Scientists Share The Most ‘Exhausting’ Decade Of Your Lifetime

Something I have noticed about my inner circle hitting our mid-thirties to early-forties is that we now speak very, very fondly about what were most definitely our most chaotic days. 

A huge thing we just can’t seem to get our heads around is all the energy we once had. For example, when I was 21, I could work a full retail shift, go home, get changed, then go on a night out until 3-4am, grab a quick sleep and be in work for 9am. I would do this several times a week.

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that 15 years later, if I tried that nonsense, I’d be hospitalised.

How did we ever live like this?! We lived as if we were invincible and it was probably because we felt like we were.

These days, we need routine. We need to be keeping a regular sleeping pattern, taking our daily vitamins and making sure that we fix exercise and a good diet into our lives to ensure we feel half alive. 

We’re all a lot more tired than we were back in our booze-soaked glory days.

However, fatigue is most prevalent in our 40′s

Yep. If you find yourself having a tired-off with colleagues after a particularly rough nights’ sleep, you may want to consider if age is a factor in yours or your colleague’s tiredness.

Writing for The Conversation, Michelle Spear, a Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol explains: “In your 20s, poor sleep or stress could be buffered. In your 40s, inefficiency is exposed. Recovery becomes more “expensive”.

“Sleep also changes. Many people still get enough hours, but sleep fragments. Less deep sleep means less repair. Fatigue feels cumulative rather than episodic.

“Hormones don’t disappear in midlife – they fluctuate, particularly in women. Variability, not deficiency, disrupts temperature regulation, sleep timing and energy rhythms. The body copes better with low levels than with unpredictable ones.”

 There are also lifestyle factors, too. Many of us find ourselves in leadership and caring roles, not to mention the pressures of parenthood and ageing parents which can take a huge toll on our physical and mental reserves.

It’s not all bad news, though

While we often look at our lives and bodies as things that gradually decline, Spear assures that it levels out significantly by our 60s and adds: “Across adulthood, energy shifts in character rather than simply declining. The mistake we make is assuming that feeling tired in midlife reflects a personal failing, or that it marks the start of an unavoidable decline. Anatomically, it is neither...

“The hopeful message is not that we can reclaim our 20-year-old selves. Rather, it is that energy in later life remains highly modifiable, and that the exhaustion so characteristic of the 40s is not the endpoint of the story. Fatigue at this stage is not a warning of inevitable decline; it is a signal that the rules have changed.”

Looking forward to meeting the energetic 60-year-old me.