Whether you are a parent juggling work and childcare, a young adult trying to stay afloat, or a professional sustaining a side hustle alongside a full time job, weariness seems to have become our shared language. Increasingly, the reflexive answer to “How are you?” is a single word: exhausted.
In an age of convenience, comfort and technology, it is clear to see that the exhaustion crisis is not only physiological, but cultural. Ever since Thomas Edison’s invention of the practical light bulb in 1879, which freed human activity from the solar cycle, we have gradually detached our daily rhythms from nature’s rhythms, but at what cost?
Artificial lighting, heating, climate control and shift work have created an environment where our natural cues for wakefulness and sleep can now be ignored or overridden completely. In fact, most people today spend about 90 per cent of their time indoors under artificial lighting and rarely receive the daylight cues that anchor our internal body clock.
But from the very first pages of Scripture, we see that God established night and day as a deliberate rhythm of creation. This serves as a reminder that human life is meant to be lived within limits, that rest is woven into the fabric of the world, and that to blur the boundary between light and darkness is not merely impractical, but a quiet refusal of our creaturehood (Genesis 1:3 to 5).
God designed our circadian rhythm, the 24 hour internal clock that synchronises our behaviour and physiology with the cycle of day and night. Yet disruption to sleep caused by exposure to blue light after sundown, such as streetlights, LED bulbs, televisions, laptops and phone screens, is now not only common, but the norm.
Put simply, daylight keeps our bodies alert and active, while darkness triggers melatonin production and prepares us for restorative rest. When we blur these signals by spending evenings in brightly lit rooms or staring at blue light emitting screens before bed, our biological clocks misfire. The result is circadian misalignment, leaving many of us feeling tired, but wired.
While our ancestors lived by the sun, using dusk’s amber tones to signal not only the end of the day’s work, but a physiological transition towards rest, we live primed for constant productivity. Before artificial lighting, human activity was governed by the natural cycle of light and dark. Work and gathering took place in daylight, while evenings were marked by firelight. This is why candlelight and amber lighting are not merely aesthetically soothing, but biologically restorative. They produce less blue light, allowing the brain’s internal clock to register night and initiate the hormonal processes that lead to restorative sleep.
Technology was meant to make life easier. In many ways, it has. We can do our banking, grocery shopping, socialising, entertainment and study from the convenience of our phones. But there is no longer a physical boundary between work and home, errands and rest. Everything we could need is in our pocket, yet that convenience comes at a hidden cost. We are always on. We are all living a 24/7 life.
The result is that we lose the natural separation of activities that once gave shape to human life. There is no commuting time to delineate work from rest. Sunday rest, our Sabbath, is eroded by Sunday trading, entertainment, and long to do lists. Instead of waiting a week for the next television episode, we binge watch entire seasons in one sitting, constantly training our brains to seek the next dopamine hit rather than savour pause. The pleasure of anticipation has been replaced by the exhaustion of perpetual consumption.
The exhaustion epidemic is not only a matter of insufficient sleep. It is a deeper weariness that arises from constant stimulation without renewal.
For many people, one job is no longer enough. With the rise of side hustles and contract work, the boundaries between labour and life have blurred even further. Long and irregular hours, including evenings, weekends and holidays, create chronic circadian disruption, especially for those whose schedules vary from day to day.
Exhaustion then becomes self reinforcing. Irregular sleep schedules, inconsistent meal times and screen use before bed further disrupt the body’s internal clock, creating a vicious cycle of fatigue and fragmented, misaligned rest.
In earlier generations, weekly rhythms offered natural pause points. Sundays were set aside for worship and rest, and evenings for family time. Today, cultural expectations, digital demands and entertainment combine to create a relentless pace that prevents our nervous systems from fully recalibrating.
So how do we address this exhaustion epidemic? We must relearn how to realign ourselves with natural rhythms and intentional rest. That begins with reclaiming darkness at night, reducing exposure to bright artificial light and screens in the evening, using warmer lighting, and, where helpful, tools such as blue light filtering glasses to support the body’s natural wind down.
It also means seeking light in the morning, stepping outside soon after waking, because early daylight is one of the strongest anchors of the circadian clock. It requires reestablishing regular rhythms, including consistent sleep and wake times that allow the body to anticipate rest rather than resist it.
We must also protect spaces of rest, shaping our homes and habits to honour restorative sleep and a Sabbath mindset and practice, while resisting the cultural pressure to be endlessly productive. Finally, we must relearn pause, recognising that rest is not laziness, but fidelity to the way we were made.
Exhaustion, in many ways, is not a failing, but a signal that we have strayed from the rhythms God designed. Light and dark, work and rest, communion and quiet are the very patterns that lead to true flourishing.
