It doesn’t make sense at first.
You didn’t leave the house. You barely moved. You were just “talking.” So why do you feel like your brain’s been wrung out after a few Zoom meetings?
It turns out there’s a lot more going on during video calls than we realize — and none of it is particularly relaxing.
The Exhaustion You Can’t Explain
Zoom fatigue is the kind of tired that’s hard to name. It’s not the physical kind, like after a workout. And it’s not quite emotional burnout either. It lives somewhere in between — a mental sluggishness that creeps in quietly and sticks around long after the meeting ends.
Most people try to blame it on “too much screen time,” which sounds like a reasonable guess. But anyone who’s spent a Saturday binging shows or gaming knows it’s not just the screen. There’s something unique about being on video calls that wears us out.
Staring, But Not Really Seeing
Video calls break a lot of the unspoken rules we follow in face-to-face conversation. In a real meeting, people glance around the room, shift their gaze, maybe take notes or doodle in the margins. But on Zoom, there’s a weird pressure to look directly at the camera the entire time — like you’re in a staring contest with ten other people.
Worse, everyone’s looking at everyone, all at once. There’s no back row. No casual side conversation. Just a grid of faces, all watching and being watched.
And then there’s that little box in the corner showing your own face — a constant reminder to fix your hair, sit up straight, act engaged. Even when you’re listening, you’re also performing.
It’s a lot.
What Your Brain’s Dealing With
One reason video calls feel more draining than real-life interactions is because they mess with how our brains process social cues.
In person, we pick up on body language, tone, timing — without thinking. But video calls are clunky. A half-second delay makes people seem distracted or cold. Frozen screens, muted mics, background noise — they all make it harder to read the room. So your brain works overtime trying to fill in the blanks, making constant micro-adjustments to keep things feeling “normal.”
After a while, that effort adds up. You leave the call feeling like you just finished a mental sprint, even if you barely spoke.
Back-to-Back Calls, No Breaks
Another problem? There’s no space between meetings anymore. Before, you might’ve walked down a hallway, grabbed a coffee, or bumped into a coworker on the way to a conference room. Those little moments helped your brain reset.
Now, meetings end and begin with a click. One second you’re nodding through a quarterly review — the next, you’re in a birthday call for your niece. No decompression. No transition. Just nonstop context-switching.
Even if the calls aren’t “stressful,” they still ask a lot from you — and they rarely give anything back.
It’s Not Just Work
Zoom fatigue isn’t limited to 9–5 jobs. Students, teachers, freelancers, therapists, and even friend groups are feeling it.
The irony is that these platforms were supposed to make things easier — more flexible, more accessible. And in many ways, they did. But they also stripped away the small but important human details that made real-life interaction feel… well, human.
Now, even happy hours and game nights can start to feel like obligations. You show up, smile at the camera, make small talk, and log off somehow feeling lonelier than before.
So, What Actually Helps?
There’s no magic fix, but there are ways to make Zoom (and other platforms like it) feel less like a drain and more like a tool.
- Hide your self-view.
You don’t need to watch your own face while you’re talking. Turn it off. You’ll feel less self-conscious within minutes. - Schedule buffers.
Don’t stack meetings. Give yourself 10–15 minutes between calls to breathe, move, or just do nothing. - Move your body.
It sounds obvious, but it works. Walk around during phone calls, stretch between sessions, look out a window — anything that breaks the “locked in place” feeling. - Switch to audio when you can.
Not every conversation needs to be a full video production. A simple phone call can feel like a relief. - Don’t feel guilty for being tired.
This kind of tiredness is real. Just because you’re sitting doesn’t mean you’re not working hard.
A Quiet Kind of Tired
There’s something uniquely draining about trying to be “present” while staring at a screen. Video calls compress everything — eye contact, tone, timing, even silence — into something that looks like conversation but feels like a performance.
So if you’re finding yourself worn out after a few hours of virtual meetings, it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. It just means you’re human.
