Fatigue at workplace

If you are feeling sleep at work, you are risking performance and productivity of yourself and you team, in addition to being a safety risk to your coworkers. What you are going through if you are sleeping at work is called fatigue and it has other components to it like tiredness, lack of energy, exhaustion, etc. that persists even after taking rest.

Fatigue is a workplace hazard few employers recognize. 

Fatigue can be mental or physical and they are different. Both often exist together – if a person is physically exhausted for long enough, mental tiredness will soon follow.

In physical fatigue, the person cannot continue to function at their normal levels of physical ability. On the other hand, mental fatigue is more slanted towards feeling sleepy and being unable to concentrate properly.

Causes of fatigue:

• Grief (bereavement), eating disorders, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, anxiety, moving home, boredom, divorce,
• electrolyte problems, diabetes, anemia, liver disease,
• some antidepressants, antihypertensives steroids, antihistamines, medication withdrawal, sedatives, anti-anxiety drugs,
• Pneumonia (lung tissue infection), arrhythmias, asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), valvular heart disease, coronary heart disease, and congestive heart failure,
• Working till late at night, jet lag, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, insomnia, and reflux esophagitis,
• Malaria, various tropical diseases, tuberculosis, infectious monocucleosis (glandular fever), cytomegalovirues, HIV infection, flu, hepatitis,
• Vitamin deficiencies, mineral deficiencies, poisoning,
• Cancer, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, (radiation therapy), chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, massive blood loss, and weakened immune systems,
• Chemotherapy for breast cancer most likely is the cause of prolonged fatigue years after treatment,
• chronic pain due to any cause.

Some jobs like the police, doctors, nurses, firefighters, shift workers in general are more closely linked to a risk of fatigue than others because their sleep patterns are ‘unnatural’ for humans. The problem of fatigue is exacerbated if the shift-routines are regularly changed.

If fact, most of the time, fatigue is due to daily habits or routines of the individual like physical exertion, poor eating habits, emotional stress, boredom, lack of sleep or issues related to weight.

Simple lifestyle changes not only help manage symptoms of fatigue but can also get rid of it.

Have a good breakfast: It’s a great way to start your day.

Be on the move: Do not just sit at one place. Meet people. Walk the stairs. Go for a stroll. Laugh. Take frequent breaks.

GO FOR SMALL MEALS
If you are used to eating three big meals a day, break it up into six to eight meals, and eat every two hours. Remember this, digestion is a calorie-burning activity in itself. Your body burns calories to digest the calories you eat. Eating at longer intervals fails to give your digestion system a good workout. Apart from breakfast, lunch and dinner, go for mini meals (a fruit or biscuits) during your mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack breaks.

HAVE A HEARTY BREAKFAST
Not eating breakfast isn’t smart – you may think you are eating less food during the day by directly going for your mid-morning tea or lunch, but not eating breakfast makes you gain weight! Because your body has been starved of food while you were sleeping, it needs food within an hour of waking up, to get its various systems running smoothly (including metabolism). So, when you skip breakfast, your body panics because it thinks it’s starving and stores the next meal you eat in its fat reserves.

SLEEP ON TIME
Sleep deprivation causes weigh gain and makes people tired very easily. There are two main factors that regulate appetite. Leptin is the satiety hormone (which gives you the signal that you are full) while ghrelin is your hunger hormone (which gives you the signal that you are hungry). There are studies that suggest sleep deprivation causes both leptin and ghrelin to malfunction, leaving you with the feeling of not being full enough or making you feel hungry even when you may not need food.

EXERCISE ON WEEKENDS
If you’re too busy with work to incorporate exercise in your daily routine, make it something you look forward to every weekend. Clubbing fun with fitness is the key to staying motivated.

There’s a host of things you can do – play squash, tennis, football, or jog, run, spin, dance and do yoga.

A BETTER BALANCE
Finding some `me’ time is the ideal way to beat stress. Ask yourself: Are you taking on too much? Can you delegate some of your work? If you are constantly feeling overwhelmed and pressurised at work, maybe that’s the reason you are gaining weight, even if you aren’t leading a sedentary lifestyle. No matter what anyone says, a work-life balance is crucial to get the best of both your body and your mind.