The Fatigue Book: Chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID fatigue: practical tips for recovery

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Written by an expert with long-standing and first hand experience. There are so many useful tools, and it’s bang up to date so no perpetuating of damaging therapies like GET. Lydia has created a book on fatigue which concurrently validates their experience and gently informs of strategies to move towards recovery.

I found the chapter on pacing particularly interesting, having lived with a partner with ME for many years. Learning how not to do too much on those precious occasions when you feel well is perhaps one of the most difficult lessons for people with chronic fatigue. Overdoing it, followed by a crash and relapse into exhaustion is a familiar pattern, and The Fatigue Book has useful strategies for breaking out of this vicious circle. I’ve read quite a lot about managing fatigue. One of the main skills needed is pacing. Pacing is very difficult to do well. So, I was keen to read more about fatigue management and how to achieve the difficult balance between doing too much and too little. Lydia Rolley’s book is excellent for this, and I highly recommend it! Many of us are searching for ways to deal with a level of exhaustion that prevents us from managing our day to day lives. The Fatigue Book immediately conveys the sense of an author who is personally invested – and indeed, Lydia Rolley has extensive experience of chronic fatigue conditions, both as someone who has lived with ME/CFS and as a jointly qualified occupational therapist and psychotherapist who worked for many years in an NHS fatigue clinic.The Fatigue Book is an accessible self help book for anyone living with chronic fatigue. It may also be useful for their loved ones. The structure of The Fatigue Book makes it user-friendly for readers with limited energy. It is broken into bite-size chunks, with key points highlighted in such a way that they are easily focused on, even in the midst of brain fog. Linkedin The Fatigue Book Chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID fatigue: Practical tips for recovery Author: Lydia Rolley In the weeks and months ahead, be aware of how your current line gradually changes position and consider what has contributed to that shift. If you are sleeping excessively in the daytime and want to start changing that habit, see Tip 23. Keep a Reflective Sleep Diary It outlines proven fatigue management tips and is suitable for people of all ages affected by either Long COVID or CFS/ME, and for their family and friends. Whether someone is at the start of their recovery journey or has been doing this for some time, there is clear, practical advice based on a self-management approach that applies the principles of Pacing and Activity Management (but NOT Graded Exercise) as recommended by the new NICE guidelines for both conditions.

I read this book on a long train journey, and not one but two of my fellow travellers noticed the title and asked me to share the details with them. Something that has never happened to me before! Just one small sign of how prevalent fatigue now is. I have full confidence that you will benefit from healthier sleep habits. Tip 21: Separate Day and Night Clearly There are very few positives to have come out of the COVID pandemic, but one of them is undoubtedly the attention that has been given to chronic energy-limiting conditions, as a consequence of so many people developing Long COVID. The following is an extract from ‘The Fatigue Book’ by Lydia Rolley and looks at the importance of sleeping well in managing the effects of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

About the Author

The reason for keeping a sleep diary is to understand your current sleep situation and give greater clarity to what may need to change. This sleep diary is more of a reflective diary rather than a scientific measurement of your sleep cycles (such as on a sleep app). A reflective diary can be more useful in empowering you to make some changes.