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Fatigue

Fatigue is a feeling of extreme physical or mental tiredness, or both. Most of us feel tired after a long day, but if you have a long-term medical condition such as arthritis you may experience a tiredness that's quite different in quality and intensity and which doesn't always improve after rest.

Fatigue and arthritis

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/managing-fatigue/

https://www.nras.org.uk/data/files/Publications/29259%20Fatigue%20Matters%20booklet.pdf

 

Below are some tips on managing fatigue:

  • Pacing - Break tasks down into achievable parts and spread them throughout the day or week and take short regular rest breaks. Change your posture and activity regularly. Don't use exhaustion as a guide on when to stop; change your task or rest before you start to feel tired.
  • Problem solving - It's not what you do it's the way you do it. If a task causes a problem, look and see if you can change the way you do it.
  • Prioritising -If you write a list of tasks that you need to do, you can put them in order of importance and decide what tasks you can remove, delay or hand over.

 

Daily activity diaries:

  • Some patients find that it can be helpful to use daily activity diaries to get a picture of their energy and activity over the week. This can help with planning how to get a health/life balance over the week.

Click here for an activity diary

 

Sleep

  • Having a good sleeping pattern can improve your health. With a rheumatology condition, symptoms such as pain may disrupt your sleep, however, improving your sleep habits can improve your pain levels and decrease inflammation caused by your rheumatology condition. Top tips include; regular bed times and wake times, avoid caffeine before bedtime, sleep in a cool, dark room and turn off electronic devices at least an hour before bed.

 

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/sleep/

The link below is an NHS approved app to help improve your sleep quality. It is free with a GP referral.

https://www.sleepstation.org.uk/

  

Boom and bust cycles:

Life can be hectic and feel like a never ending roller-coaster. You may have noticed patterns of fatigue after busy periods in your life. When you feel well, you may try and get as much done that you can, and then the following week you experience a crash in your energy and inability to complete tasks.

For example; imagine your energy as coins. You wake up and feel you have five coins of energy. Walking to the shops may use up two of those coins. Going to work may take up a further four of those and leaves you with minus one coin of energy. This may lead to a crash in energy the following day. If for example having a hot bath, and a good meal increased your energy by two coins you can then increase your energy store so that the next day you feel fit again. This is an example of pacing your activity and knowing when you have done enough.

Acknowledging that you have a certain amount of energy and that some tasks will drain you of that energy and some will increase it can help you in planning your week.

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