As the semester comes to a close, many Michigan students have been spending long nights in Shapiro and living off of coffee. Sometimes, just looking at Google Calendar can be overwhelming. It’s easy to feel a lack of motivation in this busy time of the semester, and sometimes, going through the motions can just feel a bit off.
These are signs of burnout that you may be experiencing. Burnout is a condition formally defined by the World Health Organization as chronic workplace or academic stress that has not been successfully managed. It isn’t just being sleepy or exhausted; it’s a psychological state. The most crucial step to recovery is recognition. Below, signs to watch for are listed.
#1: you always feel tired
This is one of burnout’s most telltale symptoms. Unlike typical tiredness, burnout fatigue is persistent and doesn’t go away after a full night’s rest, instead waking up already dreading the day. Researchers describe this as emotional exhaustion; a depletion of your internal resources that goes beyond the physical. If you feel like you’re running on empty even after a weekend of rest, that’s worth paying attention to.
#2: Academic Performance
Burnout creates a frustrating paradox. You’re putting in the hours, but your work isn’t reflecting that effort. Papers take twice as long to write. Studying feels like reading words with no meaning attached. This happens because burnout impairs concentration, memory, and executive function. It’s not laziness, it’s your brain waving a white flag.
#3: THings you used to care about feel differently
Did you once genuinely love your major? Look forward to your campus org meetings? Feel energized by a packed week? Burnout tends to hollow that out, replacing enthusiasm with detachment or even resentment. This psychological distancing — sometimes called depersonalization — is a coping mechanism your brain uses when it’s chronically overwhelmed. If you find yourself going through the motions without any real investment, that shift is significant.
#4: everything is irritating
Burnout doesn’t always look like sadness. Sometimes it looks like snapping at your roommate over something small, or feeling strangely numb about things that would normally excite you — an upcoming trip, a friend’s good news, a grade you worked hard for. Emotional disregulation and a reduced ability to feel positive emotions are both well-documented features of burnout, and they can easily be mistaken for just “being in a mood.”
#5: You’ve started neglecting self-care
When burnout sets in, the basics are often the first to go. Skipping meals, abandoning your workout routine, canceling plans with friends, and sleeping erratically aren’t signs of poor character. There are signs that your mental bandwidth is dangerously low. Your brain seems to be failing, and things that used to feel non-negotiable get dropped.
#6: Persistent feeling of ineffectiveness
Even after completing tasks, nothing feels like enough. You finish a problem set and feel no relief, just anxiety about the next thing. This sense of reduced personal accomplishment, where your efforts feel meaningless or insufficient no matter what you do, is one of the three core dimensions of burnout identified by psychologist Christina Maslach, whose research remains foundational to how burnout is studied today.
So how do you fix it?
Recognizing burnout is crucial, but it’s only the beginning. A few evidence-backed starting points: set firm boundaries around your schedule, prioritize sleep as non-negotiable, and lean on UMich’s resources — Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) offers individual therapy and same-day support for students who need it. Talking to someone, whether a counselor, a trusted professor, or a friend, matters more than pushing through alone.
Burnout isn’t a personal failure. At a university where ambition is part of the culture, burnout is a very human response to an unsustainable pace. The most important thing you can do is listen to your mind and body when they tell you something needs to change.