Why do we feel tired after doing nothing all day?

r/

I had a day off and literally just laid in bed, watched some YouTube, and scrolled on my phone. Still, by the end of the day, I felt exhausted. How does that make sense? Shouldn’t rest make me feel more energized?

Comments

  1. Hipp013 Avatar

    Several things. Lack of sunlight affects your circadian rhythm. When you lay in bed all day your body realizes that you’re in a prolonged period of inactivity so your metabolism slows down a bit. Etc.

  2. SeparateStable6936 Avatar

    I feel tired doing nothing and when I’m doing stuff, can’t win 😂

  3. bananaaa14 Avatar

    If you’re stimulating your brain in any way, it will get tired after a while.

  4. lifelong1250 Avatar

    Takes energy just to exist.

  5. stevenwjson7 Avatar

    You put your body on sleep mode, so you don’t waste any more energy

  6. mellbs Avatar

    Your body adapts daily as best it can to whatever you do with it.

    Whatever you consitently practice, you get better at in time. Including doing nothing

  7. hongio_peery Avatar

    Lack of physical activity can also lead to the tired feeling because our brain also need stimulation.

  8. narcodic_cassarole Avatar

    Yep. I work six days a week. Over sleep on Sunday tired all day. Then still feel unrested on Monday.

  9. _multifaceted_ Avatar

    I bet if you spent five minutes doing something active that would change.

  10. strange_catastrophe Avatar

    I feel you , the best you can do is to take nutritious food and spare some time for hobbies

  11. mpreg_puppy Avatar

    Harder to start a cold engine. But like the human version.

  12. Adventurous_Toe_1686 Avatar

    You were sedentary.

    You need to move your body, get sunlight, get the heart pumping, and then you’ll feel great:

  13. Potential-Age7456 Avatar

    Really awesome how there’s 3 comments from people who know what they’re talking about and everyone else is just spouting life coach nonsense

  14. Darkronymus Avatar

    Apart from being inactive all the time isn’t great for your mood and energy levels:

    Chances are you are not really resting. When you scroll and rot in bed you are avoiding and suppressing emotions and sensations in your body, which takes a ton of energy.

    It’s constant internal stress, and there’s no way to “outrest” that. In fact no movement, passive entertainment and distractions are bound to make it worse.

    What you are describing is essentially just binging on cheap dopamine to distract yourself, not resting.

  15. Far_Share_9240 Avatar

    its not just one thing. It could be deficiency of nutrients in your body, it could be lack of exercise, lack of exposure to sunlight (as someone already mentioned). And food can be a factor as well.

  16. Ska82 Avatar

    actually the browsing and scrolling can tire you out as well. because there is no consistency across videos (especially yt shorts) and posts / tweets / eyc, the brain has to constantly shift attention to different topics. this is called context switching and adds quite a bit of load on your brain. plus most of these posts / videos are filtered to trigger strong emotions which further increases the mental strain. For me a social media session for an hour makes my brain feel like it is running a 100 mile sprint. not even a marathon – a sprint!. even if u dont want to / cant take a break from ur phone, see if you can take a bream from social media

  17. Bleubird2222 Avatar

    Perhaps gluten intolerance. Don’t knock it til you try it!

  18. SimoneRexE Avatar

    Scrolling on your phone and jumping from one source of information to another is overstimulating you. Especially if you’re watching reels, bits of stimulus virtually every minute. It’s tiring.

  19. Tristicia94 Avatar

    I have recently also realised that doing light activities and fun things make me much more energetic than ”resting” (aka doomscrolling in bed). Just like sleeping too much (more than 10h for most people, unless you have a fever or something) can make you lethargic, resting too can have that effect!

    Get out, go for a walk. Call a friend. Limit social media/scrolling to a couple of hours per day. That helps with energy levels!

  20. grasseater5272 Avatar

    Well first of all even though it doesn’t seem like it your mind is always stimulated; when you scroll you are taking in lots of information at a time. Second of all even if you have done literally nothing in a day your body has an internal clock (aka the circadian rhythm) which produced melatonin (the sleepy hormone) when it know that It’s late at night/time for bed.

  21. Annabelle_Sugarsweet Avatar

    If you took a walk a day outside youd feel a lot better and have more energy. You’re not getting enough stimulation or sunlight.

  22. I_hate_being_alone Avatar

    You’re overstimulated from the social media.

  23. Chuka_lupin Avatar

    Here in Nigeria there’s a saying that goes, “Too much of everything is bad – even water!”

  24. ExtremelyFilthyWhore Avatar

    If you lounge around for too long you get something called ‘Malaise’. You need to be going for walks in nature through the day and taking in sunlight to stay physically and mentally healthy.

  25. ImpressiveThought662 Avatar

    Oh well, another wasted day.

  26. ConsoleMaster0 Avatar

    It explained with two ways.

    1. When you do nothing, your body reduces your metabolism. Which, from a surviving point of view, makes absolute sense, plus the fact that there is no need to burn lots of calories anyway because you don’t use your muscles a lot. Hormones also change.

    All that makes you feel tired because your body doesn’t burn the calories and doesn’t produce enough of the hormones that make you feel strong and energetic. It’s a circle, you must break.

    1. You are sick. 99% that’s not that because you’d had other problems but if you change your lifestyle and eat normally (no salads and modern BS) and you still feel like that, then I recommend you see a doctor. Of course, wait a couple of weeks. Unless of course other problems start occurring. Then don’t wait!
  27. yarrpirates Avatar

    The human body is tuned to a certain of activity. If you go above or below that, it does not function as effectively, and you feel worse.

    The actual dynamics of this are very complex, since the body itself has so many inter-related systems. If you want to look at the details, a good place to start would be looking up scientific sources on the benefits of exercise.

    You have to be careful doing that, btw, there’s plenty of bullshit pseudo-science on that topic, and lots of people trying to sell you something. Major universities are usually okay, as are government health agencies. US govt sources might be less reliable these days, but most of the rot in those institutions is limited to deleting information the administration does not like, rather than inserting bad info.

  28. zaGoblin Avatar

    The less you do the more tired you feel, if you’re on your feet all day moving around your body adapts and gives you that much energy

  29. Eric142 Avatar

    Depends on your every day life style.

    Human bodies are creatures of habit and adapt best to what they’re used to.

    Inactive lifestyle = easily tired

  30. Expensive-Guard-5444 Avatar

    Because boredom makes you tired. Simple

  31. SvenOfAstora Avatar

    >watched some YouTube and scrolled on my phone

    That’s not doing nothing. That’s constant input to your brain 24/7.