Top 5 Reasons for Hyper-Fatigue

In this personally written article, I’ll explain the top 5 reasons why you are suffering with hyper-fatigue.

What is Hyper-Fatigue?

Hyper-fatigue is an extreme form of tiredness. This is not an easy thing to measure, and is rather subjective. One person’s view of being hyper-fatigued might be another person’s mildly-fatigued. In medical terms, we often label fatigue as TATT. This stands for Tiredness All The Time. However, TATT is not hyper-fatigue.

Hyper-fatigue, although not a recognised medical term (yet), is an extreme state of exhaustion that we would associate with conditions like Long COVID, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). This is where people are so tired they struggle to get out of bed. Small amounts of exercise could lead to severe fatigue (known as post exertional malaise).

What are the symptoms of Hyper-Fatigue?

  • Extreme exhaustion
  • Difficulty getting out of bed
  • Severe reactions to exercise or mental stress
  • Muscle weakness, joint and muscle aching (legs feel dead, or heavy)
  • Headaches
  • Brain fog and memory loss
  • Symptoms that feel like flu
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Not having the energy to socialise
  • Slower mental processing
  • Poor sleep
  • Depression

There are more than this too, but these are the key ones.

Who is most at risk of Hyper-Fatigue?

If we are talking about CFS/ME, it typically happens in younger adults, often high-achievers, and those under high-levels of mental stress. It can happen to those under high levels of physical stress too. It can be triggered by a virus. It often takes hold in people with weakened immune systems. These are generalised, and you may not fit this box.

For Long COVID, the majority of sufferers already have poor health. This is not always the case, but they typically have poor immune health, co-morbidities (other medical conditions), and are generally unfit. They are often obese, but not always, and it can affect very fit people. They are often older adults, over the age of 40-50. They often have diabetes. They often sleep badly. They often have had an acute psychological trauma such as the death of a loved one, divorce, or workplace stress preceding. Of course, these are general assertions, and you may not fit these categories.

If you are just very tired, but not suffering with CFS/ME or Long COVID, then the chances are your tiredness is down to your lifestyle or medication.

Top 5 Reasons why you are getting Hyper-Fatigued:

1. You have CFS/ME or Long COVID

See the above information. These are common causes of hyper-fatigue. Get to your GP and seek medical help. Or consult one of our team at Surrey Physio (you’ll need to call or email us first, as this is highly specialised and not all of our team do this). We have help pages on CFS/ME and Long COVID.

2. Chronic Sleep Debt

I can certainly relate to this. For many years, I worked until 1am or 2am building a business. I would work 60, 70, 80 hour weeks. I was chronically sleep deprived and suffered from severe sleep debt. My body was crying out for more sleep. I would feel tired all the time. I would nap almost every day for 20-30 mins just to get me through the day.

Many people sleep badly, and never know it. This could be due to causes like sleep apnoea, psychological stress, young kids, restless legs, pain, or obesity. Seek help for these individual things.

3. Poor Nutrition

I strongly suggest maintaining an optimal weight, and a low-carb diet. This has made huge improvements in my own levels of fatigue. Ever felt tired after a big lunch, around 3:30pm/4pm? What did you eat for lunch? Bread, pasta, rice?

I now fast through lunch and it helps hugely. Now, this might not work for everyone, but it’s worked for many of our patients. It needs support and guidance from a professional, so seek out the required support and don’t go in blindly.

4. Poor Immune Health

If your immune system is getting “hammered”, then your body is going to struggle to function well. You will keep getting colds, keep getting ill, and keep being “run-down”, as my mother would say. Taking control of your immune health is a big part. It can be hard with CFS/ME or Long COVID, and easier if you do not have these conditions. Improving immune health is key. We guide patients how to do this. Again, call us first because this is highly specialised.

5. Psychological Stress

I cannot tell you how many of my patients with severe fatigue also have high levels of psychological stress, or did have just prior to the severe fatigue forming. This is incredibly common, and I would estimate it affects about 80-90% of my severely fatigued patients. I hear about severe work stress (often involving hearings, tribunals, etc), I hear about divorces, deaths, cancer, and family-bust ups. Not easy to address, but there are many experts that can help.

Conclusion

While hyper-fatigue is a non-medical term, and down to people’s own interpretation, there are still many things you can do to improve. Reducing psychological stress, improving your immune health, improving sleep and improving diet are key factors. They are not the only ways, but this is a good start.

At Surrey Physio, we provide some very specialised services but you would need to call us or email us first as not all of our physiotherapists or osteopaths provide these services. We provide online consultations too. Call us on 0208 685 6930 or email us with your specific requests and we’ll put it out to our team and find someone to best help you.