How to overcome fatigue forever
Photo by Sasha noir
Fatigue often brings out worry, or, at the least, it makes you susceptible to worry. Any Doctor will tell you that fatigue depresses physical resistance to the common cold and hundreds of additional diseases and any psychiatrist will assure you that fatigue also lowers your resistance to the emotions of fearfulness and worry. So preventing fatigue tends to prevent worry.
Did I say "tends to prevent worry"? That's putting it gently. The late Dr. Edmund Jacobson proceeds much further. He has written two books on how to relax: Progressive Relaxation and You Must Relax', and as former director of the University of Chicago Laboratory for Clinical Physiology, he's spent years leading investigations in using relaxation as a formula in medical practice. He holds that any nervous or emotional state "neglects to exist in the presence of complete relaxation". That's another way of saying: You can't proceed to worry if you relax. So, to prevent fatigue and worry, the first rule is: Rest frequently. Rest prior to your getting tired.
Why is that so crucial? Because fatigue accumulates with astounding rapidity. The U. S. Army has disclosed by repeated tests that even young men-men hardened by years of Army training-can march better, and last longer, if they cast off their packs and rest ten minutes out of every hour. So the Army forces them to do simply that. Your heart is just as smart as the U.S. Army. Your heart pumps enough blood through your body day-after-day to fill a railroad tank car. It exerts enough energy every twenty-four hours to shovel 20 tons of coal on to a platform 3 feet high. It does this unbelievable amount of work for 50, 70, or maybe 90 years. How can it endure it? The late Dr. Walter B. Cannon, of the Harvard Medical School, explains it. He says: "Most people have the idea that the heart is working all the time. As a matter of fact, there is a definite rest period after each contraction. When beating at a moderate rate of 70 beats per minute, the heart is actually working just 9 hours out of the 24. In the aggregate its rest periods total a full 15 hours per day."
During the second World War, Winston S. Churchill, in his late sixties and early seventies, was capable of working 16 hours a day, heading the war efforts of the British Empire. A fantastic record. His secret? He worked in bed every morning until 11 o'clock, reading papers, dictating orders, taking telephone calls, and holding conferences. After lunch he hit the sack once more and slept for an hour. In the evening he turned in once more and slept for 2 hours before having dinner at 8. He did not cure fatigue. He did not need cure it. He prevented it. Because he rested often, he was able to work on, energized and fit, until long past midnight.
The tycoon, John D. Rockefeller earned two extraordinary records. He accumulated the biggest fortune the world had ever witnessed up to that time and he also lived to be 98. How did he do it? The primary reason, naturally, was because he had inherited a propensity to live long. Another reason was his habit of having a 30 minute nap in his office every noon. He would lie down on his office couch-and not even the President of the United States of America could reach him. on the phone while he was having his catnap!
In his first-class book. Why Be Tired, Daniel W. Josselyn maintains: "Rest isn't a matter of doing utterly nothing. Rest is repair." There is so much repair ability in a short period of relaxation that even a five-minute nap will help to counter fatigue! Eleanor Roosevelt when asked how she was able to conduct such a draining schedule during the 12 years she was in the White House, she stated that before encountering a crowd or making a speech, she would sit in a chair or davenport, close her eyes, and decompress for 20 minutes.
Henry Ford, when interviewed shortly before his 80th birthday, was asked how he always managed to look fresh and fine said: "I never stand up when I can sit down; and I never sit down when I can lie down." Horace Mann, "the father of modern education", did the same thing as he grew older. When he was president of Antioch College, he used to stretch out on a couch while interviewing students.
How does all this apply to you? If you're a stenographer, you cannot take naps in the office as Thomas Edison did, ; and if you're an accountant, you can't stretch out on the couch while discussing a fiscal statement with the boss. But if you live in a small city and go home for lunch, you may be able to take a ten-minute nap after lunch. That is what General George C. Marshall used to do. He found he was so busy maneuvering the U.S. Army in wartime that he had to rest at noonday. If you are over 50 and feel you're too rushed to do it, then buy all the life insurance you'll be able to get. Funerals come high-and suddenly-these days; and the little woman may prefer to take your insurance money and marry a younger gentleman!
If you cannot take a nap at noon, you can at the very least try to lie down for 60 minutes before the evening meal. It's cheaper than a cocktail; and, over a long stretch, it's 1000 times better. If you are able to sleep for an hour around 5, 6, or 7 o'clock, you can add one hour a day to your waking life. Why? How? Because an hour's sleep before dinnertime plus 6 hours' sleep at night-a total of 7 hours-will do you more good than 8 hours of unbroken sleep. A physical worker can do more work if he takes more time out for rest. Frederick Taylor proved that while working as a scientific management engineer with the Bethlehem Steel Company. He discovered that labouring workers were loading up approximately 12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per man every day on freight cars and that they were exhausted at twelve noon. He made a scientific study of all the fatigue factors involved, and announced that these men should be loading not 12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per day, but 47 tons per day! He calculated that they ought to do almost 4 times as much as they were doing, and not be exhausted. But prove it! Taylor chose a Mr. Schmidt who was expected to work by the stop-watch. Schmidt was told by the man who stood over him with a watch: "Now pick up a 'pig' and walk. ... Now sit down and rest. ... Now walk. ... Now rest again."
What materialized? Schmidt carried 47 tons of pig-iron daily while the other men carried only 12 1/2 tons per man. And he practically never failed to work at this pace during the 3 years that Frederick Taylor worked at Bethlehem. Schmidt was able to do this because he rested before he got tired. He worked approximately 26 minutes out of the hour and rested 34 minutes. He rested more than he worked-yet he did almost 4 times as much work as the others! Is this simple hearsay? No, you are able to read the record yourself in Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
Let me say it again: do what the Army does-take frequent rests. Do what your heart does-rest before you get tired, and you'll add one hour a day to your waking life.
Like this article?
Did I say "tends to prevent worry"? That's putting it gently. The late Dr. Edmund Jacobson proceeds much further. He has written two books on how to relax: Progressive Relaxation and You Must Relax', and as former director of the University of Chicago Laboratory for Clinical Physiology, he's spent years leading investigations in using relaxation as a formula in medical practice. He holds that any nervous or emotional state "neglects to exist in the presence of complete relaxation". That's another way of saying: You can't proceed to worry if you relax. So, to prevent fatigue and worry, the first rule is: Rest frequently. Rest prior to your getting tired.
Why is that so crucial? Because fatigue accumulates with astounding rapidity. The U. S. Army has disclosed by repeated tests that even young men-men hardened by years of Army training-can march better, and last longer, if they cast off their packs and rest ten minutes out of every hour. So the Army forces them to do simply that. Your heart is just as smart as the U.S. Army. Your heart pumps enough blood through your body day-after-day to fill a railroad tank car. It exerts enough energy every twenty-four hours to shovel 20 tons of coal on to a platform 3 feet high. It does this unbelievable amount of work for 50, 70, or maybe 90 years. How can it endure it? The late Dr. Walter B. Cannon, of the Harvard Medical School, explains it. He says: "Most people have the idea that the heart is working all the time. As a matter of fact, there is a definite rest period after each contraction. When beating at a moderate rate of 70 beats per minute, the heart is actually working just 9 hours out of the 24. In the aggregate its rest periods total a full 15 hours per day."
During the second World War, Winston S. Churchill, in his late sixties and early seventies, was capable of working 16 hours a day, heading the war efforts of the British Empire. A fantastic record. His secret? He worked in bed every morning until 11 o'clock, reading papers, dictating orders, taking telephone calls, and holding conferences. After lunch he hit the sack once more and slept for an hour. In the evening he turned in once more and slept for 2 hours before having dinner at 8. He did not cure fatigue. He did not need cure it. He prevented it. Because he rested often, he was able to work on, energized and fit, until long past midnight.
The tycoon, John D. Rockefeller earned two extraordinary records. He accumulated the biggest fortune the world had ever witnessed up to that time and he also lived to be 98. How did he do it? The primary reason, naturally, was because he had inherited a propensity to live long. Another reason was his habit of having a 30 minute nap in his office every noon. He would lie down on his office couch-and not even the President of the United States of America could reach him. on the phone while he was having his catnap!
In his first-class book. Why Be Tired, Daniel W. Josselyn maintains: "Rest isn't a matter of doing utterly nothing. Rest is repair." There is so much repair ability in a short period of relaxation that even a five-minute nap will help to counter fatigue! Eleanor Roosevelt when asked how she was able to conduct such a draining schedule during the 12 years she was in the White House, she stated that before encountering a crowd or making a speech, she would sit in a chair or davenport, close her eyes, and decompress for 20 minutes.
Henry Ford, when interviewed shortly before his 80th birthday, was asked how he always managed to look fresh and fine said: "I never stand up when I can sit down; and I never sit down when I can lie down." Horace Mann, "the father of modern education", did the same thing as he grew older. When he was president of Antioch College, he used to stretch out on a couch while interviewing students.
How does all this apply to you? If you're a stenographer, you cannot take naps in the office as Thomas Edison did, ; and if you're an accountant, you can't stretch out on the couch while discussing a fiscal statement with the boss. But if you live in a small city and go home for lunch, you may be able to take a ten-minute nap after lunch. That is what General George C. Marshall used to do. He found he was so busy maneuvering the U.S. Army in wartime that he had to rest at noonday. If you are over 50 and feel you're too rushed to do it, then buy all the life insurance you'll be able to get. Funerals come high-and suddenly-these days; and the little woman may prefer to take your insurance money and marry a younger gentleman!
If you cannot take a nap at noon, you can at the very least try to lie down for 60 minutes before the evening meal. It's cheaper than a cocktail; and, over a long stretch, it's 1000 times better. If you are able to sleep for an hour around 5, 6, or 7 o'clock, you can add one hour a day to your waking life. Why? How? Because an hour's sleep before dinnertime plus 6 hours' sleep at night-a total of 7 hours-will do you more good than 8 hours of unbroken sleep. A physical worker can do more work if he takes more time out for rest. Frederick Taylor proved that while working as a scientific management engineer with the Bethlehem Steel Company. He discovered that labouring workers were loading up approximately 12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per man every day on freight cars and that they were exhausted at twelve noon. He made a scientific study of all the fatigue factors involved, and announced that these men should be loading not 12 1/2 tons of pig-iron per day, but 47 tons per day! He calculated that they ought to do almost 4 times as much as they were doing, and not be exhausted. But prove it! Taylor chose a Mr. Schmidt who was expected to work by the stop-watch. Schmidt was told by the man who stood over him with a watch: "Now pick up a 'pig' and walk. ... Now sit down and rest. ... Now walk. ... Now rest again."
What materialized? Schmidt carried 47 tons of pig-iron daily while the other men carried only 12 1/2 tons per man. And he practically never failed to work at this pace during the 3 years that Frederick Taylor worked at Bethlehem. Schmidt was able to do this because he rested before he got tired. He worked approximately 26 minutes out of the hour and rested 34 minutes. He rested more than he worked-yet he did almost 4 times as much work as the others! Is this simple hearsay? No, you are able to read the record yourself in Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
Let me say it again: do what the Army does-take frequent rests. Do what your heart does-rest before you get tired, and you'll add one hour a day to your waking life.
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