Should You Push Through Language Learning Fatigue?

The honest truth is that, no, you should not push through learning fatigue when you are learning a language. It is a waste of your time and it would be far more sensible to stop and rest.

I know you want to make progress, but once your brain is fatigued, it is pointless to carry on. 

I have done it many times, and it never ended well. You will be fighting an uphill battle and it took me a while to just accept its time to stop and come back later, when refreshed. This is the better option and I will go through some reasons why.     

If You Are Feeling Fatigued It Is Better To Stop And Rest

While you may want to keep studying and learn more, you will struggle to do this when you are fatigued, so when you reach this stage, it’s best to stop.

You need to listen to your body and mind and realise you are not going to benefit from pushing through.

You will get much better results if you stop and rest, then come back to the studies later on when you are refreshed. It might even be better to just totally stop and have a good night’s sleep.

Language learning is a long slow process, so there is always tomorrow; you can’t do it all today.

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

Your Productivity Will Be Lower

If you are going to try and push through your fatigue you will quickly notice that your productivity is extremely low.

It can be like you are running through honey, everything is going to be so much harder and slower and it really is not worth the effort.

All your brain functions will be below their optimum level and the more fatigued you get, the worse it becomes.

This alone should be enough to make you stop. When you realise that what you are trying to do is taking you twice as long, that’s not a good use of your time, you are actually wasting it.

Stop and come back refreshed and your productivity will be back to a good level.   

Your Memory Will Be Poor

One of the biggest reasons why you should not try and push through the fatigue is because your memory is going to be struggling to work properly.

You are going to really notice that you cannot commit new things to memory, as well as just recall things that you should be easily able to. The whole process is so much harder when you are fatigued and it’s like you brain is in a fog, so why would you want to keep studying when you are feeling this way.

I have found that every time I have tried to push through, I have had to relearn everything again the next day. It’s like everything I did the night before, didn’t happen. I am basically wasting my own time as now I have to do it all again. 

You Will Feel Uncomfortable If You Try And Push Through Fatigue

You might have heard “no pain no gain” which can be true for some things, but it doesn’t need to be that way for language learning.

Trying to focus and concentrate when you are tried is not a pleasant experience, but you may also suffer from physical symptoms too and you really have to ask why you are doing this to yourself?

You are going to gain very little from pushing through; you language skills will not drastically increase, so why are you making yourself suffer through it.

I find that once I am very fatigued I always get a nasty headache. I really have nothing to gain by trying to keep learning while my head hurts.

It makes much more sense to just stop and rest. 

It Is Not Fun To Be Fatigued

Some of the most productive language learning sessions are the ones where you have fun. You just interact with the language and enjoy yourself; you kind of forget that you are studying.

When you are fatigued …it’s not fun. You are struggling to focus, yawning, your memory isn’t working and you are getting frustrated with yourself and now your head hurts …this is not fun, you will not learn anything when you are in this state. 

Language Fatigue Can Lead To Burnout

A more serious reason to not push through fatigue is that it can lead to burn out.

Getting fatigued every now and again is fine, it won’t have any long lasting problems, and you will wake up the next day fully recharged.

However, if you keep pushing day after day, you are just going to grind your energy levels down to zero and that is going to lead to burn out.

Once you reach this state, you are going to really feel it. You will basically be able to do nothing, which is of course the total opposite from what you want.

You need to avoid this at all costs as it can seriously impact your ability to study, you may think pushing through the fatigue is helping you there and then, but you will regret it if you get reach burn out.    

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

Other Areas Of Your Life Will Suffer If You Try And Push Through Fatigue

While we may only be talking about language learning here, we have to recognise that our studies are a part of our lives and they can be affected by this too.

Areas of stress in your life can affect your studies, and stress in your studies can affect your life, it’s very much a two way street. This means that if you are pushing yourself into fatigue when studying, it is going to affect the rest of your life.

If you actually have responsibilities, you don’t want to be in a state of fatigue while doing them. You may have finished studying, but your brain will still be a mess.   

I know I have pushed though and then when I have stopped, I was basically a zombie. I’ve been sat at the dinner table and basically just been brain dead.

Luckily I didn’t have to do anything important, but I wasn’t exactly able to have much of a conversation with anyone. I just kind of sat there staring into space, totally mentally exhausted.

You Are Not Being Paid To Push Through

You also need to ask yourself why you are doing this. Most of us are learning a language for fun.

No one is forcing us to do this, or expecting us to reach a certain level and we are certainly not being paid for our efforts, so really, why would you push through the fatigue and force yourself to struggle in this way.

I know you want to make progress, but you have to look at the long game. You will get there in the end and stopping for a rest now is not really going to affect that.

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see that there is no point in pushing through fatigue when you are learning a language. You are basically wasting your time and it makes much more sense to stop and rest and come back to it when you feel refreshed.

Pushing through is only going to make you feel worse and eventually cause you to burn out and while you want to make progress and stay consistent, you need to listen to your body and your brain and take a rest when it is telling you.

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