In today’s busy life, we barely have enough time for proper meals and sleep. So there’s no wonder that, globally, ten percent of people suffer from persistent fatigue. One in five Americans complain of drowsiness bad enough to interfere with daily activities. But really, what is fatigue, just feeling a little bit tired or bone-draining exhaustion?

If you selected the latter, you are either well informed or suffer from chronic tiredness yourself. Fatigue is generally defined as a lack of energy or motivation, both physical and mental. That includes extreme tiredness resulting from physically or mentally taxing functions. The fatigued person may have complaints of the inability to start a project because of lack of motivation; or may tire quickly upon starting the project, or perhaps mental fatigue, or difficulty with memory or concentration may prevent finishing the project.

Signs of fatigue are diverse and, at times, perplexing. The list includes: mentally and physically exhaustion; headaches; joint pain; poor short-term memory and confusion; inability to bounce back from illnesses; depression; food cravings for sweets or carbohydrates; tired after sleep, or getting a second wind after 6 p.m., making it more difficult to fall asleep later. Other symptoms are poor immune system functioning, blurriness, slow response to stimuli; impaired judgment, apathy, irritability, slower than normal reflexes, and painful lymph nodes.

Make Some Lifestyle Changes

The easiest way to eliminate chronic fatigue from your life is to examine what you are currently doing to encourage an unhealthy lifestyle. First things first, get your blood sugar levels under control. Coffee and a sugary donut isn’t a good, sound breakfast. In fact, it will probably cause great fluctuations in your blood sugar.

Type 2 diabetes is a very real danger. For healthier meals and snacks, eat fruits, vegetables and lean protein for stable blood sugar levels.