Daily actions of our body make us used to our body movements and if we don’t get it, all of a sudden with a drastic change can affect us. That is why at times we see people in an airplane like to walk through the aisle. So they make their legs feel a bit free.
Why is fatigue unavoidable?
Fatigue or being tired is a part of our life. From the time we were babies it has been a part of our daily life. As a child, we used to snooze even at times while eating. People called it aww, so cute!
It was a child that didn’t care about cuteness; it wanted to have some rest.
When we went to school with a heavy bag full of books many of them were not even needed. This made us used to carry weights and play in school & around the house, we still felt tired.
As a young man or woman working at times as a manual hard work also made us tired. One decided to think of a career change, took a desk job to avoid fatigue & exhaustion but couldn’t avoid fatigue.
Desk job not only made you tired but also made you mentally stressed out more thought even before starting work and after leaving.
Why is travel essential for us?
Travelling is essential as it involves us reaching from one place to another. Simply walking from one place to another is also a form of travel. You can’t reach a destination without travelling.
It’s kind of funny that even those of us who think time travellers didn’t move or Teleporting didn’t involve travelling. They too moved if at all there is such a thing as time travel.
Our bodies are made for movement. We have moved from time to time & from place to place. Doing work all by ourselves. Over the years in order to make our life better we have made our life kind of complicated and difficult in some ways.
Superstitions on being tired & travelling:
The following are some of the myths you might come across.
(1) If you travel too much you get tired
Reality: You could get tired of any activity. Travelling is only a part of our activities we do.
(2) Don’t eat sweet things you will feel like going to the toilet
Reality: You need glucose for energy too.
(3) Don’t drink water because you will have to go the toilet
Reality: You need to hydrate yourself. Else it could create other problems such as affecting the kidneys. Affect your mood & you could not be able to concentrate easily. This is when you could also lose energy.
(4) Long-distance travelling could make you sick
Reality: You could get sick due to lack of rest & disruption to our biological clocks, sudden changes in the light, movement & its effect on our brain.
(5) Air travel for long-distance gives you jet lag
Reality: Disruption to our body clock or our circadian rhythm affects us and not the air travel itself.
(6) – You could get lost in the sea if you travel a long distance
In Reality: There are many people & navy vessels that travel by the sea from country to country and nothing happens to them. Even most mysterious places like in the Bermuda triangle these navy vessels do pass through.
(7)- Travelling by sea causes you to fall sick
In Reality: It’s not always true. This happens due to motion sickness. Just as you would not want to see moving objects when you are in a train or car, you must not do the same while travelling by sea for a long time.
(8)- You should only carry digital map while travelling alone
In Reality: This helps easily if you are in a vehicle. If you travel alone you have more chances of electrical items going bad or battery getting drained, no network coverage, etc. Having a digital map in a rain forest where you are lost could not help you.
Instructions by experts such as to follow the river to find human civilization could help. Having a physical map fully laminated could help a lot as it wont get wet easily & you could still be able to find your way.
(9) – Walking for long hours in the cold region could make you more tired
In Reality: Walking in any extremes could make you tired if you are not dressed as per the climate. You could even fall ill or even worse. You could get hypothermia in colder regions & sunstroke in the hotter regions.
(10)- Dress in less clothes as possible while travelling to the desert
In reality: You should not do that as it could make your condition more worse due to the sunburns & even sunstroke. The people who live in these desert areas don’t do that. They wear light but longer robes like a thobe & turbans & even cover their face. They usually wear white & lighter shades especially cotton.
This helps them at times due to body that sweats itself and cools your temperature. Although with sweating you loosing water, wearing less clothes could not help. Locals of these regions are adapted to such harsher climate. Hence as a tourist wearing shots & less clothes actually makes you more susceptible to the heat.
(11)- Caffeinated drink makes me wake up with energy
Reality: Coffee, tea or other high caffeine containing drinks can only give you temporary energy. You may feel awake only for a while. You may feel not good after the effect goes away. As the sleep debt will kick in when you feel relaxed.
The energy drainers from what we know could be categorized into 2
Psychological & Physical causes of tiredness.
The psychological tiredness could be linked with the physical tiredness but physical causes of tiredness are affecting us tremendously as well.
Manual labourers one may think must have physical tiredness. However, this is not always true. They have issues just like anyone of other people working in the office although the amount could be less.
However, they have to think just like any one of us think & worry. They too have to worry & stress to pay the bills. Family issues due to the long hours of work.
The Physical causes of tiredness could be due to types of deficiencies
Anemia is linked to the loss of energy especially among the women. The second is the disease the could drain your energy. The disease such as CFS which is a short form for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is one of them. The most well known is the diabetes. Recovering from an illness or treatment is one more of the physical factor.
Parents in particular have the following issues that could drain their energy
- Babies wake up often
- Feeding the babies at times during the odd hours
- Changing of their nappies
- Home cleaning chores
- Go to work with less amount of sleep
Below certain age of children have the following energy drainers
- Hunger
- Lack of Sleep
- Sickness
NHS has broken down these into the following categories
The points to understand through them is mentioned below.
- Watching TV or computer for long hours in the same posture
- Poor Body Posture
- Low calorie diets
- Sugar filled breakfast cereals
- Continuous worry
- Over exercise
- Energy drinks
- Shorter days of winter
Being tired for a teen is also somewhat similar but they have reasons of less sleep. As they need more sleep too.
To learn more on Fatigue & the points that are broken down by NHS visit their site page.
Why there are daily intake options on the label of products?
If food consumption was the only thing to provide you with energy then why would there be daily intake options on the product labels.
Labels are there on the products for the person who buys the product to know how much to consume. Going over could lead to side effects if they mention on the label.
Generally there are side effects label on the medicine packets or bottles. If the products are natural then also you have to make sure you don’t consume much of it unnecessarily.
Why consuming artificial source of energy could be harmful?
An article published by NHS over the warning of energy drink. Even a study conducted by (WHO) World Health Organization shed light on the effects. Both showed the effects of these energy drinks. We could say harm to young people’s health in consuming it.
Now that we know the artificial source of immediate energy is not good for health, let us see what could work better.
Simple organic food that contains a balanced diet could help. This could not be affordable in certain countries even for the residents, leave aside the travellers, not because of money but at times because of the easy availability.
The manual labourers in Asian countries even in the middle east not always get to have all the balanced diet. This looks at times like a myth of feeling the need for energy when it is not necessary.
The difference between energy intake and mood enhancers are two separate issues.
Less than necessary food or delay of meals affects your mood. At times it may be because of the items ready meal you ate could affect your mood. It is not the loss of energy always. Psychological reasons are also one of them that make on our list.
People of the hotter climate tend to feel the need to hydrate more than eat big meals. Similarly, the colder region people like nibbling more than drinking water.
What Psychological reasons make your brain think of needing energy?
Take a look at the cases where people eat because they don’t want to feel more upset. Some people may drink more water when they feel angry or tense. This may be a part of the psychological reasons.
Just after an argument where you either loose or had to shout and you feel disappointed, this feeling of loss of energy could creep in.
What else makes you feel the need for energy?
The construction workers tend to consume more water along with the food as compared to the office workers.
Temporary changes in life could make a person think differently in terms of energy consumption too. The confusion of sustenance with gluttony could take its place.
So it is better to know and look back as to why you suddenly felt the need for more energy. At times it could be due to disease also, for instance, those who suffer from diabetes also feel the loss of energy.
Actions that make us lazy make us also feel tired
The proof is oversleeping which could make us even more sleepy. Hence we could feel tired, this may also be because as we sleep also we use our energy.
Second example is eating a heavy lunch and immediately in a couple of minutes you get to see the eyes going heavy. If you don’t rest then it could affect your behaviour to a certain extent. Hence, we have afternoon naps that people take.
Now just after learning that Vitamin C provides energy, most of the health-conscious ones would want to gain more energy. Correct?
Probably!
Fasting is one of the ways we give rest to our system
Fasting has been found in many cultures & different parts of the world. Religious ways of fasting are somewhat different based on their beliefs.
The best is when you don’t eat & drink which happens in Ramadan. This is where Muslims don’t eat from sunrise to sunset. It is different from dieting.
Travellers could feel the fatigue due to certain reasons
This could be due to the changes in the altitude. Changing of the daylight, hence we suffer from jet lag. Staying still in the same position for a long duration.
A simple proof is us sitting for a long time and getting up to realize pins and needles type of feeling on our foot.
Note that the attack of diseases could drain your energy. Staying uninformed could not be a good idea.
- Working in odd hours
- overwork
- Suffering from disease
- Sickness
- Genuine fatigue
- Eating wrong food
- Oversleeping
- Psychological distress
- Less Sleep or rest
The list could be long however to give you a gist of what could be energy drainers is mentioned above.
Professions that could often have long hours at times
Fatigue is a part and parcel of working, especially manual hard work.
Airline Industry:
For the Airline crews, this could be one of the issues that they face. Especially the new starters that are not used to working in shifts.
Rail & road workers:
Often people working in this industry also have tiring jobs. At the same time if the shift is in late hours then it could.
Emergency services workers have long hours & could also have shifts.
Professions such as Firefighters, Policemen, Army, Navy, Doctors, Ambulance workers, etc. also have fatigue issues. In fact some of the war veterans have to go through the
Professions that don’t have much movement but has fatigue & stress.
National & local call centers:
Staff at the national / local call centers have who sit to take 100 or so calls often have the issue of stress. Especially when there is a stress of hitting the numbers. Reduction of the average time on the call & satisfactory survey.
International call centers:
Call center agents have always been linked to tiring long hours. Mostly it is because of working in rotational shifts. New starters struggle to understand the accent & exact meaning of the word. Since, the word used in one country doesn’t always have the same meaning in another country.
Cashiers at a busy front desk:
Most of the front desk employees have to be active. These professions require a person to be constantly on the desk. Especially if there is overtime for one person it could take a toll on their health.
Backend desk jobs too.
This is dependent on the amount of work involved,. Traders that sit in front of their desk and watch the numbers going up and down also is tiring.
Even guards standing on the door get tired: Some professions require you to stand and be alert. For instance a security guards.
Myth about holidays on a yacht or a boat
Even the anglers that travel on the waters do get tired. The work they do also makes them tired. To the people it could appear to be a very enjoyable profession of being on a ship or a yacht and stay on the holidays all the time.
The Fact check makes us understand that any activity whether we have liked it or loved it prior to the one we do not love it could also make us tired. By tired we mean bored, fed up due to a lot of the same & the same repeating efforts.
By nature we are not satisfied at everything we have. Even a richest person that owns the most expensive car would like another car that would come out, which could be better than the one he or she possesses.
Type of fact we can unwind from the sea travel is as follows
Sea sickness is also type of sickness that is a proven fact. How this can be prevented or cured sheds light on the main point of fatigue. Repeated movements that brain feels could makes us feel uneasy and dizzy.
Fatigue can not always be linked with travel. Although travel can be linked with fatigue since it is the movement that makes us use our energy. This in return makes us energy hungry which makes us think we need more sustenance to gain more energy.
Motion sickness is a main part which is said to be the cause
As mentioned earlier you could feel tired or get fatigued even while you are in your favourite place, doing the favourite thing you wanted, eating your favourite food you wanted & even sleeping in you dream bed.
This is how it works. You travel via aeroplane, by yacht, car, bus or by train. Even all of the most expensive modes of the transport you ever used in your entire life in order to travel, you would still get tired.
We can conclude the following learning
If we have to conclude this in brief then I could say, the very thing boils down to is the activity you do, the food you eat, the life style you have as per your age. This determines the storage of energy in your body.
Fatigue and travel plays a major role in making yourself better equipped while travelling or planning for a long journeys. Being tired is a part of our life, since movement and work is a part of our life. Times of the day may vary based on the condition, nutrition, health & lifestyle.
