You slept for eight hours, drank the water, and even took your vitamins. However, you are sitting at your desk staring at a blinking cursor, feeling a heaviness in your limbs that coffee cannot touch. You aren’t just tired; on the contrary, you are stuck.
Frequently, we label this sensation as laziness or procrastination. Furthermore, we shame ourselves for not having enough willpower. But as someone who investigates the biology of burnout, I’m here to tell you that this isn’t a character flaw. It is a physiological state known as “Functional Freeze.” Your nervous system has pulled the emergency brake, and until you understand why, no amount of sleep will fix it.
