When I don't have work to do I shut down

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I wonder if others suffer from this, and if you have suggestions to overcome this problem.

In my job I have various commitments and duties which I am required to perform and to fulfill, and I do. However, when I am done with them, even if that means my total work time in a day was just three hours, I find myself listless, tired, and all I want to do is nap. I shut down. I'm even so tired that my own areas of interest often don't captivate me enough to work on them. So I sleep a lot.

Does this happen to you? Am I just lazy? Should I push myself more?

There's more structure to work, and it's easier sometimes to know where to start.

Is it that the work actually causes you stress you aren't aware is building up in you? Because I know that for me, shutdowns happen when I'm overloaded and overwhelmed, and what I'm engaged in or have engaged in has been too much for me in some way.

Only if I'm at work and have no work to do but still have to stay there.

It might be a "sugar crash". Do you drink alot of soda, or coffee with sugar, while you're working? Even though those beverages have caffeine, while you're working your body would be fighting sleep; but when you're finished, your body would succumb. Also, have you been checked for Diabetes? Oftentimes, those people can't control just falling asleep, unless they're busy doing something.

To me you are just bored.

You know there is nothing to do and you will be forced to sit there for a few more hours without anything interesting going on so you simply turn off. You might have your interests but you subconsciously know you can't focus on them because you are at work where someone can distract you at any moment so you are unable to focus on them even if you want.

I am the same. I'm either utterly focused (work, interest) or bored. And when I am bored and someone can distract me at any moment I can't focus on anything.

This might be a clichéd question but could that be a symptom of depression or a physical health problem? I might be totally wrong to think of those possibilities as I don't know anything about your current life situations. If so, I apologize. Otherwise you might want to see the doctor to try and determine the cause of the problem.

I have had times when I lost motivation to do even the things I enjoyed doing and just slept a lot. It was mostly caused by a feeling of hopelessness. I felt that whatever I did my life was not going to improve and there would be no joy in life. I felt there was no point in doing anything. It's amazing how much I could sleep. It was something like 12 hours every day. Sometimes even 15 hours. I think it was a mild form of depression. I got myself out of it by initially forcing myself to do something productive. Once you achieve something, it motivates you to do even more things.

You certainly are not being lazy. But I think you probably need to push yourself a bit to get yourself out of it. That's the hard bit.

Hmmm. Well, I don't consume any sugar or simple carbs.

I do suffer from depression and take meds for it.

Actually, my job is not high pressure, and I don't really have a boss hovering over me, and the work is simple - although it requires being with people a lot of the time.

Or maybe it's the old "shifting from one thing to another" problem - so that, to avoid the shift, I sleep?