When you’re yawning and yearning for bed, it’s all too easy to diagnose over-exertion and/or sleep insufficiency as a way of explaining away the symptoms.
Granted, there are times when this is certainly the case, but there are just as many occasions when feeling tired is a result of boredom, rather than real, genuine fatigue or a medical issue.
Some would say, it’s not a lack of sleep, but a lack of what fuels the fire in your belly, that has us counting the minutes until bedtime.
Whether you have had a full night's sleep or not, the pleasure centre of the brain will still make you sleepy if you're ‘cognitively disengaged.’
This can happen without even realising, and boredom tolerance varies from person to person. This form of consciousness is known as a 'hypnagogic trance', and for want of a better analogy, you could liken it to the ‘sleep mode’ your computer reverts to during periods of inactivity.
Feeling tired all the time can therefore be a sign that you need to switch lanes and escape the comfort zone that's sapping your energy levels. This makes being 'bired' (tired and bored) a force for good, some would say, as it becomes the spark that starts a new creative process.
Food for thought, perhaps, as we toy with the idea of returning to ‘normality’ after Christmas.
It your normal is clockwatching, caffeining up at regular intervals and crashing out after work, then changing the record might be a good shout!
