OPTIMISE YOUR ENERGY

Experts say we're suffering from a "fatigue epidemic" - but that it's fixable. Deep-dive into the research behind this phenomenon and learn to service your source for the long haul.

- CAITLIN CARLSON

It’s a lovely 20ish-degree morning, and you’re lacing up for a run. As the sun makes a grand entrance at 6 a.m., you notice green sprouts – a vegetable garden that, just last week, wasn’t thriving. Summer, after all, is the season of abundance – of high energy. Now, imagine you could experience this kind of fully charged morning (and day) all the time.

That’s the elusive wellness wish of, well, most people, right? Today, there’s an uptick in interest in energy – where it comes from, how we expend it, how to gain it – among individuals and researchers alike, says Dr Martin Picard, a mitochondrial psychobiologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Centre. (We’re not the only ones seeing tons of energy “hacks” flood our IG and TikTok feeds.) This may have to do with the typical lifestyle becoming a “recipe for fatigue,” says Dr Amy Shah, author of I’m So Effing Tired and I’m So Effing Hungry. And when the world shifted because of the pandemic, this was exacerbated. Think: staying up late to watch a show, then not leaving the house until past noon, thanks to remote work.

But before we get into solutions, we need to attempt to understand what we’re talking about. The truth is: energy is still nebulous and not entirely understood, even in the scientific community. Part of what makes pinning down the deets so challenging is that your own perceived level of energy is subjective and influenced by a host of factors, from how well you sleep to how you exercise to how you manage stress. (Worth noting: we’re talking about lack of pep-in-your-step lethargy, rather than debilitating exhaustion that should be checked by a health pro.)