How Long Does Language Learning Fatigue Last?

When you start suffering from language learning fatigue you will of course want to know how long it is going to last.

Fatigue can really mess up your language studies as you will find your productivity drops and basically everything you do just becomes harder and takes longer.

Luckily fatigue does not last that long. You can usually rest for a while and shake it off and get back to studying, although you will reach a point where you just need to stop and come back tomorrow, but ultimately fatigue is a not a long term problem.

Language Learning Fatigue Is Temporary

The truth is that language learning fatigue is temporary, it is something that can be quickly reversed and at the very worst you will have to wait until tomorrow until it’s gone.

Language fatigue is just a form of tiredness, which means it is not a long term problem. You can usually do some things to try and overcome it, such as taking a break and then you should be able to get back to studying again.

As its only a temporary problem it is not going to be too damaging for your studies. You might have to just stop for the day, which isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of learning a language.

However, this doesn’t mean it’s okay to get fatigued a lot. Constantly getting fatigued can lead to you becoming fully burnt out, which can be extremely detrimental.

This is why you need to listen to your body and recognise that you are becoming fatigued and then allow yourself to recover from this, rather than try and push on through.

(You can read more about – What Are The Causes Of Language Learning Fatigue?)

How Long You Are Fatigued For, Depends How Fatigued You Are

It sounds kind of sound simple, but the more fatigued you are, the longer it will last.

If you are just feeling the early signs of fatigue you may be able to stop and rest for 5 minutes and feel totally refreshed again.

If you have pushed yourself pretty hard and are now feeling really fatigued and you have a banging headache and everything is a struggle …you might need a little longer to recover.

Really if you reach this extreme point you just need to totally stop studying and wait until tomorrow, where you should be fully refreshed.

You need to play around with how long you study for and how long you rest, then you will start to get a better feel for how long you actually need to recover. Everyone will be slightly different and you may need more, or even less recovery time than I do.  

You may also find that one day you may need more rest than the next, this is why it is impossible to say how long the fatigue will last. Everyone’s body and everyone’s situation is slightly different.

The fatigue will last as long as it does, it your job to just realise when it is coming and when it is going.

Learn To Listen To Your Body

To really know how long language learning fatigue will last, you need to be able to listen to your body and understand what it is telling you.

You need to recognise the signs of fatigue. You need to notice when it is starting and when it is going away.

As soon as you can do this, time doesn’t matter. You can just stop studying when you feel it happening, and then you can rest until it goes away.

This is also something you need to play around with. Maybe after 5 minutes of rest you will feel better, but when you study again …the fatigue comes back immediately. If this happens then try resting for 10 minutes, maybe when you go back to studying after this, you can study as normal again.

I have gotten quite good at listening to my body and this allows me to be flexible. Sometimes I can take a very short break, other times I know I need to give it a good few hours before I can try to study again and sometimes …sometimes I just know I’m done for the day and I need to stop, even if I don’t want to do more.

The sooner you can listen to your own body, the sooner you can work around the fatigue.  

(You can read more about – What Are The Symptoms Of Language Learning Fatigue?)

Rest Will Help You Recover From Language Fatigue

If you are feeling the onset of fatigue then taking a break should be the first thing you do.

Just step away from your studies and allow your brain to recharge itself. Fully get up from where you are and go somewhere else.

This allows your brain to shut off from the studying and also gets you body moving and you will find this helps shakes off the fatigue. 

You may only need a few minutes, or you may need to take a slightly longer break. As I’ve already mentioned this is something you need to play around with to find what works for you.

I would start with 5 minutes; this should be the minimum break you take. Then I usually find that going up to an hour, or even up to 90 minutes for a break is enough to allow all signs of my fatigue to go.

My break could be any length of time in between that, but really if I am still feeling fatigued after 90 minutes I know I am done for the day, my brain isn’t going to recover and I need to wait until tomorrow. 

Food Will Help You Recover From Language Fatigue

A large part of fatigue can be due to being low on energy.

You may only be sat there, but concentrating on another language can really drain you of energy. You brain will be using up a lot of resources and you might even notice you are hungry.

Eating something should give you a boost and help overcome your fatigue. I normally find that I get very fatigued in the afternoon and when that happens I just stop and wait for dinner. Once I’ve eaten, I’m back at full power and can study again.

You might be tempted to eat a lot of sugary snacks and drink a lot of caffeine. This will boost your energy and you will feel productive …but always remember, what goes up, must come down. 

So be careful with that as you can find you quickly nose dove back into fatigue after a while. I would suggest you stick to healthier foods which will allow the energy to be released slowly, you will benefit more from doing this than trying to power through on sugary junk.

Sleep Is The Ultimate Cure For Language Fatigue

If you really want to stop fatigue and feel refreshed, then you should sleep. Your brain is tired and full of new information that it needs to sort out and the quickest way to resolve this is through sleep.

A short nap will probably do the job, but really you want a good night’s sleep.

A proper deep sleep is going to allow your brain to rest and repair anything it needs to. Your subconscious is also going to be able to process everything and clear everything up, which will allow you to wake up totally refreshed and ready to go again.

You have to remember that your brain is like any other muscle in your body and if you tire it out then you need to give it some sleep to allow it to fully recover.

You will reach a point where just taking a break doesn’t really help, even if you take a long break and it’s a few hours later, it won’t help. When you reach this point the only thing that is going to help your fatigue is sleep.    

Too Much Fatigue Can Lead to Burnout

While fatigue is only a temporary problem that can be fixed with some rest or a good night’s sleep, it is not good to constantly get yourself into this state.

Pushing yourself to fatigue every now and again is fine, but if you are constantly getting fatigued, day after day, you body will struggle to fully recover and you will just burn out.

When this happens, you will really struggle to do anything and you will need to stop and rest for a good few days, maybe even weeks.

Burn out is an extremely unpleasant experience and it is totally avoidable. You just need to listen to your body and let it recover from the fatigue. Don’t try and push yourself through it and you will be fine.

(You can read more about – What Is Language Burn Out and Why Does It Happen?)

Conclusion

Hopefully you can now see it is hard to give an exact answer for how long your language learning fatigue may last.

You need to learn to listen to your body and notice it starting and then rest. You may be fine to carry on after a few minutes or you may need a few hours. You may even need to just go and have a good night’s sleep before you feel refreshed again. 

You need to listen to your body and learn when it has recovered from the fatigue and then you can carry on studying from there.

(You can read more about – Is Language Learning Fatigue Normal?)