If you're tired all the time in your forties or fifties, you've probably been told it's your age. Some of it is, and I won't pretend otherwise. But I'm sixty-two and I feel much better than I did at forty, so I don't accept age as the whole explanation. Many of these signals are worth treating as something you can work on, and you can start this week.
I know how easy those signals are to ignore, because I was raised to ignore them.
Raised on a bike
My mother is the toughest woman I know. She travelled through Uzbekistan, India, Indonesia and Australia in very tough conditions, with one clean set of underwear because the bike had to be as light as possible. When she fell off on a tough ride, with no first aid kit, she poured her coffee on the wound to disinfect it and carried on.
I was raised by her. One holiday we came off the boat at Vlissingen at six in the morning, with a hundred and fifty kilometres still to go to Amersfoort. It took us twelve hours or so to bike home. Nobody suggested taking the train halfway.
Those days taught me that when I think I'm exhausted, I still have sixty percent left. They made me strong. They also taught me that ignoring your body was normal, and I carried that into mid-life.
When I got back from Cameroon in 1999 with pressure in my head, I assumed it was travel fatigue. It was a reaction to an antimalarial drug. Noticing sooner probably wouldn't have changed the outcome, but I could have paid better attention to my body.
Feelings are data
When people talk about health, they tend to split it in two: the numbers from a blood test or a wearable on one side, and how you feel on the other, written off as unreliable. I think that split is wrong.
How you feel tells you something real about what's happening inside you. An afternoon energy crash can say something about your blood sugar. Waking at three in the morning can point to your cortisol. A low mood every winter may say something about your light exposure and your vitamin D. These are things to look into, and none of them is a diagnosis.
One bad morning doesn't have to mean anything. We all have bad nights, and not everything needs investigating. When a signal keeps coming back, that's when I'd take it seriously.
What to do about each signal
This is what I hear most from people in their forties and fifties, and where I'd start with each one. One change at a time is plenty.
Energy that dips in the afternoon. Coffee hides this for a while, but it only blocks the signal that you're tired. When it wears off, the debt is still there. At lunch, eat your protein and vegetables before your carbohydrates, then go for a walk. In people with raised blood sugar, that order alone can cut the rise after a meal by 30 to 40 percent. When I started tracking, I could also see my slump connect back to the night before.
Enough hours of sleep, and you're still tired. Wake up at the same time every day, within about thirty minutes, even at weekends. Then look at your evenings. More than two glasses of wine measurably cut my deep sleep, and late work emails pushed back the time I fell asleep. That's why I don't work after six.
Recovery that takes longer. Your training needs to change. You need strength work and steady cardio, at a pace where you can still hold a conversation. Going harder usually isn't the answer.
Brain fog. Start with sleep and stress. On the rare evenings I work late, I sleep worse and wake up with brain fog.
A mood that swings, and a shorter fuse. Try slowing your breathing to five or six breaths a minute, roughly half the normal resting rate. When something annoys you, do nothing for ninety seconds, not even a draft reply. I don't always manage it myself.
Weight that settles around the middle. Before you try another diet, look at your protein and start lifting weights. If you start at forty, you can still be carrying that muscle at sixty or seventy.
Being present takes more effort. Attention is a skill you can train. Start small, with one meal a day without your phone.
Some of this will change quickly and some won't. Part of it may really be age. You only find out which by trying.
Three things you can do today
Pick one signal. Choose the one that bothers you most and write it down in a single sentence.
Pick one change from the list above. Do only that one for seven days.
Measure it. Each morning before your coffee, score your energy, sleep and mood out of ten. After a week, keep the change or drop it, then try the next one.
A log can't tell you what's causing anything. Tiredness, brain fog, low mood and weight changes can have medical causes too, such as anaemia, thyroid problems or depression. If a signal keeps coming back, see your doctor and take your log with you.
The signals are where my book, More Good Years, begins. The method for working on them is the rest of it. Find out more.
Eduard de Wilde has tracked and tested his own biology since 2008. He founded NoordCode and Livehelfi, co-founded the Syntony Institute, and wrote More Good Years. He isn't a doctor, and he sells some of the products discussed in this field. This article is for information and isn't medical advice.
