is particularly important. The main problem we have to face in fatigue and stress management is to assess our own fatigue and stress levels and to relax and reduce stress in a timely manner.
First, we need to understand the sources of our fatigue and stress—the situations in which we experience more severe fatigue and stress, accompanied by a sense of exhaustion. It should be noted that many positive things can also make people feel tired and stressed.
A good and fulfilling sleep often allows us to fully recover after a day’s fatigue and confidently dive into the challenges of the new day. Good sleep is one of the most effective ways we can manage stress. For some people with sleep disorders, it is best to go to the hospital to seek treatment options.
We need to have an objective understanding of our fatigue tolerance, that is, how many things we can do every day, how much time we can work efficiently, and how many problems we can solve. Any more will lead to a sense of exhaustion and despair in working life, which will take some time to recover. For an adult, this value is relatively stable. With this understanding, we can have reasonable expectations for work and life, and know where the scope of our abilities is, so that we don’t have to blame ourselves for things outside this scope, and we can also define a reasonable work and life based on this threshold. plan.
Good living habits can greatly improve our tolerance to fatigue and stress. This includes exercising reasonably and regularly, not smoking or drinking, not practicing social isolation, eating less junk food, getting enough sleep, etc. When facing fatigue, taking a long nap, or sitting around playing games, watching movies, or doing nothing are inefficient for daily fatigue. What I need more is to go out for a walk and find friends to participate in exercise activities.
During working hours, it is best not to continue investing for more than an hour. Instead, find something else to do and rest for a few minutes every once in a while, drink some water, and get up and walk around.
In addition, when fatigue affects our work and life, we must especially reject the "multi-threaded" working state, that is, do not do multiple things at the same time. Because "multitasking" is very inefficient and creates more fatigue.
Fatigue and stress will not disappear from our lives. Therefore, the management of fatigue and stress is not a "magic medicine", but a work and life habit and a harmonious family relationship that need to be maintained continuously.
When we effectively manage fatigue and stress, we need a stronger ability to take advantage of opportunities and cope with life challenges in order to better achieve self-improvement - not relying on "I can do more" , I need more” thinking, but rely on the 88 “I can handle more, so I can do more”** state.
What we need to realize is that fatigue and stress are physiological reactions. They are caused by physiological changes and the deterioration of our emotions and cognition, rather than originating from our emotions and cognition. problem. Therefore, to deal with fatigue and stress, it is not enough to change your mind, and using some chemical methods, such as drinking coffee, is not a recommended solution.
The most recommended solution is to change the sources of your fatigue and stress: excessive work demands, disharmony in family relationships, lack of sleep, frequent business trips, etc., and at the same time improve your body's ability to cope with fatigue. and pressure capacity. This requires you to have regular living habits, reasonable exercise, appropriate social investment, and reasonable expectations and plans for work and life.
When it comes to fatigue and stress, “too much is never enough” applies especially here. More and more challenging jobs can indeed directly bring us more generous income and a more decent social status, but they usually also bring us more fatigue. If we cannot cope with it, such a long-term overload state will lead to the collapse of our body and nervous system. The collapse of the nervous system is a mental illness.
Again, this is not a problem that can be addressed by changing one’s mind. Once we suffer from mental illness, we are likely to lose all opportunities and be unable to grasp anything.
The management of fatigue and stress means the balance between life and work, or the balance between rest and work. Understand the limits of your abilities and energy.
The principles of fatigue and stress determine that the chicken soup and chicken blood methods of success should not be our options for coping with life.